Getting Auto Know-How

Hey there everbody, I'm trying to get some more practical auto experience. I've read alot of magazines and other stuff but head knowledge without some hands on experience only goes so far. One reason I want to know the mechanical side of it is that I don't have a lot of money that I can pay some shop to do the work. The main reason is that I want the satisfaction of building my own ride. Money comes and goes but the experience from working on your own car is priceless. I'm hoping to take a welding class soon and helping some friends with their cars this summer. I live in a rural part of southwest Virginia and there isn't much in the way of sport compact car culture. The cool thing is that I live about an hour away from Virginia International Raceway (in the newest mag there was a big GT-R meet there and it's the same place Project S2K crashed)
 If anyone has some suggestions or ideas, I'd appreciate it, thanks!  
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Rev, shift, smile, repeat as needed.

The first car I got for mechanical experience was a car that is synonimous with "Trash it" an 87 Fiero. It was the 2.5 Four cylinder and I got it for 300  bucks. The heads were cracked into a million pieces (I don't know why people think Iron heads are better?!" The fuel issue was beyond comprehensible for my talent and the transmission made a bunch of whirling sounds. When I brought it home a cloud of steam and burnt oil marked my ozone destroying path and really pissed off my neighbors. But hey 300 bucks and it only had 94K miles and the A/C worked (yes I turned it on while driving it home) I replaced the heads, got a coil-pack thingy, new injector, timing chain (did you know those P.O.S.'s have push rods?!) belts and pretty much did the required "everything  broke so I got to buy it!" tune-up and the car ran spectacular after 700 bucks worth of parts. Until I was working on the final details of the car and one of my friends ripped the Crank sensor wire at the source and then I said "Trash it! I don't care sell it to some other idot... The thing overheats at nominal conditions anyways."

What my beligerent story says is. Get a crappy car that you should've gotten for a case of beer, take it all apart, and go get yourself one of those crappy 120 piece Companion tool sets they sell at K-Mart and one of them cheapo 25 dll torpue wrenches at Autozone, because that's all an amateur mechanic needs. Then get a bunch of books before you do anything. The books I got are: Chilton's Guide to Engine Repair and Rebuilding, Motorbookss Workshop High-Performance Handling Handbook, Motorbooks Workshop How to Tune and Modify Engine Management Systems (That one is kinda hard, but really useful), and Sport Compact Car Engine and Driveline Handbook (Awesome for beginers and pro's...Sounds like a bad promo, but believe me.)  Because booksmarts is way better than the many idiots in my town who think they're tuners or rodders by repacing their original Distributor, intake manifold, intake, or carbutator with one sold at Autozone or Checkers...

Its better if you get a crappy car that has potential like a 90+ civic or CRX or maybe a late eighties 240SX turbocharge/supercharge the original engine and make your beater with that. Make a dedicated budget like 200 bucks a month and in a year or two you'll have something to take to V.I.R. and give them GTR's a run for their money    

Hey thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it! Ah a Fiero, one of my neighbors has one sitting in his yard. Its been sitting there for at least nine years and it looks like $200 car   What you said was right on. My dad has a bunch of tools and I'm always checking out the auto repair books at Barnes & Noble so those aren't a big deal. I live out in the sticks but there's a garage about a minute from my house, so that's cool. At this garage I came across a 91 240SX. It's got a bunch of miles (274K) and a leaking head gasket. This is just what I want, a car that has a solid reputation, lot's of potential, and something I can wrench on. BTW, I got another post in Tech and another one in Letters to the Editor, both along the same lines as this one. Thanks again!  
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Rev, shift, smile, repeat as needed.