How does one get into car repair for a hobby?

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SirGalahad

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Most of my hobbies are sedentary and I would like to do something with my growing son that isn't tech related - neither do I want to practice on my cars either - so what would I need to do? Buy a banger and try repair it? Go on a course first?
 
Maybe hunt around on ebay, Gumtree or whatever and find a banger which is a runner (to some degree) and has some sort of an MOT?
Avoid cars that need welding for now.
Some early examples of unloved cars (VW Jetta, Passat etc) are still in reasonable nick due to good build quality from new, spares are still available and are cheap.
Some sort of 'Classic' may well help with your son's insurance too!
John :)
 
Mechanical or body repairs? What sort of repairs are you interested in - engine, gearbox, brakes, suspension?

Without any experience and a decent tool kit, you might struggle. Many jobs on cars require specialist tools or diagnostic tools - expensive for one-off use! In any case, once you have, for example, replaced some brake pads, that’s it until they need replacing again unless you go over the same things yourself.

I'd suggest looking at going on some car maintenance classes in evening classes if they do any such things near you. Although you said you don’t want to, you can’t beat the satisfaction of doing something on your own cars. Start with simple stuff like routine servicing, Oil and filter changes, air filters, checking brakes and steering joints, topping up fluid levels etc.
 
Don't worry about the tools, as long as you are prepared to buy them as you go along.

Buy something as burnerman says, probably spares or repair (go for mechanical issues not electronic ) and start on the repairs.

If you enjoy it, get the car roadworthy sell it buy another and repeat. If not your expense is limited and you stop.

Or even just start stripping a car to sell the spares. The hardest part is often removing items and undoing rusted stuff. Master that (you never will) and then refit bits. In a nutshell that's all there is to it

To get to a business level there's more involved and time taken becomes an issue. For now ignore how long it takes
 
And to add. If you do buy a car, there are no end of helpful forums and youtube etc to offer advice on what to do and how to do it
 
Find an easy to work on car, get a haynes manual and start with basic servicing.
Avoid buying anything with engine management lights on which have a description "its only a sensor needed"
Something like a Mazda Mx5 would be a good car but sadly the rust is an issue so you need to be careful.
 
It would be good to steer him in the direction of classic cars, not only are they easy to work on the industry needs young mechanics with a hands-on approach (as opposed to today's 'technicians' wielding laptops rather than tools) to take the place of the time-served guys that retire.
 
carmanmemoranda said:
D

Don't !
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Yes, but at the end of it he will have an excellent grounding on repairing all the systems and components that a car has. :eek:

Tools will be a major expense to start with. You always seem to need another one for the next job. I've been tinkering with motorcycles, cars and vans for over 40 years and my tool box is still a work in progress that gets shiny new tools added as and when.

For knowlege, Youtube can be invaluable. Videos from people like ChrisFix are very well produced and show the processes involved in various repair and maintenance jobs.
 
norseman said:
It would be good to steer him in the direction of classic cars, not only are they easy to work on the industry needs young mechanics with a hands-on approach (as opposed to today's 'technicians' wielding laptops rather than tools) to take the place of the time-served guys that retire.
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Dunno about that. I’m a retired time-served mechanic and when I started out in my apprenticeship, everything was repaired. Engines, gearboxes, axles, starter motors, dynamos, suspension components etc etc. all they do nowdays is replace components. Almost anybody can do that.
 
Mottie said:
Dunno about that. I’m a retired time-served mechanic and when I started out in my apprenticeship, everything was repaired. Engines, gearboxes, axles, starter motors, dynamos, suspension components etc etc. all they do nowdays is replace components. Almost anybody can do that.
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That's exactly my point.

The Classic repair/restro. industry is very healthy, but suffering from a drastic shortage of people like yourself who know how to actually repair a component.
The owner of our local garage enjoys working on my old Range Rover, because he too is time-served.
 
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