MX-3.com

I've noticed that periodically people here (well not me of course) but you know, other people, tend to rant on as if they know it all. I feel at times everyone here including yours truly has been guilty of this,,,, except mooneggs of course.
So to put things into perspective. A person would normally take 2-3 years of Auto Shop in High School then apprentice.
6000 workplace hours
125 tasks and a written exam for each level
To achieve the Red Seal Certification, a designation that enables you to work in any Canadian Province or Territory, you need 9,720 documented hours of directly related work experience.

So this is the point of this post. Most of us are back yard mechanics with very minimal experience and virtually no training. Googling, talking or helping friends with cars counts for nothing. Lets keep this in mind next time we decide someone needs our expert opinion. We are after all respectful, intelligent, civilized people are we not.
Well, except mooneggs of course.

I concur good sir

Agreed. I never took classes in Highschool, and I have never aspired to be a professional mechanic.

My experience working on cars is limited to what I've needed to replace, or felt would be an upgrade. I'll never be certified, but I'll surely learn as much as I can, while still having fun.

The moment it's not fun, I have no reason to carry on, so I'm taking my time and enjoying the ride. It helps that I'm on a tight budget, so I research everything thoroughly before spending a penny.

lol excellent

All most of us has is experiential knowledge, we've gone through problems either right or wrong and learned one way or another.

Some of us care more about safety and doing things the "right" way (like a real mechanic).

Some of us are more worried about saving as much money as possible along the way and getting things done quickly or maybe without the right equipment (which can end up taking longer and/or being harder).

I think most of us are a balance of those 2.

A big one for me is drilling... I need to buy a full set of Cobalt bits, I keep using over/undersized bits and trying to make them work... It's a PITA. I need a bunch of other tools too...

Actually I sort of DO know everything. Except baking...I'm a terrible baker.

I try to let people know that I don't pretend to be an expert. In fact, I caution people to not try the things I do, unless they fully understand why. That goes for everything I do (acrobatics on moving trains, for one example). We're all here because if we knew it all, we'd just do it.
I have a dream of getting a bunch of us together to build the ultimate MX-3, each using our expertise to find the best way to do specific tasks. Of course, we'd need a psychologist to referee, but it woud turn out great, I think.

I have 10180 posts on here alone, how many hours does that count for

I'm pretty experienced electrically, but there are some vehicle specific stuff I don't have the experience, or specifically, the equipment for, but it doesn't matter where the electricity or electronics are, they all run off the same basis.

But I will admit what I don't know and I show where I get my info from. The internet is a great place to start, but you gotta move on to real world knowledge and experience to fill in the gaps, put things in perspective, and off the paper and into real things. I've made contacts, and learned what kind of people I look for when I need info or stuff done; I go by what they have to say, their enthousiasm in what I want done, and just my gut feeling. My mechanic is literally a genious; first Canadian to win the a top North American mechanic award. Even with everything he knows, he likes the stuff I come to him with cause it's either stuff he rarely does, or sometimes, even new stuff to him. He's taken me under his wing and taught me a alot, directly and indirectly. He's more than a mechanic, but turned into a great friend. Here in Quebec I've got a cousin that worked as a mechanic for a professional DMCC driver (he's taking 2012 off to enjoy it rather than work), who has a tv show and a drift school. He's even done some neat things like do some work on the HTT Plethore, I kid you not, I'm not making this stuff up. I wish I could remember all the cool stuff he's worked on and learnt from. I can't remember who he learnt some welding and body work techniques from, but it was a known guy too, dammit! He's really modest about it it seems cause I'm just finding out about it now. If there's someone I know that'll be a better driver than me, it'll be him; look forward to going up against him this year He's even got me thinking about harmonics and might me converting me anti-UDP, heh. I look forward to the s--- we'll get done to my cars, which the only thing holding me back is money; the Rx-8 can potentially be awesome and we've even done some ideas brewing for the Xterra too! Regardless, if I don't know it, I got people who do

If I don't know something, I'll just plainly say it, don't see the point in pretending it making stuff up. If it's hear say or experience, I'll say it as such. I don't try to fool anyone, and I take pride in being honest.

wytbishop wrote:Actually I sort of DO know everything. Except baking...I'm a terrible baker.

Knowing everything isn't worth bunk. Being able to do stuff...that's valuable. I know lots of things but I am only fair at doing the vast majority of them. but I love to try new stuff and having a car is all about learning to me.

I'm learning so much on my current porject my brain is like pulsing.

Every person has different knowledge. Body/paint is where my knowledge is at, some mechanical, electrical - Im lucky if I can find + and -
No single person can know it all.

I think most of us just read as much as we can.. then wing the F out of it.

We need to get a Troll type person to go through thousands of posts, and consolidate the good ones. This is the MX-3 bible. If someone were up to it, I would happily donate $$ to the cause. If everyone who benefited from this gave $4, that person could have a temp job, and help everyone out. Maybe the type of person who finds craigslist posts all over the Americas?

Evo and K have helped a lot... I feel that some of the best info can be found in the Worklogs. Maybe giving some of the best a FAQ or sticky status would be good. But would still require editing by the OP.

Daninski wrote:I've noticed that periodically people here (well not me of course) but you know, other people, tend to rant on as if they know it all. I feel at times everyone here including yours truly has been guilty of this,,,, except mooneggs of course.
So to put things into perspective. A person would normally take 2-3 years of Auto Shop in High School then apprentice.
6000 workplace hours
125 tasks and a written exam for each level
To achieve the Red Seal Certification, a designation that enables you to work in any Canadian Province or Territory, you need 9,720 documented hours of directly related work experience.

So this is the point of this post. Most of us are back yard mechanics with very minimal experience and virtually no training. Googling, talking or helping friends with cars counts for nothing. Lets keep this in mind next time we decide someone needs our expert opinion. We are after all respectful, intelligent, civilized people are we not.
Well, except mooneggs of course.

You don't always have to go about it that way... I have found tickets/degree doesn't always help or mean you know what your doing as a mechanic... Some people I have gone to school with or guys I have worked with have really made me question the licensing system...

I find a lot people around here can be better then some licensed mechanics I have worked with....

crazycanadian wrote:You don't always have to go about it that way... I have found tickets/degree doesn't always help or mean you know what your doing as a mechanic... Some people I have gone to school with or guys I have worked with have really made me question the licensing system...

I find a lot people around here can be better then some licensed mechanics I have worked with....

Oh Jesssus here we go, you had to mention the exceptions to the rules didn't you. Now people are going to claim they're the exceptions and away we go. More fighting, more arguing,,,hey more entertainment Thanks crazycanadian you just made my day.