Tool Time - A Guide to useful tools and heavy equipment

If you're serious aboiut working on your car, truck or motorcycle, you need the right tools. Whether it's basic maintenance or a complete restoration, a job isn't even worth starting without proper equipment. Start your tool room with sockets, ratchets and wrenches. Domestic cars use SAE thread sizes; most imports require metric, and older British models use British Whitworth (BSW). Always buy the best you can afford. Cheap tools will irreparably damage bolts, and you can be sure they'll break at inconvenient times. Sears Craftsman, Stanley, Snap-On and S-K Tools (now manufactured by Ideal Industries), are four recommended brands. Harbor Freight is a reliable discount source.
Ensure you're getting American-made components. Sadly, the market is filled with substandard imports, mostly from Asia. They look fine at first glance, but they are often poorly made. Popular socket drives are 1/4-in, 3/8-in and 1/2-in. Buy a set for each drive with a range of socket sizes, including a cushioned socket for spark plugs. Be sure to add a few adaptors and extensions. Boxed and open-ended wrenches are essential, too. Companies like Gearwrench offer designs with a built-in ratchet feature. Buy a sturdy torque wrench, as well. Whether you're installing a cylinder head or just tightening lug nuts, matching the correct torque rating is imperative. Quality screwdrivers, Allen wrenches in SAE and metric sizes, pliers in a range of types, and the all-impoirtant Visegrips will round out your tool collection.

Assuming you've got at least a 10 1/2-foot ceiling (11 - to 12-foot is better), a home garage lift may well be the most useful tool investment you'll make. A two- or four post lift takes the difficulty and possible danger out of working under your car. The adjustable height allows you to change oil, grease the chassis and perform many maintenance chores, not to mention basic troubleshooting. Raise it to mid-range and you've got the perfect height for cleaning and detailing.  You must have a crack-free concrete base of at least four to five inches, and 20 feet of garage depth. Buy an accessory jack from your lift supplier and you can do brake jobs, suspension work, exhaust-system repairs and more. A service/storage lift lets you store two cars in the space of one. Lifts are best utilized with 220-volt AC power, but 110 volts will work --just more slowly. I've had a Backyard Buddy for 12 years and wonder what I ever did without it. Reliable lift manufacturers include Backyard Buddy, Bendpak, Direct-Lift, Dannmar, Superlifts, Mid-America Auto Lifts and Eagle Equipment. Prices range from around $2,000 up to $10,000 for a professional, in-ground hydraulic unit.

You'll definitely want an air compressor. This useful device can fill your tires, supply air to tools like die grinders and pneumatic saws, and provide high-pressure air for painting, cleaning parts and powering an impact wrench, orbital sander or  a media-blasting cabinet. They come in many sizes, through most air tools require at least 90 psi. I have a Craftsman 150-psi/6-hp/33-gallon model mounted on wheels, so it can be moved easily around the garage. Stationary units that supply air through permanently installed copper or galvanized steel hard lines are available from many manufacturers, including Craftsman, DeWalt, Summit Equipment, Ingersoll Rand, Campbell Hausfeld, Puma and Chicago Pneumatic.

With your air compressor, you'll want an abrasive blast cabinet. TP Tools and Equipment is the best manufacturer, and they also carry a full line of tools, paint systems, spray guns, compressors and air tools. TP blast cabinets come in many sizes, up to eight feet wide, so you can remove rust and scale, effectively cleaning and stripping large parts. Most units come with built-in vacuums; TP blast cabinets require 80 psi compressed air capability.

A sturdy bench grinder, with at least two different-sized abrasive grinding wheels, is useful for grinding, polishing, filing sharp edges on tools and many other tasks. Some units are mounted on pedestals for maximum flexibility; smaller grinders can be attached to a workbench. Be sure the abrasive wheels have a flexible shield attached to deflect any wayward particles.

That's  a quick review of the basic tools you'll want to consider. Comprehensive manufacturer web-sites, listed here, make it easy to comparison shop. You'd be surprised what you can accomplish when you have the right tools and equipment.