[Bain]

Well in my experience as far as hands on goes I got a manual when I got my first car and on days off I would go out and take a part or parts off of it down to the last bolt/fastner then put it back together and reinstall it again. I didn't have the school experience you do so it may not be as helpful but thats what I did. now when I want to expand my knowledge I come here. this is a great place to not only learn about general car ploblems and solutions but also learn about issues that occure in certain cars which is handy if you plan to work in a shop. I had a pretty good base of knowledge when I first found this website and forum but it was only info that related to my car and my family members cars so I have learned a massive amount since then. It can be amazing to find out how intricate and complicated some things that seem simple can be like exhaust for example before I got on here and started reading about exhaust I thought like all these stupid high school kids like you mentioned that would put a muffler on there car and think they had made a race car out of a 4 banger honda or even worse I knew a kid once that actually cut his exhaust completely out at the manifold thinking he was making mad power. this was after I learned about how exhaust worked so when he asked me if I would race his little honda with my 3000gt I laughed even harder.