Why automotive?

That's the one question I get more than anything. "You're a girl - why do you want to get greasy under a hood all day?" (Right before I hear, "Hey, speaking of cars, mine is doing... ") I love that my book completely summarized my interest in auto mechanics in one paragraph at the beginning of chapter two.

MAST G-W online

The Automotive Technician

An automotive technician makes a living diagnosing, servicing, and repairing cars, vans, and light trucks. The technician must be highly skilled and well trained. He or she must be a “jack of all trades,” being able to perform a wide variety of tasks. For example, an experienced master automobile technician is usually capable of performing operations common to the following occupations:

• Machinist (precision measurements, brake part machining).
• Plumber (working with fuel lines and power steering lines).
• Welder (gas and arc welding on exhaust systems, parts repair).
• Electrician (charging, starting, lighting system service).
• Electronic technician (servicing a vehicle’s electronic parts).
• Air conditioning technician (repairing and recharging auto air conditioning).
• TV-radio technician (installing and repairing vehicle sound systems, cellular phones, and radios).
• Computer technician (servicing a vehicle’s on-board computers).
• Bookkeeper (business-type tasks, such as filling out repair orders, calculating hours on a job, ordering parts, totaling work order costs, etc.)

As this list demonstrates, an automobile technician’s job can be very challenging. The technician is called on to perform a variety of repair tasks, which prevents boredom on the job. If you like to use your mind and your hands, automotive service can be a rewarding and interesting profession.


Oh, and PS - remember that test I nearly 'failed'? I still made the highest grade in the class in electronics. I know I didn't do well on the engine repair test, though. Stupid, stupid mistakes on a foggy-brained Monday morning. Oh well. Guess it will look like I really learned something at the end of the semester.

I finished my first week - already?

It's the end of my first week, already. Can I believe it? No. Have I done anything cool? Sure. Am I finally comfortable walking around campus without getting lost. Kinda. Everything changes in a few years time.

The first day was awkward. I knew Power Mechanics was one building, (but it's actually spread across two), but I still got to class on time, and sat in the back, so I could see the boys and their cliques. They didn't disappoint. They looked at me like I was lost. Or an alien. Or had three heads.

I really got looks when I answered questions, and smarted off with a second year student. He had full confidence by my smart-aleck attitude that I would fit in fine.

My first day, we started tearing down an engine. With a choice comparable to the lesser of evils, I chose the 5.4L v8 Triton.

Those of you who know me and engines are probably gasping. Those who have no idea what a 5.4L comes out of, will understand why the first group is gasping - it's a Ford.

There. I said it. The four-letter F word. The blue oval of Hades. But it was that, or a Subaru, or Honda, or Mazda. See? Lesser. of. evils.

My second day, I put together said engine.

My third day, I arrived very early. That's where reading the schedule would come into play. When you don't have to arrive until 11, arriving at 9:50 is almost too much. At least I was able to pull the codes in my Volvo. Then, we took an evaluation exam and I almost failed. Technician A versus Technician B. I evaluate that Technician B is a moron.

Today, we tested continuity across circuits on a cluster '''' ball of wires. And then, we actually got a wiring harness that was still in one piece, and tested it. We are smart. When finished, I wondered over to another classmate's car and helped him test his blower motor. It was bad. So he threw it in the trash. And then I went home. Tada!

It's been fun. I know a few guys' names now (no intro in class - bad teacher!), and the diesel tech students are still looking at me weird, but I feel better than I did a few days ago. And I found out there has only been one girl graduate the program since the program began. Guess who will be number two?

School starts tomorrow!

I surely hope I'm ready for all this. I think in some ways, it's gonna rock my world. In others, I think I'll finally be able to put two and two together. And, as is the case with all things mechanical, I will be frustrated beyond belief and the engineers who completely ignore the inevitable repairs and maintenance forthcoming, and choose to make the simplest parts unreachable, unobtainable, and ridiculously difficult to get tools on.

As such, I've completed my first assignment in my online introduction class, and am waiting on the test to be posted, so I can get this out of my way. I'm currently reading the first chapter in the Automotive Electricity and Electronics book, so I'll at least understand what's going on tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

Scheduling class

It was fate, really. I went in with the intention of starting class in Computer Information Technology. I thought I could knock it out first, what with the courses from my previous degree(s) still on my record.

My new advisor was out, so another professor in the Business Dept. helped me out. Or, tried, really. She couldn't work around the system to my satisfaction, so I left, and changed my major to my 'second choice' - Automotive Technology.

Kinda different, right?

Well, that's true. But that's true about just about everything I do. I go to left field quite often, just to stretch myself. This time, though, it was more about being comfortable.

See, I grew up in a shop, garage, or grease pit of one kind or another. I would run to see my dad slaving under a big rig, getting greasy, shooting the breeze with the other men, and trying to figure out how one problem begat the next. I remember thinking by the time I was in my teens, that the smell of grease and diesel fuel really smelled -- friendly. Welcoming? Homey? Let's just say I liked it. And I like hearing Dad describe how the guys thought this one thing was the problem, and how he corrected them with a simpler fix. "School doesn't teach anything these days", he would say.

Dad only finished the 8th grade, but he'd been under a car or truck since after his return from Germany as a Screaming Eagle Paratrooper. He went just about everywhere to make a living - learning his way around this Mack B model and that Freightliner. Let's just say that song - "I've been everywhere, man", rang true with him.

After finally settling down in NC in 1970, he found jobs here and there at one shop or another, supporting the family the best a mechanic can. Oh, there was drinking, and rowdy times, and racing during that time, but we never really starved. Even during the layoffs. Dad and Mom were handy that way - pre-baby boomers that they are.

The first shop I really remember being in was Plemmons and Irving Produce in Winston-Salem, right across from the Dixie Classic Fairgrounds. His coworker Amigo, as we called him, threw me up into a banana scale and weighed me. He swung me around before putting me down, and told me I wasn't as big as a crate of bananas. Funny the things that stick in our memories, huh?

Anyway, there are stories galore that dot my childhood from this shop or that, as invariably, Dad would get comfortable at one place, just to find out the company was going under, or downsizing, or being bought out. The constant was our shop in the back yard that Dad built in the early 90's. We worked on everything in that shop, from lawnmowers to mudbuggies, to my brother's Chevy 350 hot rod.

Then I started working on things of my own, with Dad's supervision. The biggest project was rebuilding my first car, an 81 Buick Riviera, after I blew the head gasket. That probably taught me the most about the insides of an engine. From then on, I could spout big words like "rear differential gear ratio" and I knew common trick questions - like "where's the radiator on a VW Bug".

All that brought me here, to finally decide to take the plunge, and instead of learning via the school of hard knocks, to let an institution of 'higher learning' school me in proper car etiquette, and bring me up-to-date on all these new-fangeled electronics.

I met with Hardin Kennedy, my new advisor, and I was registered before I knew it. Smooth.

So this is my blog about my exploits as a girl mechanic. Learning more, experiencing new things, teaching the boys a thing or two (hopefully), and empowering other women to do it 'their dang selves'. My ultimate goal? Teaching other women how to care for their own car, do emergency repairs, and routine maintenance. I'll do the rest. And I'll call my garage - MechaniChics.