| I used to love carburetors. Now there was technology you could understand: little needles and valves and levers and jets and gaskets, and if anything went wrong, you could just get a rebuild kit, tear the carb down down, clean it out, and put it back together with the new parts. In fact, rebuilding the carburetor on a friend's VW Beetle gave me the confidence I needed to take the next logical step: rebuilding her whole engine! I didn't have all the right tools, so we took the VW down to the Briarpatch Cooperative Auto Shop on Park Blvd. in Palo Alto. [1] [2] This was like a TechShop for cars: You could get a membership and take your car there to work on it using their tools or your own. Or you could have one of their mechanics help you with the work. I got the engine torn down, all the parts laid out on the floor, and started to think about how to clean it up and put it back together. Then I realized I was in way over my head and called the resident mechanic over to see if he could finish it for me. He did, but only after shaking his head sadly and saying, "This is the worst way to get a job." [1] https://ukiahcommunityblog.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/dave-smi... [2] http://briarpatch.net/ |