That's a long story.

Certified mechanic... no. Can I turn wrenches on anything.... yes. It takes a certain aptitude and a good memory and an understanding of WHY things works to be able to turn wrenches.

My father said it best when I was diagnosing a lack of power with his 95 4-Runner years ago.... He said he could probably read a manual and be able to do the job, but he wouldn't understand WHY he was doing it.

The "why something works", is just as, if not more important than "how something works". I'm really good at understanding the "why".

I grew up in Germany when I was a kid (Army Brat), my step father who was a helicopter mechanic would always buy cars from other GI's that were transferring stateside, do a little work to make them better running or looking cars, and would sell those cars to GI's that were arriving. This was back in the late 80's to mid 90's when the US military had a larger presence in Germany.

I was always there when he was working on something and he "planted the seed" so to speak. He told me, and I quote, "Jared... A truly rich man will never have to pay another man to work on his car", I really took that to heart. He and my mother wound up getting a divorce in 96 after he went to Bosnia and we transferred back to the states. I hadn't even owned a car yet but had that seed still. When I did start driving the piece of crap cars I could afford when I was 16, I had to work on them myself and pretty much just taught myself how to do the work. I've owned over 50 cars since I was 16, buying, fixing, selling, just like my step father used to do, and I currently own 11, 10 of which run and drive.

My being ADHD and a little OCD helps a lot with the work that I do. I am not a really big fan of "overly modified look at me, look at me cars". I try to do the best I can to make my cars appear OEM and perform OEM.

In the end there are really only 3 things that change between vehicles, or engines, wether they be european, domestic, asian, diesel, 2 stroke, what have you..... and those 3 things are the tools required, the tolerances needed, and the torque specifications.... everything else is just nuts and bolts.

To answer your question, yes, I consider myself a mechanic.

Jared