I've been rebuilding the engine of a 1980 Honda motorcycle for the last while. Just following the manual and reading on forums and watching youtube videos. Yesterday, I finally got it fully back together and put it on the bike and reassembled everything else. It didn't start perfectly but it did start, which was really satisfying. There is a little more "debugging" left to do on it but I believe I will get it back in shape eventually. All this from no knowledge of engine mechanics a few months ago, I now feel like I can competently talk about the different parts of a combustion engine and do some basic diagnosis for vehicle problems.
Doing this has been one of the best experiences in my life and it was a very cheap bike to buy and I only needed a pretty basic set of tools on top of it. I don't own other vehicles but I bet that, down the line, it will save me a lot of money that I may otherwise have given to mechanics. I would recommend doing this to anyone that has an interest in it, it doesn't take expert knowledge, just a healthy level of gumption :)
Doing this has been one of the best experiences in my life and it was a very cheap bike to buy and I only needed a pretty basic set of tools on top of it. I don't own other vehicles but I bet that, down the line, it will save me a lot of money that I may otherwise have given to mechanics. I would recommend doing this to anyone that has an interest in it, it doesn't take expert knowledge, just a healthy level of gumption :)