Shadetree Mechanics

I’ve been sitting at my desk for about an hour or so, watching the man across the street attempt to fix a minor boo-boo on his front bumper. Hammers, paint, perhaps a screwdriver or two. I was beginning to think that do-it-yourself was completely done in as far as fixing your own car. There are still shade tree mechanics out there – they’re just fewer and further between.

Back in the day, doing an oil change, changing out a battery, or doing a tune-up was something almost everyone I knew was doing. Did it myself, don’t cha know. Almost had to because of the “Little Yellow Monster.”

The LYM was a 1969 Austin America I purchased for $350 from a private party in The Plains, Ohio (not a misprint – the name of the town was The Plains). A good portion of the reason I purchased the LYM was that I had a job out of high school working for the local Austin/MG dealer. It was a learning experience. Didn’t take me long to figure out that British Leyland was having problems building a decent automobile. I mean, the Austin America started out as a decent idea, what with the front wheel drive and the hydrolastic suspension, but at the same time, it was hampered by Lucas electrics. For those of you who do not know, Lucas was nicknamed “Prince of Darkness” because of the spotty reliability of the parts they built.

My employer was sympathetic to my ills with the LYM, allowing me to work on it on the weekends when the shop in the back was idle. I had to use my own tools, but still, I had shop manuals and a parts bin to work from, so, I was able to learn auto mechanics more or less on my own. There was at least one job I couldn’t do – and that was to replace the Constant Velocity Joints when they crapped out on me.

One of the dealer’s mechanics helped me out on that one.

There was one job which became a major frustration to me. The starter drive kept going out on me. After replacing the drive a couple of times, I went ahead and purchased a new starter motor at the same time as I purchased a new drive. Pulled out the old starter, installed the new one (I had the process down to 15 minutes from the time I started) and then put the new drive on the old starter, ready for the next time the starter drive decided not to work.

The LYM was not the only car I’ve worked on. Had a Renault LeCar which had its own little glitch (several bad batches of distributor condensers) and a few other adventures, including replacing the exhaust system in a parking lot while it was snowing.

These days, I’m sort of limited to what I can do as a shade tree mechanic. Nothing to do with my getting older – everything to do with the computerization. I have been having a fight with the cooling system on my better half’s Chevy Cruz, and that’s about it. Well, I have replaced the battery and the spark plugs, but that’s about all I’ve done.

So, watching the guy across the street work on the bumper of his newer Dodge, I’ve started to have the notion that maybe I’d like to have a project car to work on from time to time. Something relatively simple, and maybe a convertible.

We’ll just have to see what comes next. The wife has been warned, the garage is almost empty, and the local AutoZone is just a hop, skip, and a jump from my own little corner of the DFW Metromess.

Be Seeing You!