Date:         Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:53:25 -0700
Reply-To:     Loren Busch <starwagen@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Loren Busch <starwagen@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Are Today's Young People Mechanical Nitwits?
In-Reply-To:  <002d01c8fe21$d09c4fe0$0501a8c0@lloydcomp>
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 This got very long, hit delete if in a hurry this morning....

I've been following this thread (that started yesterday) with great
interest.  I decided to wait till Friday to jump in because of the little
Vanagon content but don't take that wrong, I think the subject and the
thread that has evolved is pertinent to our interests and endeavors.

So, why can some of us understand the working  of a motor vehicle and even
work on them while others don't and can't?  I think just about everything
that I understand about the past (I just turned 69) and the current society
and maybe even the future has already been said in this thread by the time
I'm writing this. But I want to emphasize several points that have been
made, especially about how our fathers and grandfathers saw things and dealt
with them and how that affects us today.

The fathers and the grandfathers of many on this list were raised in what
was essentially a rural America, either on a farm or in a farm town and
community.  Especially in the West.  And they had lived through the Great
Depression where you only survived if you could do it yourself and they came
out of the depression with a strong sense of how important every penny could
be. Before WW2 the majority of the population of the US was not in the
cities, it was rural.  There were no 'suburbs', especially out West.  And
that meant you did it yourself.  That's the way people survived.  And when
it came to motor vehicles we were talking Ford and Chevy and John Deere.  And
they were very basic machines.  The major (and I mean major) improvements in
wheels, tires, suspension, steering, engines and transmissions were things
of the '50's and later.  A couple of years ago I walked into a friends auto
repair shop and there sat a '39 Pontiac (I believe it was a Pontiac, could
have been a Packard, not important) that my friend maintained for a local
collector.  Front suspension was King Pins, no ball joints, leaf springs and
no shock absorbers!!  And a flat head straight 8 under the hood.  Since
virtually every male had grown up with tools in his hands maintaining such
vehicles was second nature to the original owners. Now move ahead nearly 70
years and think about the complexity of the vehicles today.  But also think
about what has been gained in performance and durability.  Even in the
1960's a car with 50,000 miles on it was suspect but today we think nothing
of driving vehicles with over 100,000 miles on them.  And since I just
mentioned the '60's, let me make some comments on the so called 'Golden Age'
of the muscle car.  In 1968 I spent most of that year selling cars for a
Chrysler-Plymouth (RIP) dealer.  I had a chance to drive, at least once,
virtually every muscle car of the time.  They had power but they were, in
general, pigs to drive.  Sure they could do 120 mph on the straight but for
God sake don't try to go around a curve at 60 or even change lanes above 80.
The suspensions on virtually all were way, way under engineered for the
power they had.  For those that never had the experience imagine a Vanagon
with worn shocks, factory springs and passenger tires.  That's what most of
those Muscle Cars felt like from the factory.

When I was growing up most of the fathers in the neighborhood (good upscale
middle class) were in the 'trades' one way or another.  If they weren't
carpenters or plumbers or such they had been at one time in their lives and
had moved on to a related job.  They either used tools for a living or their
customers and clients did.  My father was a machinist, all his life.  I grew
up in a machine shop, either where he worked or in our basement and garage.
Big lathe, small mill, big drill press, welding equipment, and tools, tools,
tools. The rule was simple, use the right tool for the job.  If you don't
have the right tool, make it. Only if you don't have it or can't make it do
you go out and buy it (see references above to Great Depression and living
on a farm) but, my dad hated woodwork.  I don't know why but he hated doing
any carpentry.  I guess I inherited (or got by osmosis) his mechanical
skills.  If it's mechanical I've never been afraid of it.  Especially if
made of metal.  When younger I'd tackle anything, tear it down, fix it, and
put it back together. And that included my cars.  But then I reached a point
in later life where I was able to make a trade, my money for a mechanics
time.  My time with my family was worth more to me than having those dollars
in my pocket. So I quit doing my own wrenching. And that is the decision
that many in the last couple of generations have made.  In the quite
affluent society that has evolved in the US over the last 50 years fewer and
fewer people have fathers that take a tool box to work.  And the trade of
dollars for time has become the norm; we go to specialists for most things
today. I still do the basics and have done a lot of mods to my Westy but any
real work goes to a mechanic.  And yes, I pay close attention to Larry
Chases Repair Shop Reviews.

So, should the younger generation learn how a motor vehicle works?
Absolutely.  Should they understand the basics of maintenance?
Absolutely.  Should
they learn to use basic tools? Yes, yes yes. Should they be doing engine
swaps?  Now that is another level of involvement, a choice to be made by the
individual. But they should have enough knowledge to understand what is
involved.



The quote below sums it up for me, from the famous Lazarus Long (though we
should add "Troubleshoot a Vanagon FI System" to the list.)



A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a
hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build
a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate,
act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a
computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.
Specialization is for insects.