First off, I'd like to say that this is easily my favorite thread on here. There are so many variations as to how we all got here, and yet so many common denominators. I think that is awesome.
So, to begin with, I tell people that I am most assuredly
not a mechanic. I'm a hobbyist. Maybe an extreme hobbyist, but a hobbyist, nonetheless. That keeps people from constantly asking me to fix something, or expecting me to know all the answers to every car problem they encounter.
I have been in love with the automobile my entire life. My father and every single uncle from both sides of the family, plus one grandfather, were all car guys. Mechanics, body men, painters and drag racers. To say that I came by this honestly is an understatement. Like
@piratemonkey, I started with bicycles, because it was what I could afford, and it's how an 8 year old boy got around. By the time I was 14, I had a fella offer to set me up a shop in the back of his "secondhand store" repairing bicycles to be sold out front. Unfortunately, we were moving across the country within two weeks, so I had to decline. Bummer.
I can honestly say, without exaggeration or embellishment, that I have owned over 300 vehicles since I bought my first one at the age of 15. It was a '52 Studebaker half-ton pickup that I stripped down to the frame and started my first amateur restoration. By the time I was 16, I owned it, a '60 Chevy 1/2 ton, a '49 Ford 2-door sedan, and a '67 Dart GT, all at the same time. I wrenched, bought, and sold constantly. It would become a way of life for me, as I discovered that not only did I love wrenching on 'em, but I also loved the "thrill of the hunt". It's an illness.
It is a very, very rare thing for me to let someone else work on my vehicles. I don't believe anyone else will put in the same amount of care for my vehicle that I will, so I don't risk it. That, and I'm a cheap bastard. I won't pay someone else to do something I know I'm capable of doing myself.
On a final note, as much as I claim to despise modern technology, I have to admit that the advent of the internet has made me a better "hobbyist". Youtube is great, as sometimes I see a better way of doing something, and sometimes I can look at it and determine that the guy I'm watching is a blithering idiot for doing it the way he is. Either way, I learn, and I love that.