All Michael Evans wants for Christmas is a set of automotive tools. The 12-year-old sixth grader at Morgantown Elementary School has been interested in auto mechanics for several years.

&uot;I mainly started with lawn mowers,&uot; Evans said, tinkering with his first lawn mower engine at the age of 4.

This summer, Evans dismantled two broken mowers and from the various parts, assembled one functional mower.

It’s a good thing Evans can keep a lawn mower operating since he earns his spending money mowing lawns.

&uot;Once I&160;save some money, I want to go to Big Lots and buy some tools,&uot; he said. He has plans to use those tools to strip down a motor on a troublesome lawn mower.

&uot;If I had the right tools, I’d strip down that lawn mower motor and try to find out what messed it up,&uot; he said.

Melvin Gaylor, a friend across Oakland Drive from Evans family, has worked with Evans to restore an Oldsmobile at Gaylor’s house.

&uot;We don’t have a workshop,&uot; Evans said. &uot;We just work in his yard.&uot;

&uot;There’s a future mechanic on Oakland Drive,&uot; said Barbara Winston, one of Evans’ teachers at Morgantown Elementary. &uot;Mike insists he’s destined to be a ‘top notch’ mechanic, because he’s already good at it.&uot;

&uot;He does have a gift,&uot; she said.

Evans is nonplussed. His skill under the hood of a car comes from his basic curiosity about how things work.

&uot;I like to take things apart to see how they work and then put them back together again,&uot; Evans said.

In his family of six, he said he’s the only one mechanically inclined.

&uot;My parents hope that I’ll be able to make my living from it,&uot; he said.

Right now, mechanics is just Evans’ top hobby.

&uot;I used to work with radios,&uot; he said, adding that his room was filled with large speakers and electronic systems. He’s since moved all that out of his room.

Now he concentrates his time and energy on gas-fueled engines, auto body work doesn’t impress him.

&uot;I really would like to work on fuel-injected systems,&uot; he said with a smile. &uot;I work around my aunt’s car every once in a while.&uot;