What you've done or built as a teenager

[Sir Fallsalot]

Just supervised the boy taking his battery off his car to put it on charge its his first mechanical job he's just about to turn 19.
Got me to thinking about what i had done by that age. At the age of 13 i had made two working models of  stationary steam engines in a night school at Merthyr technical college and fitted a mono shock to the rear of my old grifter pushbike at 15  i was working on my old mans VW T2 split screen, i had cut off rotten sills and outriggers rear corners and welded on new ones, the outriggers i manufactured from sheet metal from scratch bending and forming to fit (wish i finished that project but gave up) at 16 i stripped and rebuilt a DT175 engine and various bikes of my mates, at 17 i converted a CB100N into a XL125 with big suspension wrote it off then cloned a KX125 into it, by his age i had built my 400 chop and rebuilt a robin reliant engine twice and cloned one by making a good  i mean working one out of the two i'm sure there's more , so was i the only one tinkering like this.

[XTreme]

12 minutes ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

Just supervised the boy taking his battery off his car to put it on charge its his first mechanical job he's just about to turn 19.
Got me to thinking about what i had done by that age. At the age of 13 i had made two working models of  stationary steam engines in a night school at Merthyr technical college and fitted a mono shock to the rear of my old grifter pushbike at 15  i was working on my old mans VW T2 split screen, i had cut off rotten sills and outriggers rear corners and welded on new ones, the outriggers i manufactured from sheet metal from scratch bending and forming to fit (wish i finished that project but gave up) at 16 i stripped and rebuilt a DT175 engine and various bikes of my mates, at 17 i converted a CB100N into a XL125 with big suspension wrote it off then cloned a KX125 into it, by his age i had built my 400 chop and rebuilt a robin reliant engine twice and cloned one by making a good  i mean working one out of the two i'm sure there's more , so was i the only one tinkering like this.

I was incapable of doing anything as a teenager........and nothing's changed in the 50 years since then.

[Six30]

[Tym]

I dug a tunnel when Pa was staioned at Southern Command, a tractor drove over it and it caved in trapping the tractor. I won that one. We used to find mortors on guam, we; d throw threm off a cliff to see which ones still worked, i remember "finding" a 250cc two stoke motor and we put it in a mini bike frame, no brakes. Collecting liZard tails while at Edwards in california was neet, the SR 71 taking off was boring to me....nothing like a real honest to god childhood, oh yea we rode in the bed of grandpas studabaker pickup, weeee!

[XTreme]

10 minutes ago, Tym said:

We used to find mortors on guam, we; d throw threm off a cliff to see which ones still worked,

[boboneleg]

At 14 I changed the scores on the Gloucestershire CC scoreboard so all the crowd didn't know what the fuck was going on 

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

2 minutes ago, boboneleg said:

At 14 I changed the scores on the Gloucestershire CC scoreboard so all the crowd didn't know what the fuck was going on 

Cheaty answer, if youre from the West Country we’ve all done that

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

Moslty cos gloucs deserve it. 

[boboneleg]

2 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

Cheaty answer, if youre from the West Country we’ve all done that

Ok , if you've done that as well. How many floors were there in the scoreboard 

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

3 minutes ago, boboneleg said:

Ok , if you've done that as well. How many floors were there in the scoreboard 

I dunno it was old school, by fourteen you were on your 4rth pint of cider before the game started

[Tango]

I worked in my dad's TV repair shop during the school holidays repairing TVs at 14 years old. Started work as an electronics apprentice aged 16 (just). Rebuilt the engine on my T120 Bonneville multiple times from age 18.

But, TBF, engines were a lot easier to work on then than they are now.

[Marcel le Moose Fondler]

Well I was mechanically encline at a young age... Rebuilt the top end of my 78 rm 80..i was 15 maybe... Bought and 73 Ford cougar with a blown 351 clevlen at 17... and changed out the motor with a used 302... To bad the 351 grenaded.. The crank broke in half.. 

[Six30]

you boring twats ...i was in a pub at a rave or in night club 

[Marcel le Moose Fondler]

1 minute ago, Six30 said:

you boring twats ...i was in a pub at a rave or in night club 

One of these party's? 

[Buckster]

I built a reputation for being a mother fucker.  It has served me in life. 

[Six30]

8 hours ago, Marcel said:

One of these party's? 

no, im not Canadian 

[Six30]

7 hours ago, Buckster said:

I built a reputation for being a child fucker.  It has served me in life. 

[busabeast]

I started spannering pretty early on, me a dad rebuilt a '74 reliant Scimitar se5a started it when I was around 11 finished it nearly by time I was coming up to 13.

Was working on my dad's '85 mg metro from maybe 10 setting valve clearances and servicing, doing the brakes

So my spannering days started very early and I wish cars were still that easy to work on unlike the shite you get these days 

[Sir Fallsalot]

10 hours ago, Six30 said:

you boring twats ...i was in a pub at a rave or in night club 

Yes i was doing a lot of that in-between spannering although i didn't realise i liked the rave scene until it was too late i was always at motorcycle rally's feel like i missed out there

[Sir Fallsalot]

46 minutes ago, Richzx6r said:

and I wish cars were still that easy to work on unlike the shite you get these days 

I agree but i don't miss the rust the old cars suffered from 

[boboneleg]

I was a late starter to spannering.  I got a job with a second-hand car sales place when I was 21, my job didn't involve any of that at first but then I learnt how to pull bumpers, trim etc off cars ready for resprays.  Soon I moved onto spraying itself but the one thing I really should have learnt was welding.  Before long I was helping the mechanics as well and one day fitted a water pump on the works Escort Van.  My boss was impressed but I used to do all that for £20 a week 

[boboneleg]

13 hours ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

I dunno it was old school, by fourteen you were on your 4rth pint of cider before the game started

The scoreboard had 4 floors, we used to wait until the scoreboard master ?? walked down to change the wickets on the second floor and we'd sneak up and change the score 

[Catteeclan]

Me and my older brother Tim have always pulled things to bits to put back together again. Started with push bikes and went on from there. We used to go down all the back ways to people houses to see what dead electricals, push bikes and motorbikes were there and very often they'd let us have them. Used to visit the tip on a regular basis too. TVs we'd palm off around the family but the best bike parts would be swopped onto our own bikes.
Motorbikes we'd get going a rag around the local corn fields.
Had my first car at 13 from a relative, "if you can get it off the drive it's yours". Had to sell off some bikes etc to keep petrol in it.

None of this would of happen without dads tool kit and him allowing us to just get on with it.

[Marcel le Moose Fondler]

10 hours ago, Buckster said:

I built a reputation for being a mother fucker.  It has served me in life. 

Wow... Are we talking about milfs or your own mother? 

[Sir Fallsalot]

53 minutes ago, Catteeclan said:

Me and my older brother Tim have always pulled things to bits to put back together again. Started with push bikes and went on from there. We used to go down all the back ways to people houses to see what dead electricals, push bikes and motorbikes were there and very often they'd let us have them. Used to visit the tip on a regular basis too. TVs we'd palm off around the family but the best bike parts would be swopped onto our own bikes.
Motorbikes we'd get going a rag around the local corn fields.
Had my first car at 13 from a relative, "if you can get it off the drive it's yours". Had to sell off some bikes etc to keep petrol in it.

None of this would of happen without dads tool kit and him allowing us to just get on with it.

Yes i started off using the old mans tools but after a big argument about me leaving his stuff all over the place and him not believing it wasn't me i ended up buying my own tools, I always thought it was my eldest brother that was to blame but after leaving home for a few years and being in his workshop which is still a mess i am now convinced it was the old man not us