I took my wife’s car into the dealership for a warranty a few weeks ago and while they were checking stuff, they said the car needed 1300 dollars of work (piston soak and replace some transmission parts). I ended up doing the soak with my grandpa and took it to a shop for the transmission (wasnt even an issue, just a rivot replacement on a wheel well cover) and ended up saving 700 dollars after accounting for tools, jacks, jack stands, etc.
I want to start working on my own cars for things that can be done easily without expensive specialized tools, and I might be buying a house in the next year. I just want to start getting a decent collection of tools to hopefully save money in the long run.
I currently have a huge range of screwdrivers, soldering equipment, plyer set, socket set, file set, wire cutters and a small tool kit with some misc stuff.
I am mainly looking towards a torque wrench and a good spanner/wrench set, but looking for suggestions on what to get. Holding off on power tools until I wrap my head around brands and batteries.
I have one of those harbor freight Daytona 3 ton low profile ones that I really like. Also let me introduce you to the Project Farm channel on YouTube, he does non-biased scientifically fair comparisons of lots of different kinds of tools including jacks and jack stands.
Late response now that I have some more money to work with but thanks! Tbh most of my tools are harbor freight and I don’t think I need anything else for my usecase. Grandpa bought a dewalt set as he’s tearing his deck down to build a pavilion. He told me to stop buying stuff and handed me a 70s craftsman tool box filled with most stuff I need and said to just use his power tools
If we’re talking hand tools, those 70s tools will be the best you ever use. In my experience the whole “they don’t make em like they used to” thing very much applies to tools. Nothing wrong with harbor freight tools though as long as you have realistic expectations. If nothing else, they are a good “trial run” to see how much you actually use it and if it’s worth getting an actually nice one.
Glad I’m not the only one repping Harbor Freight in this thread lol
Harbor freight has some diamonds in the rough, just gotta be careful of what you get there. Some stuff is great, some is crap.
Most simple tools, I’d always recommend HF (hand tools, basic power tools, etc). If it doesn’t have electricity, I’ve never had an issue with their tools. They’ve also made aggressive upmarket shifts lately (past 5 years), which has introduced some higher end lines that seem pretty well made from what I’ve heard.
Harbor Freight happens to have some good shit, that does not mean most of Harbor Freight’s shit isn’t garbage.