Dear mr. zooeyhall

I hear cry about kids being mechanicaly illiterate. at 15 I have already taken most of the shop classes my high school has to offer. this winter I took an automotive mantianece class and the kids in there are so brain dead mechanicaly only 3 boys, including me have any idea on how to change oil!!

Good job wegman. knowledge will go a long ways now a days even if you don't do that kinda work you have the potential to save tons of money doing you own work. Never hurts to know many different things.

Wegman, good for you. I have a son who at 17 is miles ahead of the rest in his automotive class and like you, says that only 3 or 4 boys know what is going on. Went to parent/teacher conference and his teacher said that if he had more like my son it would make his job easier. Do like my son does and charge your classmates to do things on there cars. I am always around so if he gets stumped he can ask for help cause he uses the shop at home. Keep up the good work and pay attention. It will pay off in the long run.

Our local school newspaper just had a write up about two "whizz kids" in the mechanical arts(shop) class. The class just complete the total rebuild of a Super C, lead by these two students.
By the way, the two top students, are female.

Almost always when you see a female in a traditionally male trade they're there because it's what they want to be doing. And if that's the case - look out! Amazing what an interested and motivated individual can do. Sam

My wife grew up working on cars. Her step-father pulled a cracked 327 Chevy engine to replace it. He gave the cracked engine to my wife, and let her use his tools. She was told: Take it apart, and whenever you find something you don't understand, you come talk to me.

Funny story: Once when we were living in Texas, we had the starter go out on our Olds. This was one of those mid-70's Oldsmobiles in which the factory had installed a Chevrolet engine. So, things didn't quite fit as well as they should. So, I get home from work to find my wife up under the Olds, replacing the starter. At this time, I had been working at a place that required me to wear a tie every day. It was 100+ degrees with the humidity in the high 90%'s. It was the kind of weather where rain would simply steam back off the roads. And here's my wife, under the car, up to her armpits in this Oldsmobile. She hears me drive up, and she crawls out from under... and she is mad!! She is absolutely furious about that "*^#&$%" Oldsmobile! "You get that '&#$*%' starter out from under that car! Her clothes were soaked in sweat, and she was covered in grease. Here I was in my nice shirt and tie. Now, as I said, this was one of those Oldsmobiles with the Chevy engine, and there was only one way to get the starter out. If you move it forward, it hits the exhaust manifolds. Back, and you hit the firewall. Left, and you hit the block. Right and you hit the fender. The only way to get it out was to tip it straight up-and-down, and wiggle it straight down. Well, I had dealt with this problem before and knew the trick. So in my nice clothes, I leaned on the fender, reached under the car, flipped the starter to the right position, droped it down and handed it to her. She did not say a word. She simply clamped her mouth shut and stomped off to the house. Turns out she had been fighting this starter for an hour and a half. She refused to talk to me for a couple hours.

We laugh about it now, but....