I had a neighbor who did all his own stuff. Fixed his own cars, built his own house, even completely tore apart and remodeled a combination horse/camp trailer. He too me under his wing and showed me how to do stuff. Told me he learned by picking up chiltons manuals at the library or car shop and just figured it out by reading about it.

He helped me replace the rear axle, spark plugs and wires, etc. When the radiator was leaking, explained to me how to pull it out and solder it to fix it, helped me pull off the old exhaust pipes that had rust holes and told me where I could take it to get new pipes bent and then helped me weld the new ones on, replace brakes and brake lines, master cylinder, etc.

Just having the confidence to try to do something and being willing to look it up and trial and error is half the battle. It doesn't hurt that the dang thing really had no electronic components, so it was pretty simple to work through spark, fuel, drivetrain to make it go and brakes to make it stop. 🙂