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Re: [Phys-L] Car repair



So, are we talking modifying or maintaining vehicles now? I think the things you talk about are still possible but the number of young folk who would actually WANT to yank their alternator from their car has dwindled. Where the primary interest of the youth in the 50's/60's might have been cars, today we could probably argue that the primary interest of our current youth revolves around computers/gaming/social media. It's a different mindset.

On Apr 11, 2013, at 10:57 PM, Marty Weiss <martweiss@comcast.net> wrote:

Oh... another story from the 60's. My best friend got hold of a 52 Studebaker that didn't run. He made a deal with the city to use the vacant lot next door to put the car up on blocks and leave it there while he worked in it. Over the course of a spring he spent every waking moment of daylight when not in school stripping that car down to the frame and rebuilding it piece by piece until he had a running machine. The only thing he couldn't do was paint it so he took it to Earl Scheib and got it painted for $39.95 (you older members might remember those ads on tv). That car ran like a charm! His fatal flaw was he cut school to run the car down to Atlantic City on a hot spring day. He got stopped on the highway by a trooper, received a ticket, and was suspended by the school and grounded by his parents for a month... right in the hottest days of late spring and early summer when we really needed him to drive us all to the beach!

Unless you have an antique or vintage car from the 50's or 60's, and are working on it, try telling me that you younger "experts" can do that nowadays in your back yard or garage with a modern car.

Mind you... I am not saying I don't appreciate the intricacies of the latest Nissans, Lincolns, or Lexus... I AM saying that modern cars cannot be worked on by your average person without training and an expertise in technology... the same people who could easily tear down a transmission on a Ford or Chevy or, yes a Studebaker back in the 1950's up to maybe the 80's. When your engine light goes on... how many even know where to get a diagnostic computer to check the codes, translate the codes, determine that the chip that controls the fuel injectors is defective, and then find the chip on the engine to replace it? (mine is way under the engine as I stated earlier and my mechanic had a heck of a job getting to it even when he knew what to do and how to do it) Heck of a difference from taking the carburetor off, buying a rebuilt carb or rebuilding your old one, and putting it back on so your car runs like new again.



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