This summer I decided to get a job in something that I am interested in, cars. Now that I have been tearing down Lincolns and Mercurys all summer; I am pretty sure "tuning" is what I want to do as a profession. My main problem is "Making Cars Badass" is not a degree offered at any university that I am aware of, but there are such things as tuners, and they got their education somewhere. I have recently switched colleges from Southeastern Louisiana University to LSU and enrolled into their Mechanical Engineering department. Is this the right direction for becoming a professional tuner? Does anybody have any helpful tips for me?
A lot of them were probably just apprentices and worked from there not a hell of a lot of school for trades work but if you're good at what you do teh sky is the limit, just look at jessie james.
This summer I decided to get a job in something that I am interested in, cars. Now that I have been tearing down Lincolns and Mercurys all summer; I am pretty sure "tuning" is what I want to do as a profession. My main problem is "Making Cars Badass" is not a degree offered at any university that I am aware of, but there are such things as tuners, and they got their education somewhere. I have recently switched colleges from Southeastern Louisiana University to LSU and enrolled into their Mechanical Engineering department. Is this the right direction for becoming a professional tuner? Does anybody have any helpful tips for me?
ME is a good place to start, but I think you'd need some specialized automotive engineering education on top of that. Rather than trying to emulate the path the tuners have taken, I'd recommend you look at the backgrounds of factory engineers. 98% of tuners have no engineering background and no understanding of math, physics, chemistry or electronics ... all things vital to really understanding how to design automotive equipment. There are a few guys out there who have honestly come up without fancy engineering degrees and have learned it well ... but not many. The majority are skilled mechanics, but they don't honestly understand how and why things work at the fundamental scientific level. Designing, to them, is really no more than fabrication (which is definitely NOT design). Their idea of designing something like headers is knowing how to weld skillfully and then slapping some pipes together. They don't really know anything about wave propagation, thermodynamics or gas hydrodynamics and have no engineering basis for their choices of tube diameter, length and collector organization. It's slap it together, make sure it fits (sort of) and then market it. That is not engineering and it's not design. To do it right, you would know how to model the heat exchange and the wave pulse behavior in all the tubes and then computer simulate the whole thing before you built it.
I've always thought that someone with the right engineering background and the motivation to truly design at the aftermarket level could wipe the floor with most of the glorified shade-tree types out there.
If you wait until college to start thinking about your future - you're fucked.
Prepare yourself, by mastering all the higher math and science courses in high school. A good mechanic(tuner), will have begun to question mechanical things at a young age.
If you wait until college to start thinking about your future - you're fucked.
Prepare yourself, by mastering all the higher math and science courses in high school. A good mechanic(tuner), will have begun to question mechanical things at a young age.
Then I guess Bob Lutz was "fucked" too then huh?
Guy didn't graduate high school till he was 23.
Lots of people still don't know what they're gonna do in their "future" during college. It's that way of thinking that causes people to make bad choices in terms of their future.
If you wait until college to start thinking about your future - you're fucked.
Prepare yourself, by mastering all the higher math and science courses in high school. A good mechanic(tuner), will have begun to question mechanical things at a young age.
Then I guess Bob Lutz was "fucked" too then huh?
Guy didn't graduate high school till he was 23.
Lots of people still don't know what they're gonna do in their "future" during college. It's that way of thinking that causes people to make bad choices in terms of their future.
I didn't really have a clue what I wanted to be when I entered college,
but at least I didn't waist a year or two taking remedial courses.
I consider everything - up through the freshmen year in college - as a
foundation.
There are always the exceptions to the rule - like Einstein.
go-go in socal in the late 40's, 50's 60's is drenched with engineers who sprouted from aerospace into auto design and performance. you didn't think the "smart" guys stayed in the midwest did ya..?
My Mother is an engineer, one of the first women to break into a feild controled by men (and boy she has some stories about the shit she used to catch back in the day)
My Brother is a doctor
My Sister is a chemist
My other Sister is a doctor
My grandfather went to college at age 15 and has done weird shit like ground his own telescope lense in a sink by hand (and it was perfect). Most intellegent man I have ever known.
