My parents owed a 55 Plymouth which, I think, was 6V positive ground and my father grew up on a farm where you basically learned to make things work. I was too young to know much about the 55 Plymouth. In that year, I would have been -2 years old, but I remember it well. The 62 Chevrolet I "helped fix". The 68 Chrysler, I did fix.
Brake jobs and carb rebuilds although my parents owned that car for 17 years. Basics taught by dad and books.
Dad used to dabble into tube radios and car radios by fixing them for friends at work, I leaned too. Many problems were tube swaps. SAMs Photofact manuals were plentiful. He ran a tube radio in the 62. I came across a 3 band Blaupunkt AM.FW.SW whose dial was in wavelength and was running it in a 1974 vehicle of mine.
The tube radio used those things called vibrators to generate the high voltage. I did build a solid state vibrator for that car. Eventually transistor radios came out and they were basically 5 transistor designs. Still easy to fix, but dad was starting to struggle. We could never afford real test equipment. So, there was a tube tester, a voltmeter non-digital) and a battery eliminator as our tools. TV;s were pulled from the trash and we had lots of them because of that,
I listened to SW radio when I went to bed as a kid.
I really don't have a true HDTV, but there are lost of TVs in the house in lots of locations and a few that I don;t want to get rid of yet. An RCA and a Philco with a channel #1. When color started channel 2 was the first channel.
I had a nice stereo tat I bought in pieces when I could afford stuff. I bought nice stuff. My parent bought be an all in one and I slowly replaced pieces, The turntable was the first purchase. There's some 78s around the house yet, but a friend of mine has some wax recordings. The stereo really needs some work now.
I don't listen to music like I used to and my favorite was radio, I'd rather have piece and quiet except in the car. I TRIED to modify a Blaupunkt car radio to implement scan without a processor. Moderately successful until it was stolen. An amp was replace pound for pound with Lentils one day. Another time, with an alarm system, I managed to see people steeling a toolbox/amp and other stuff from the back of my car. The alarm was doing it;s thing.
My real car break cam when my father's co-worker ran his car into a telephone pole and he sold it for dad for $25.00 USD in like 1973 or so, before I could drive.
That was my car and you learn to appreciate it. So, there was body repair; replacement of panels; The heads got resurfaced (neighbor); carb re-buit; upolstered by me; brakes by me; exhaust by me; prepped for painting by me; I ported the intake manifold; an 8-track deck; stereo I had lots of down time. Later, I added an opto-electronic ignition system, new wires and plugs. One bug was elusive for a while. A crack in a rubber gas line connector at the tank.
Later vehicles I did most of the repairs. A 1982 Toyota I ran for 17 years and out the AC system in from a box. I did some major stuff like the steering rack and clutch, harmonic balancer, yearly valve adjustments.
I "gave it to the dealer" and it turned into a get-away car and the new owners stole VCR's and Lawn mowers. I did not even sell it for a $1.00, so title transfer got messed up. Almost everything worked but the mirror switch and the AC. It was past it;s 8 yr cycle of dieing. Like clockwork - every 8 years, it would blow two hoses. That Ac took 14 hours to install. Pumped down with homeade tools. Currently EPA certified for car AC and small appliance., so I can buy R-12, but no need or that anymore. I gave not made any investments into R-134 tools. I have a leak detector. I'd need new gauges, a recycler, and Nitrogen.
When i wasn't "certified" and the regulations were in effect, I was able to replace the evaporator in a vehicle, pump it down and check for leaks and have someone else charge it, It way too much labor to take one out and replace it.
I don;t have time for most car repairs anymore and not even an oil change, but I do some. The transverse mounted engines just make things miserable. So, I do some electrical stuff, replace filters and minor stuff. I do try to get the brake system flushed about every three years - something I used to do myself. I'll do battery diagnosis Brakes almost always means rotors. Coolant replacement is messy. Oil requires disposal. And the cars have gotten more reliable. The O2 sensors are in weird places etc.
I still inspect the shops work where they leave off vacuum hoses and the like, but the concentration has been electrical on one vehicle particularly. In mine, I'd love to do a few things: A sub-woofer, add heated seats; replace the seat cover and create a car moves, brake on buzzer since it's difficult for me to see the light. Get the rims powder coated and some body work done and replace some fasteners that were destroyed in another repair and remove a broken off screw.
I think my mechanical skills really started when I ran a lawn mower without oil and I was about 10 YO. I threw a rod and dad said, you broke it, you fix it, so we did.
The mower threw a rod. I'm still using mowers that are 35 years old and converted a few to electronic ignition. Stuff got honed a bit when I was able to do metal machining. Skills in electronics, mechanics, thermo, programming all help.
Minor woodwork is in there too.