Culminating Blog Reflection

During the time I spent with my mentor I used critical thinking throughout my project and the assignment my mentor gave me were challenging but i got through it. I never performed an oil change before in my life and I had to think on how I was going to do the job, what i needed to use, and figure out where to start. I asked my mentor several of questions about the assignments he gave me, I was a beginner. Throughout the tasks I've gone through, my mentor would guide me at times but made me learn and do things on my own. I was being creative with how many tools I used while performing my actions. I used all sorts of tools I've used before that I was familiar of and I wanted to impress my mentor that I knew some of the tools he owns, it was a fun experience. 

I learned a lot from my mentor, he taught me new things that I can use in the future and I can now put them on my resume. My mentor gave me experience on performing great tasks that can help me in the future, something I can fall back on if I don't succeed at what I'm trying to do now. I learned a little bit how to talk to someone I didn't know at first with a so-called stranger before but now is friend which is my mentor. I was really shy because I didn't know him like that, I saw him as a stranger but as time passed by we grew a relationship and became very good friends. Now I can contact him at a certain time whenever we can hangout and do things together.

With my mentor, I encountered some challenges when I did some tasks he assigned me. I was scared to ask questions at first because I didn't want to sound stupid or felt like my questions were stupid but I overcame that challenge and got out of my shell, asked my mentor questions. For example, when he was teaching me how to use jumper cables I didn't realize that I had to use clip on a certain clamp first. In my perspective, I thought you put the clamps on at the same time but you were suppose to start with the negative first so the fuse of the battery doesn't get fried. I was also afraid of my mentor when I first spent time with him because he was a stranger to me. I overcame these challenges by becoming a little more comfortable with my mentor and he would guide me through the assignments we've done together but he wouldn't tell me exactly what to do, he would explain to me some pros and cons of what can happen if I don't perform the job right. To wrap it all up, I'm glad I had a chance to learn and experience new things with a new person I just met and I'm very thankful of it. 

7th day

On Wednesday, I spent my last hours with my mentor. He showed me a battery charger for charging the car battery, it looked like a set of jumper cables for a sec because of the clamps. He taught me the proper way to charge a battery and its very easy. If you set the clamps the wrong way you can burn the fuse out and damage the components. The right way to place the claps on a battery is always start with negative first, positive last. This way, the battery doesn't make any sparks and nothing gets fried. My mentor said when performing this job, you should wear safety glasses so you don't get any battery acid in your eye. I enjoyed the last hours with my mentor and we became very good friends, I hope to see him again in the future and I really appreciated the fact he made time for me, helping me get a grade for my capstone project.

Hours with mentor: 3 hours

Total hours: 25 hours

6th day

This day with my mentor, he wanted to show and teach me how to change the radiator fluid on the car which keeps the car from overheating. He told me that it's very similar concept to changing the motor oil on your car. Radiator fluid can also be called coolant. When performing this operation, you must have a cool engine so that when you check the radiator cap the fluid wouldn't splash all over the place and you can get burned by that hot fluid which is not a very bright idea to do. The steps of this job are 1) Start with a cold engine and open radiator cap 2) Place pan under radiator 3) At the bottom of the radiator, there is a screw that needs to be removed 4) Wait 5) When finish flushing out old fluid, pour new fluid inside. This job is very easy and whats great about it is you flush it out every 3 years. I'm so glad I learned how to do this operation on the car because I can use this in the future. 

Hours with mentor: 5 hours

Total hours: 22 hours

5th day

My mentor brought me to go and check his tires out if they are running low on air. We went to the nearest gas station and use the air pump and checked how much psi(pounds per square inch) are in his tires. In order to check the amount of air you have to put in your tires, you open the drivers door and it shows a sticker on the side with the amount of psi for the front and rear tires. My mentor told me to put the right amount so that the vehicle wouldn't be so heavy and when hitting bumps, it wouldn't be a loud slam. 

Hours with mentor: 2 hours

Total hours: 17 hours

3rd-4th day

On my third day, i didn't really do much but helped my mentor wash his car and vacuum it. We also organized his tools and cleaned them too. My mentor loves to keep his car clean(he has OCD) and it doesn't just make your car look good, it prevents it from getting the paint strip off. He loves keeping the inside of the car clean too he said because it makes it look very presentable when someone else enters through your vehicle. When I first entered into his vehicle, it actually look like it was brand new inside and i really liked it because I had a different feeling when I saw no crumbs or stains. I felt more comfortable when I was in there and unlike other cars, when i enter inside a dirty car with a lot of junk and messy things around me I feel very uncomfortable, the car felt very unattractive inside. All and all I didn't do much this day, I received a very good tip from my mentor by keeping your car clean. 

Hours with mentor: 5 hours

Total hours: 15 hours

2nd day

My mentor told me that the next time we met we were going to change his car's oil, he owns a 2003 Toyota Tundra which is a very big truck for me to get to and do this job. First, he told me that we need to use the correct type of oil we're going to use on the truck that is located on the oil cap. When performing this operation on the car we used 5W-30 oil and a couple steps when doing this job. Step 1) Lift the car up with floor jack (Crank up at a certain height to get under the car) 2) Place an oil pan under car and remove oil plug (Turn counterclockwise) 3) Wait 4) Replace oil filter 5) Add new oil. Always change your oil every 3,000 miles. I got my hands really dirty but it was pretty fun and a great experience, now I know how to change oil on a car! He told me that we need to dispose the motor oil properly, so we went to the nearest O'reilly Auto Parts and disposed it there. On the last blog I talked about distributors, he said that he's going to show me the inside of it and how to line up the points. He told me its important to have the points lined up because its what helps and provide the engine to ignite. For the rest of the day i was just being an assistant to my mentor and helped clean up the mess I made, he also took me out to eat for doing a great job changing the oil on his car. I hope to learn more tasks in the future with my mentor. 

Hours with mentor:  5 hours

Total hours: 10 hours

1st day

This was the first day i spent time with my mentor, my mentor 's name is Bill Muthler and he is a really great person. When I entered into his garage, he had a lot of different sets of tools and he showed me what they're use for. He told me the next time we meet we're going to change oil from his car and I'm going to be doing the job also he told me some thing's such as we will be spending time with cars and doing some maintenance on cars. As I was in his garage, he showed me several parts, one of the parts he explained to me was a distributor. The distributor is one of the main parts that ignites the engine and spark plugs which is 12 volts, luckily they're not amps that can kill you. My mentor told me that cars that are 71' and lower use distributors, 72' and higher use Distributorless Ignition System (DIS). The next time I meet with my mentor I hope and expect to learn more about cars and doing major maintenance. 

Hours with mentor: 5 hours

Total hours: 5 hours