1968 Long before you were born kid. The job was to machine and cut threads on two special plugs for the final drive on a John Deere.

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1983 300-D turbo
1985 300-D turbo
1959 Harley Panhead chopper
1929 Ford coupe restored
I hang out with Boneheaddoctor at Schuman Automotive OBK#5
All liberals are mattoids but not all mattoids are liberal.

The samples came....disposable nitrile gloves in XS size are awesome.

Bestgloves.com could be a resource for you if you're looking for gloves for kids....Those of you with an eye for detail will notice 2 left hands.....That's my son (8) and daughter (6) test driving the new gloves.....The first thing they did was take them off blow them up. tie them and color eyes on them for......instant blue chickens.....gotta have blue chickens.....Anyhow....I'm going to pick up a box of these for the kids they both were excited to work with me in the garage with their new gloves...

Chreers!

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Rob M
Norwich, VT USA
1980 240D Euro delivery 4 speed manual silver/blue
~160K miles

My dad had been a mine mechanic in his days (fixing mining equipment underground). When I was growing up, he liked to tinker on his cars (replace brake pads, that kind of stuff), though nothing too serious (ie. engine overhauls etc.). I was the eldest son so often got roped in to be his "helper", getting him tools, etc. My dad would sometimes get upset when something broke, and I sometimes bore the brunt of it I suppose. But at least, I learned a certain familiarity with tools (he also got me to help him with stuff around the house). WHen I became of age, I bought a car and ended up doing a lot of work on it. In more recent years (late 30's and 40's) I progressed to doing an engine rebuild, and other more challenging jobs on my car(s). My dad is long dead and gone, but I'm sure he'd be proud of me. I was the only one of 3 sons to acquire this taste and respect for tools and things mechanical, probably because I was the only one he asked to be his "helper". I now have a daughter (14) and son (13). My daughter used to help me with brake line bleeding (before I got a bleeder). My son has (of yet) not shown great interest, and I find myself often doing work in my garage with a certain guilt that I'm not spending the time with my kids. This thread has made me realize that maybe I should ask my son to be my "helper", as my dad did, and that it may have long term positive benefits for him. It's a different world today though: my kids spend a lot of time watching TV and on the Internet, two things they would much rather do than help me in that smelly garage of mine, getting their hands dirty. THerein lies the challenge....

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1982 240D 205,000miles+
1987 Land-Rover 110 diesel 50,000miles+

The kids are 13 and 14? Just keep mumbling things like "you'll be driving one of these cars soon so ya better learn how they work" Make the connection in their brains between working on he cars and being allowed to drive them. Don't deprive the daughter of the experience either. I get my 20 year old daughter working on the cars as often as I can. One of my favorite experiences was when she yelled at her boyfriend for not torqueing down the lug nuts correctly on her car, even though she had handed him the click-click torque wrench. (she thinks that is one of the neatest tools out there). Heck, I even talked her into buying an '87 300D (603 just like my SDL)!

I recently purchased an equipment cart that had to be assembled and I asked my 12 yr old (Blake) to assemble it. We get everything opened up and he gathers the tools he needs and I get called away from the shop for a little while. When I return I see all these nuts on the ground with little weld tacks on them. Seems the cart had been built with the nuts tacked in place and all that is required is to slide the fastener through the hole and tighten it into the nut. I asked Blake about it and he said that he could not get the fasteners through so he knocked everyone of them off. I taught him that all he was supposed to do was slide the fastener through and thread/tighten it. He did a good job on the cart with very little instruction.
It looks like he is going to be my "mechanic" and the oldest son will be the jailbird.

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Jim

"THerein lies the challenge...." Maybe it's you. Father was the 'what did you do?! Don't touch my tools!' type. Mother's father would usually stand nearby, fiddling with something which meant he was waiting for me to ask a question. Then he'd stand behind or beside me and talk me through it, refusing to touch a tool or part. If I broke it then he'd say 'oops' or 'I did too when I did it the first time. Let's fix it'. I learned nothing from father and learned the most from mother's father. Father's father had it made because he knew I'd fix it right and clean up and put his tools away. He would point to his toolbox and say 'fix it', then walk away.

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daBenz - 1970 220D

this is a good thread because it has me thinking.."how can I do a better job getting my kids to experience hands on work?" The younger ones are more eager, so part of it is me.......hmm

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'82 300SD - 361K mi - "Blue"

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

listen, look, .........and duck.

