I've been working on cars for about 7 years now and have slowly built up my garage.
I now have a hoist, big tool box, big air compressor, etc...but there is always something more and I tell people you always go back to the very simple things.
I've helped a few people get started on working on their cars and they always look at the stack of tools and think its too much to invest in.
The big investment isn't in getting the tools to do the work, its in getting the one special socket to do one job...that just happens to be in a big set and you figure well I'll just buy the whole set
I figured this might be a good sticky of the things that are absolute must haves to save yourself time and trouble.
Most of the times they are not the big dollar items, but the cheap simple stuff that make life way easier.
On my list:
2 24" breaker bars...why 2 because when you buy one and wonder when you'll need 2, you'll need two.
2 6' sections of steel pipe to fit over breaker bars
2 3' sections of steel pipe to fit over breaker bars/wrenches
Pry bars, always need a pry bar
Lights...good lighting beats all else. Lighting makes the worlds most difficult job easy. You want blinding light you can shine into area's. I have an assortment of lights including the great $3.99 Home Depot 9 LED flashlight. Its tiny, very bright and cheap enough you don't care of you glue/tap stuff to it. I have a few of them, some with magnets glued on for placing exactly where I need it.
Cheaply Chinese wrenches...good for bending and cutting to make custom tools. A local place sells them from .99 to 2.99 upto 19mm. Yes they are junk and I doubt they would last. I'd never use them everyday but great for torching and cutting to make speciality tools. When you look at a bolt and think that it would be so much easier if the wrench was bent...well here you don't have to cut up and bend your pricier stuff. I have a few spares of each on hand.
If your doing automotive work, especially suspension get a few of the cheap Harbor Freight bottle jacks. They go from 12.99 to 19.99. Again I don't know if I'd lift a car with them but they are great for an extra set of hands. Doing suspension work on the ground is made much easier when you can place a bottle jack under something, especially something under tension and move it up and down easily.
15' ft of single strand coated electrical wire. Its like .40 a foot at Home Depot. Get some 14 gauge single strand. Its very stiff and coated. Great for tying things out of the way. You never want bushings, brake lines, etc to sit stressed when parts are hanging, great for tying stuff up. I keep a drawer full of it and you can cut it up and re-use it. Good for holding about 30lbs, more than enough in most cases.
Fatigue mats if your standing much. Not really something everyone has the need for but after spending more time standing working on the car rather than sitting or bending over they would be very helpfu.
Everytime I do a big job I keep adding to this list. I just did my clutch in our Audi A6 Quattro...thats when I realized I needed 2 6' steel pipes, not 1, and 2 breaker bars, not 1. When I put poly bushings in all the suspension components in my Corvette last summer I picked up several bottle jacks that made moving everything into place a one person job. I cut apart and bent a bunch of wrenches to take the exhaust off the turbo's on the Audi.
It would have been the difference between sweating and swearing and getting the job done easily.
I use those tools, especially for suspension work, more than anything.
I'd be interested to hear others suggestions. Tips and tricks always help. A good one I learned today was my fly wheel needed to be torqued and then + 180 degree's. Well no room to swing a big pipe 180, or even 90...yes I could do 45 and how do I know where its at when you can't make a sweep from 12 to 3, 3 to 6, etc.
I put a small wratchet on one of the bolts which I could swing 180 degree's. I knew I had at least of 45 degree's between the subframe. I put it at 12 o clock, then moved the wratchet in its reverse direction to 3 o clock. I counted the clicks it made. then I put the wratchet down at an angle where my breaker would fit and counted it 10 clicks. Made a mark on the subframe and then knew if I took my breaker and went from the edge of the subframe to that mark that was 45 degree's.
Thats when I realized, somewhere after the 20th time moving the breaker bar that another 6' pipe would be pretty nice. 8 bolts, 45 degree's at a time x 4.
Any other suggestions?
I now have a hoist, big tool box, big air compressor, etc...but there is always something more and I tell people you always go back to the very simple things.
I've helped a few people get started on working on their cars and they always look at the stack of tools and think its too much to invest in.
The big investment isn't in getting the tools to do the work, its in getting the one special socket to do one job...that just happens to be in a big set and you figure well I'll just buy the whole set
I figured this might be a good sticky of the things that are absolute must haves to save yourself time and trouble.
Most of the times they are not the big dollar items, but the cheap simple stuff that make life way easier.
On my list:
2 24" breaker bars...why 2 because when you buy one and wonder when you'll need 2, you'll need two.
2 6' sections of steel pipe to fit over breaker bars
2 3' sections of steel pipe to fit over breaker bars/wrenches
Pry bars, always need a pry bar
Lights...good lighting beats all else. Lighting makes the worlds most difficult job easy. You want blinding light you can shine into area's. I have an assortment of lights including the great $3.99 Home Depot 9 LED flashlight. Its tiny, very bright and cheap enough you don't care of you glue/tap stuff to it. I have a few of them, some with magnets glued on for placing exactly where I need it.
Cheaply Chinese wrenches...good for bending and cutting to make custom tools. A local place sells them from .99 to 2.99 upto 19mm. Yes they are junk and I doubt they would last. I'd never use them everyday but great for torching and cutting to make speciality tools. When you look at a bolt and think that it would be so much easier if the wrench was bent...well here you don't have to cut up and bend your pricier stuff. I have a few spares of each on hand.
If your doing automotive work, especially suspension get a few of the cheap Harbor Freight bottle jacks. They go from 12.99 to 19.99. Again I don't know if I'd lift a car with them but they are great for an extra set of hands. Doing suspension work on the ground is made much easier when you can place a bottle jack under something, especially something under tension and move it up and down easily.
15' ft of single strand coated electrical wire. Its like .40 a foot at Home Depot. Get some 14 gauge single strand. Its very stiff and coated. Great for tying things out of the way. You never want bushings, brake lines, etc to sit stressed when parts are hanging, great for tying stuff up. I keep a drawer full of it and you can cut it up and re-use it. Good for holding about 30lbs, more than enough in most cases.
Fatigue mats if your standing much. Not really something everyone has the need for but after spending more time standing working on the car rather than sitting or bending over they would be very helpfu.
Everytime I do a big job I keep adding to this list. I just did my clutch in our Audi A6 Quattro...thats when I realized I needed 2 6' steel pipes, not 1, and 2 breaker bars, not 1. When I put poly bushings in all the suspension components in my Corvette last summer I picked up several bottle jacks that made moving everything into place a one person job. I cut apart and bent a bunch of wrenches to take the exhaust off the turbo's on the Audi.
It would have been the difference between sweating and swearing and getting the job done easily.
I use those tools, especially for suspension work, more than anything.
I'd be interested to hear others suggestions. Tips and tricks always help. A good one I learned today was my fly wheel needed to be torqued and then + 180 degree's. Well no room to swing a big pipe 180, or even 90...yes I could do 45 and how do I know where its at when you can't make a sweep from 12 to 3, 3 to 6, etc.
I put a small wratchet on one of the bolts which I could swing 180 degree's. I knew I had at least of 45 degree's between the subframe. I put it at 12 o clock, then moved the wratchet in its reverse direction to 3 o clock. I counted the clicks it made. then I put the wratchet down at an angle where my breaker would fit and counted it 10 clicks. Made a mark on the subframe and then knew if I took my breaker and went from the edge of the subframe to that mark that was 45 degree's.
Thats when I realized, somewhere after the 20th time moving the breaker bar that another 6' pipe would be pretty nice. 8 bolts, 45 degree's at a time x 4.
Any other suggestions?
Last edited:
