i've got my hubby helping e, n his lil bro mite cum n help occasionaly, n i have my mechanic say he'll help when needed.

so i have plenty of help n support at home plus hte help n advice of u guys on here!!!

Well then get 2 CAs I guess.

Ambitious first project....don't make it too hard on yourself. (I'm sure you've read all the CA18DET type threads)

But if your really keen I'm sure you'll get it done.

nah m gonna put a ca18 in it! already got a x-member for it!

Great to hear you have and interest.

I recommend with the engine - get 2 A12's strip the first one down to a bare block and then put it back together again.

You will work out all the tools you need, the common mistakes, and the best order to pull it apart.

From then on working on A series will be easy!

i got my ute today n the bonnet was not secured as tightly s we thought...so on the way home it flew up n now has to b scrapped...not very happy. my hubby has his car well my old one..so i m the one with the datto now not him..his datto got sold last yr.

Personally I think having a wife or girlfriend that likes cars would be a terrible thing.

They'ed always be wanting to know what your doing and they themselfs might want a race car ect then you'ed be paying 2 lots of bills.

I'd much rather a woman that broke my balls on the subject.

my mechanic is THE greatest! i haven't done any course in mechanics but my genuine interest lead me to ask my mechanic if i can learn about the engines n stuff and he said yeah! that was 2yrs ago. but i plan on asking him when i can return - i took last yr off as was pregnant - so will do that in about a month or so. each saturday i was there - and not being paid - i went coz i want to learn ....

Slightly off topic.....but I think a few million P plater guys out there could benefit from that course too.

A guy broke down outside my place this morn, asking for a jump start - I wandered out and looked at his car....the water pump pulley (on his commodore V6) was rattling around in the wind...serpentine belt falling off - as the alternator, power steer, air con and waterpump are on this belt his symptoms of getting hot, battery going dead were easy to diagnose....just wonder how he managed to tear the waterpump shaft out of it's bearing - i think his serpentine belt must have been reefed to extra tight!

Anyway point is he was driving around with it like this for the last day or two...wondering why his battery kept going flat, a couple of days of engine course should be almost mandatory for everyone - would be less people for dodgy mechanics to rip off too.

she should do a womens' mechanical course - like at a community college or something just so she can learn to do the basics

"Perfect world senario!" but the problem is she would be forever breaking her car and not leaving enough time for me to work on mine!!!