My nephew is 11 years old. He's my sister's 3rd kid and the only one that seems to have taken an interest in old cars. He likes coming over and helping me out some time. I'm changing out the original 3 speed in my '57 Chevy for a factory 3 speed with overdrive so he helped me change it. Thought maybe someone might like this picture:



Brandon

Awesome picture! Keep it for him when he's 40. Reminds me of helping my Dad put the trim back on our '51 when it came back from the paint shop in 1981. Small hands and arms are sometimes the right tools!

Brandon,
I'm compiling a series of "kids" and "vintage cars" photos. I'd like to take you up on your offer and add this to the set.

Hopefully you'll see it in the future (probably on the VCCA homepage first)....

Go right ahead Bill. Those will be neat pictures to check out.

Brandon

Here are a couple I took.

Grandson Michael, at 14yrs old, now 19 yrs old and friend Clem setting tappets on my '31 chev motor.

Grandson Andrew, at 11 yrs old, now 16 yrs old, putting gasket on my '31 chev motor.


Michael is now in college and Andrew has his drivers license so they are over quite often. They do love old cars and whatever. They along with their cousins also get to drive the '31 & '49 when they are up during the summer.

Also have one of my Brother-in-law and nephew putting motor in my '49 chev.

Brandon,
It's sure fun to have a young one around and interested in these projects, isn't it?

Yeah, it is. My nephew is actually pretty bright. No offense to my other niece and nephew but they're just "average." So Jacob, my nephew, loves to figure things out and responds well when I take the time to explain how things work and why we do them a certain way and then let him do them and figure things out on his own.
I try to let him do things as much as possible. People tend to think that young kids can't do things today, but that's not how my father raised me. I began driving at age 7 (just down the road to my grandmother's house when there was no traffic on our road before all the "big city" fold built their subdivisions out where we live). My father would give me the responsibility of doing things and I was expected to do them, so I learned how to do them. He would have me back the flatbed trailer or load cars on the trailer. I try to take the same approach with my nephew and he seems to respond well to it.
For example, I let him put the driveshaft in my '57. I told him what needed to be done and let him figure it out, then I checked it to make sure the bolts were tight enough. I showed him how to properly tie my '37 Chevy to his 4 wheeler and let him pull it out of the barn, explaining how if you start in 2nd gear there will be less torque and it will be easier to pull slowly. I think we are babying children too much these days and they are fully capable of doing much more. I like to read the history books of my county here and in those days (early 1800s) a kid of 10 and 11 was expected to pull their weight and were fully capable of handling a lot when properly taught.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents (which is usually worth less than 2 cents).

Vetteman61
You are right, teach them the why, where and correct way early and they will remember. My 2 sons were not that interested in cars until they had to repair their own so needless to say Dad gets distraught phone calls "car is broken how do I fix it" but I generally end up doing a 2000 mile trip to do it anyway. They at least generally tell me before it gets too bad.
Tony