Hello! Student/hobbyist here!

[Shelby Birdwell]

I’m 18, I’ve been into cars and general tinkering and wrenching (Bicycles, lawn mowers, anything that can be taken apart really) and I’m currently in my senior year of high school taking collision repair at the VO-tech. I would ideally like to move on and get some kind of technical training as well, I’m much more interested in working on mechanical parts. Is it foolish for me to try and be a combination technician?

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[college man]

[quote=”Shedby_Budwin” post=112168]I’m 18, I’ve been into cars and general tinkering and wrenching (Bicycles, lawn mowers, anything that can be taken apart really) and I’m currently in my senior year of high school taking collision repair at the VO-tech. I would ideally like to move on and get some kind of technical training as well, I’m much more interested in working on mechanical parts. Is it foolish for me to try and be a combination technician?[/quote]

First welcome to the forum. 🙂 I’m gonna put your question in general
discussion for more replies. 🙂

[Mathieu]

Well, you can buy a second hand car and repair the used part on It to make you working. But before that, you must have tools and thousand dollars (3000 $) to replace all you might needs. Suspension, AC compressor (if necessary, buying new tools, buying oil, spray paints, glove, OBDII code reader, and more. Anyway, more the car have problems when you buy It, more time and money you will sped on It. The trick, It’s to buy a car that is popular for many years in your country and in USA that is over 12 years. Above 12 years, the insurance and people see a worthless car. So, the replacement part are going to be really cheap because all website and people are going to give away these parts to fill up with parts that came from this year model.
You have 4 years after the 12 years car classless to buy nearly all the part for cheap. After that, the part are going to be rare and expensive.

[none]

I say no it’s not foolish. I just had to turn down a job at a combination repair/body shop due to a back injury. What I was told at the interview was that often enough, when one side of the shop was slow, the other is busy. Since you’re headed for a job field where pay is based largely on available broken stuff, the combination of body and mechanical should open more windows for you and reduce any potential down time. Not to mention it opens up the number of places you’d be able to submite rèsumès.

A lot of your collision damage is going to include suspension and steering repairs so you’ll need some talent in mechanical repairs anyway. There’s a lot more going on in steering and suspension nowadays with electronic stability controls so you’d probably need to get acclimated to using a voltmeter whether for body or mechanical repairs.

The down side is that you’re probably going to be in school longer and your tool bill is going to get fatter. Then again, I just don’t see the down side in that. Whatever you decide to do, make the best of your schooling and good luck.

[Shelby Birdwell]

I have an e30 which is a long term project/daily driver/ money pit for me. I wrench on that every weekend, I’ve done valve jobs, rebuilt the brakes, replaced driveshaft parts. I am a competent wrencher, compared to most people my age anyway. I fix friends cars, spend alot of time getting things to work without parts either due to budget reasons or needing to get home! I’m building a tool collection using Ebay, and lots of good yardsale and craigslist finds as well. Really the only things I’m still trying to figure out is what school to go to. Nashville Auto Diesel? They have a high performance program that looks good, does anyone have any feedback?

[Mathieu]

The Diesel mechanic is really good, what I eared from a ETCG video from Eric the car guy.
Because Diesel mechanics work for freight companies that need trucks on the road and not in the garage as F1 cars racer do. That way, the company pay to replace part before the problem go bigger and bigger.
All the food, goodies and oil are travel by trucks and trains. So, You program is good and the school might be good to. You need to find out a old student on the web from this school to learn more about how the school teach.

[Author]

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