Hacker News Books

A related artifact from that era, the very popular DIY repair manual:

How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot by John Muir and Peter Aschwanden.

I see it's still in print. This video shows some of the wonderful artwork:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjeth7lhHSk

My favorite book, even if you don't have a VW, is John Muir's "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot". It is great because it was written for someone with no mechanical experience, it assumes no specific knowledge, it is geared towards an older cars (air cooled VWs) that are much simpler than modern cars so you aren't thrown into the deep end, and is very funny and well written.

My favorite line from the book was something like "we'd have far less accidents if we were all strapped to the front of our cars like an aztec sacrifice." Which, while probably not the best approach to safety, has a kernel of truth that things that make us feel same may not make us safer, because they make us more willing to take risks.

The book begins with a great section on the theory of all the parts of the car from the 4 stroke engine to the differential to the brakes--how they work and why they're needed.

not online, but check out what is usually just called the idiots guide. Specifically "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step by Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot". Everything I know about auto mechanics I learned from that book. Like this site, it is sprinkled with personality and anecdotes (of a Santa Fe hippie in this case), but as a learning resources it is excellent.

> I know I sound like an old coot but frankly I'm glad my dad showed me how to install/aim headlights and along with explaining the benefits of a working unmodified exhaust system and how it should sound.

Reminds me of the hotrodding chapter of John Muirs[0] venerable How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive [...] for the Compleat Idiot[1] that starts describing the interplay between various systems and how just throwing a hot cam into an engine and calling it a day is a bad idea. Basically - How to hotrod your engine:

1) don’t

2) if you must here’s what you really need to know

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir_(engineer)

[1] https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1566913101