Mechanics

[Jintyquiz]

How do others manage with young mechanics in garages that do not like working on a classic car ?
They don’t like them because they do not want to learn how these amazing vehicles work!

[Spike56]

They can't find anywhere to plug in the computer!

[The Thong]

Surely they should be doing this stuff at college?

TT

[Familyman 90]

In my experience that is, broadly speaking, an incorect assertion. Young spannermen would give their left nut to work on a classic.

Aside from the novelty, its so much easier. Simplicity itself, space to work, little if any electronics, a change from the routine, and something interesting and maybe even a bit exotic.

Certainly in my old line of work they would fight with each other for the opportunity to work on any of the historic race cars, and jobs on the heritage fleet were highly prized.

In terms of learning how they work, if they can fix a modern one then a classic is a cakewalk. The only thing they might not have much experience with is carbs, but even back in the day anything beyond the very simple with carbs was a specialist job anyway, and not one for the typical Fred in a Shed.

[Forg]

Maybe it depends on the "classic"?

For example, some old cars are classics, others are just old & ****.

Also, old cars tend to be more leaky ... if I shove my hand randomly into the engine-bay of my 7yo car my hand gets dusty, if I shove my hand randomly into the engine-bay of my 42yo car my hand gets greasy.

[DaveNP]

I can think of two scenarios to explain this
1) Cost effectiveness (aka - making bonus payments). In a a modern garage dealing with modern cars the usual way to work on a car is to plug it in and read the codes then replace the faulty part, it's reasonably quick and you make profit on the sale of the part, if you've got an old car you've got to start by using a process of elimination to get to the fault, that's time consuming, time that the customer won't want to be paying for at £100+ per hour so the workshop manager will be on your back.
2) The variability of people. As already suggested by Familyman some of them would love to get under the bonnet of a classic, the young mechanic I know had an old Porsche to work on in his mum and dad's garage before he had left school, you've just got to find the right lad. On the flip side I know a very good old mechanic who can take a short ride in my car (with me driving) and tell me what will need fixing soon, but give him anything with electronics and he just shuts down