When I was growing up two of our six gas stations were run by men who grew up in the late 20's early 30's repairing vehicles. The one who owned the DX station had worked in the town Ford garage the other guys (brothers) owned the Skelly station and sold Plymouths out of it on the side. They had a framed picture of Pres. Calvin Coolidge in the office!
You talk about guys that could fix anything, they were awesome. And that doesn't count the private garage in town that the Anderson Bros. ran. They were Model T experts and could do or make ANYthing. People still talk about their skills and this was in the 1960's they all retired.
I sure wish they were still with us today, I've got plenty of 'how-do-I -do-THIS?' questions
