In retrospect, that worked for him, because he had a mostly good eye for when a tool couldn't be used, and I only saw him fall prey to a bad tool.
But it was cars. My dad had two of the worst cars ever (on the list) in a three year period! He didn't have good car sense.
He had this: 
...and this... 
Whew. Then he got this, and little kids we were, we called it the "beep beep" because of that silly french horn. But you know, when I look at it now...I think I like it! 
My dad had a white one in 1966 when he was stationed at the Navy Yard in Washington DC. It is best known in my family for the smell. My dad took us with him to pick up some things for the yard at a store called GEM. (My dad worked part time there for years)
One of those things was a bag of manure.
Now, being a small car, the only place you could put that bag of manure with a full car of kids was the floor underfoot, where we were expected to rest our feet gently on top of it.
As soon as we began driving, as my feet rested on that back of manure, I began to kick my feet on it in the bored manner of a boy who has been banished to Right Field in Little League, because you can't hit...can't catch, you stand out there the whole game wearing grooves in the ground with your sneakers where you stand.
Well, that's what I did to that bag of manure. I admit it. I just giggled at my dads puzzled and panicked look as he got the smell and looked back.
That car was just about six months old, as I recall.
Anyway, here I am, talking about how cars were his weak point, but then you know what? As I thought of those cars, I remembered this one: 
A 1964 Chrysler New Yorker wagon just like this one, except it had a red interior. Push button transmission. Room for 10 people. 413 cubic inches. Built like a fricking Sherman Tank. (Traveled across country in it, my parents spent their wedding anniversary with us all sleeping in the car,a the front end of the car off the ground on a hill, the rear stuck in the mud. We lost the brakes coming down Pikes Peak!!!)
So, I thought..."THAT was a beastly, car, and a good one, too. (Took it to Japan and Subic Bay)
Then, he got this car: 
Ours was silver, and it was the first car I ever went over 100mph in...
But you know...the one I got to drive in High School, was...this: 
Had the same paint scheme, but the shift lever was on the dashboard. I had that great slant six.
Come to think of it, Dad...You made some great choices!