As a kid pop had to do a lot of mechanic work on the cheap so as a result I did get first hand experience rebuilding a lot of different stuff. Things I would not rebuild today, though the knowledge of how to do so is still there like rebuilding wheel cylinders, or alternators, or starters for that matter. Back then drums and rotors were always turned as long as there was enough meat on them to do so. Blower motors that squealed had the rivets drilled out and the motor opened up and the thing was reworked and re-lubed then screwed back together and put back in service. The leaking exhaust system the old man would try to patch up and make work a little longer, with rarely any degree of lasting success regarding the exhaust.
Honestly, I don't miss having to mechanic the way pop did on the cheap, with a very limited assortment of tools to tackle the work at hand. Oh he got by, but many were the jobs that probably took many more hours to accomplish due to the lack of tools than would have otherwise with the choice of tools I have at hand now. I cannot imagine wrenching now with no deep sockets for example and the biggest 1/2" drive tool in the box was a 15-16" Craftsman breaker bar. He had two 1/2" drive extensions, a 6" one and a 10" one, that was it!
However, all that said, I must give the old man his due, he seemed to always fix whatever he went after even with his limited amount of hand tools, and in spite of all the additional hours that lack of tools cost him. To his credit he did not do shoddy slipshod work either, he did good work.