My kids have grown up watching me work on all of our cars. I tell them that the common perception that grease monkeying is not an intellectual pursuit is hogwash!

My daughter is 25 now, out of college and living 700 miles away teaching 9th grade science. When it came time for her to get a car 5 years ago I gave her a choice... a trouble free (boring) rice rocket that would depreciate 12 to 15 thousand dollars in the next 5 years...or a 92 300D that she would love to drive but would have to work on. She got the Mercedes with a set of tools, a topsider, nitrile gloves and a box of filters in the trunk.

When she got a house with a garage I gave her my old floor jack and a set of jackstands. In the last year she has been through Transmission, differential and motor oil changes, alternator, blower motor and motor mount replacement and fuel filter changes. Oh yes, brake pads, brake fluid and power steering fluid replacement and a bunch of other stuff. She says it is worth the effort to have a cool car and that she would rather spend her money on something besides car depreciation.

When it came time to teach her class about levers and simple machines she took them out to the parking lot and showed them how to change a tire. She showed them wheel chocks, the mechanical jack, a hydraulic jack and how to torque the lug bolts with a torque wrench. Their homework assignment was to figure out the mechanical advantage of each of the tools she had used. The kids loved it!

Monday she called me to tell me that the Air conditioner on her car was not working as well as it should. I told her that it was just a little low on refrigerant and gave her the name of a shop that is recommended here on shop forum. I then went through a basic discussion with her about how the air conditioner on her car works.

When she arrived at the shop the next day, the mechanic asked her if the car had been converted not really expecting an answer. What she said was that it had not been converted because 92 was the first year for R134. She told him that she knew that evaporator problems were common in the 124 series but suspected that the evaporator had been replaced by the previous owner based on the appearance of the expansion valve. She told the guy that the fans in front of the condenser were not working but that she had got them working by jumping the pressure switch. Based on that, she told him that she was guessing that the system had just enough refrigerant to engage the compressor clutch but not enough for the pressure switch to turn on the fans and all it needed was a chargeup.

She called me up an hour later to tell me that the air conditioner was fixed and blowing cold. The mechanic had put in a pound of refrigerant and had not charged her anything for it. He said that it had really made his day for someone to come in, show an interest in what he was doing and intelligently discuss what was wrong with her car.

Next fall she wants to show the kids how air conditioning works!

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Tom Hughes
St. Louis
84 300SD
92 300D
86 300SDL

Tom, how cool is that? (yes, intended)

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'82 300SD - 361K mi - "Blue"

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

listen, look, .........and duck.

Kids working on these cars are not getting into worse mischief, and you know where they are.

You should have seen my 9y/o son "going to town" with an air chisel and a grinder on the parts car Monday night. He didn't stop smiling until morning!

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

My 12 yo son helped me remove and reinstall the seats in the SD the other night. He's already asking what the next project on the car will be.
He was playing a video game when I asked for his help and his response was 'you got it!'
He dropped the controller in his little brothers lap and was out the door.

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Ginny in Denver-ish
78 300SD, 265K (mine)

My dad helped his dad cut gaskets when they rebuilt an old Chrysler, and rebuilt his Datsun in college. When I was old enough, he told me that new cars were too complicated and that it was easier to work with wood. Everything I learned about diesels I learned from this forum (and the FSM). I was lucky enough to have a decent metal shop in high school, and I do lab work at school that often takes me into the machine shop. It's good to have access to a mill and lathe should I ever need one. Makes me want a Bridgeport of my own in the future...

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1992 300D 2.5T 249k - Parked with a bad transmission
1981 300SD 142k - Daily driver

just as long as they dont tell their teachers that your "job" is working on the family cars:0

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1984 123.193 372,xxx miles, room for Seven.

1999 Dodge Durango Cummins 4BTAA 47RE 5k lb 4x4 getting 25+mpgs, room for Seven.

Archer is six years old.
I talk extensively about the specific hazards of the task at hand and explain to him what to do when something unexpected happens. He takes it all very seriously.

I'm helping because he can't hold the torch and silfos at the same time to braze the practice rings.
We are still working on not overheating the copper and burning the solder.

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1984 300D turbodiesel
1983 300TD