...and then there's me. I didn't do much [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] However, I have always been able to look at an item and break it down into parts in my head. Computers are no different than any other complex system. You may want to venture into applied physics and engineering. Will not teach you how to re-jet a carb, but you will understand how the flow of air entering the ventiuri's effect the outcome (on paper).
But what do I know [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
Innovation for your products is a good start. You must strive to be different and over an edge over eveybody else. I also agree with Smackie. Marketing is key with a tuner/aftermarket company. Get your name out there to the masses (magazines are great for this) and business will boom.
Fuck all that. Spend all your jack on marketing. Tuner profitability is image based, not technology based.
Typical. Do it shoddy, slap it together, maximizing profits is everything ... that's your take, not mine. If all he wants to do is make money he should be in Cali real estate instead of engineering anyway.
Quote:
If you wait until college to start thinking about your future - you're fucked.
Prepare yourself, by mastering all the higher math and science courses in high school. A good mechanic(tuner), will have begun to question mechanical things at a young age.
Not even close. High school is crap ... do what you have to do to get into a decent college. All real learning starts there. Who cares if it takes you 4 yrs or 5 ... Each year spent in college is worth about 4 spent in high school.
Typical. Do it shoddy, slap it together, maximizing profits is everything ... that's your take, not mine. If all he wants to do is make money he should be in Cali real estate instead of engineering anyway.
In order to succeed in the aftermarket world, you better be good. You can't cut corners. But if you want to become successful, you also NEED to stand out. Look what Hennessey did with his company. The guy is stil who people think of when they think of all out modded Vipers. In my experience, his Vipers still sell for top dollar, all due to the image and name he made through marketing. Marketing is key.
Thanks for all the info guys. My way of thinking seems to follow along the lines of Serious Eric in that I want to know exactly how and why everything works so I can design something that has a purpose, not something that just "fits." During high school, I made straight A's in math and physics, but I didnt question "why things work the way they do" until recently. Thus the change to M.E. As far as me being "fucked," I dont think I am because I am absolutely loving this thermodynamics and applied physics stuff. So even if I dont get into the tuning business, I will atleast have a degree that will allow me to work with things I am interested in, Mechanics.
I've learned ALOT this summer just helping an automotive mechanic do such simple stuff as relpace a window regulator on a '97 Towncar because I am able to see first hand how electronics and mechanics work together. I was also told by the mechanic that I work with that M.E. would be the best way to go to persue the profession I want. So keep the responses coming guys; I am soaking every bit of this in at the moment.
Typical. Do it shoddy, slap it together, maximizing profits is everything ... that's your take, not mine. If all he wants to do is make money he should be in Cali real estate instead of engineering anyway.
In order to succeed in the aftermarket world, you better be good. You can't cut corners. But if you want to become successful, you also NEED to stand out. Look what Hennessey did with his company. The guy is stil who people think of when they think of all out modded Vipers. In my experience, his Vipers still sell for top dollar, all due to the image and name he made through marketing. Marketing is key.
Wrong! Marketing gets you by until absolutely the entire world comes to realize you're a know-nothing hype monster who doesn't know shit, has a revolving door of average mechanics and let's crappy sub-par work out the door on half of his customers' cars. Then it's game over time.
What's with you marketing dweebies? You buy megabuck cars and want only the best work done on them and yet you sell the notion that quality isn't the bottom line for someone going into the business? Are you so marketing-centric that you've lost sight of what customers really want?
If you don't approach your business meaning to be the absolute best in the field then you're doomed to a short career. The quality of what you do is the most important thing that will ensure you a long lasting reputation for excellence. All else will follow ... maybe not as fast as for the slickies, but you'll last longer and probably won't end up snorting half of Galveston Island up your nose and washing out to sea stoned on an inner tube
Typical. Do it shoddy, slap it together, maximizing profits is everything ... that's your take, not mine. If all he wants to do is make money he should be in Cali real estate instead of engineering anyway.