I mentioned in my Two Wheels post that I had an interest in becoming a mechanic when I was younger, my brother in law John, was a mechanic working on Jaguars, and I loved the stories he used to tell me, it was also partly by necessity. Getting my drivers’ licence in 1976, meant that the cars I could afford were 60s and 70s models which were not all that reliable. Especially the cars from British Leyland or Fiat. You had to be a mechanic of sorts to keep them on the road especially the way we drove them! Yet I also have no doubt I had some sort of innate mechanical interest and abilities, I did enjoy working on them on the weekends , it kept me out of trouble. Sound systems, exhausts, wheels, lights, performance equipment etc, it was quite entertaining and satisfying.

These are pictures of some of the vehicles I had as a young man, not the actual cars, rather pictures of the same model/year. The Austin was my very first car, it cost $500 and it lasted a month before I wrote it off (totaled it). I bought a Morris 1100 to replace it. These cars had east-west engines with the electricals up front directly behind the grille, a grille that let all the water through in rainy weather. Of course, the car would either die or cough and splutter in wet weather. I fitted a plastic ice cream container to the front of the distributor to help keep the water out.

In time I moved far beyond Plastic ice cream containers, the more I did and learnt and the more complex engines became, I knew that a mechanic was not for me. I did manage some amazing feats though, check out this list!

• Replacing the constant velocity joints (CV) on my Morris 1100.
• Replacing the carburetor on my Morris multiple times (sourced from the wrecker.) I used to take off too fast and the engine would hit the firewall and snap the carburetor off at the inlet manifold
• I got smarter eventually and replaced the engine mounts which fixed the problem, (and still let me take off with wheel spin 🤪)
• Installing and insulating a sound system in my Morris which had a positive earth DC power setup instead of a negative earth (only the British……..🇬🇧)
• Replacing brake pads
• Tuning all of my cars
• Jerry-rigging the front cross member back to the chassis of my Fiat 128 Sedan after it snapped off during some “rally 🚘 driving” in the bush
• Replacing the clutch plate on my Cortina
• Replacing the head gasket on my Cortina
• Replacing the exhaust on my Cortina
• I lost plenty of skin off my knuckles too

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• For my friends, I used to tune up their cars and change the oil charging $10. (even my dad’s Valiant although dad never paid he was cheap!) I had a dwell meter and timing light and a bunch of tools including ramps to get under the cars, basics and essentials.
• I replaced the clutch plate on my friend’s Honda 600 for her too
• We also helped each other as mates, we were after all boy racers! 🏎

My proudest achievement was rebuilding the engine on my Mazda 929 a 2.0L SOHC motor. I got ripped off when I bought this car, as soon after, it began to burn oil at will.

The feat was assisted, I want to be clear about that, I did 90% of the work. My friend and mechanic I got to know when I had my Fiats (3 of them,) and whose name I kid you not was Tony, guided me and let me use his workshop. Everything was replaced, piston rings, big ends, earrings, valve stems etc. It was such a blast.

As I got older and started a family, I had less time work on cars, and cars started to get much more reliable and computerized. Even though these days there’s really nothing much an amateur like me can do with a car, I still enjoy doing those little things that I can still manage to do.

That’s the story of Joe the mechanic. Don’t call by the way if you need some repairs, I have hung up the spanners 🔨🛠⚒️🔧🪛🗜(wrenches.)

*With my friends John and Peter, we drove my 1974 Mazda RX3 to Sydney and back a 4190 mile (7902 KM) roundtrip in 1978 to see my sister and family, as you do of course