Yeh, I've always taken the term 'grease monkey' as the mechanic equivalent to 'hacker', and not bad at all. IIRC it was popularised during WW2 where guys with a

Yeh, I've always taken the term 'grease monkey' as the mechanic equivalent to 'hacker', and not bad at all. IIRC it was popularised during WW2 where guys with a mechanical knack would hack together repairs to their vehicles out of spare parts. Those guys were the grease monkeys and were well-respected for keeping the mechanised fleet operating when everything was going to hell.