I got my first car at 17. A rusty wreck, but that first year I stripped an Anglia on the front lawn using only basic tools. Then I did an engine transplant without a hoist. Just a couple of mates with a rope. Within the next three years I had done a rear suspension change on a Mini, Leaf springa and kingpins on a Midget. Head off on a Mini to grind in valves. None of that was unusual. By the time I was 20 I could adapt, improvise and bodge. When you had no spare cash, that was the way.
Compare that with now. The average 20 year old won't have moved far away from a computer screen. Available cars today don't encourage hands on. Far from it. So in the last 50 years, the various nanny state interventions have created a generation who really can't fix things, and really don't want to.
Our son in law, born 1982 is closer to my generation, although more into VW. But he does things to VWs I would not really enjoy. In the early days I showed him the ropes on spanner duty but he soon went solo. I lent a hand when his Phaeton needed a replacement rack, but I rarely get called. That's how it should be.
One of the reasons that the values of classics is in decline is the simple fact that young people have no interest because they were not there in period. There will always be a few, but whereas in my day, numbers of Yoofs got skinned knucles, now that's a tiny minority. I guess every generation has seen these changes. It's uncomfortable to watch, but also inevitable.
My local village garage, now retired and closed, could not find anyone willing to get dirty when they looked around a few years before. We are a dying breed of Mr Fixits.
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