Starter Tools

[Gregory Sammartino]

Hey everyone,

I am recently retired and wanted to teach myself ( and get a hobby) to work on cars. I bought a 1994 Civic as a project and wanted a suggestion on starter tools. I have a budget of about $100 to work with and could use some direction instead of running to Wal-Mart and just grabbing what they have.

Topic

[dan]

I have moved this to tool talk and i can give you some input.

As always a good set of 1/2 3/8 and 1/4 inch drive sockets and wratchets of both metric and standard kind are a necessity, and good tools can go a long way in this reguard.

Wrenches open and boxed end as well as line wrenches of good quality and different lengths and fitnesses for more leverage or more room are a must.

a good jack with good solid stands and wheel chucks is a good idea.

torque wrenches, inch pounds and foot pounds.

pliers, needle nose, lock jaw, side cutters, adjustable jaw, you name it… they are your best friend.

oil filter wrenches.

screw drivers of assorted kinds, sizes and lengths,

pry bars of different kinds for more room or more leverage.

breaker bars for that pesky bolt that won’t come loose and a good set of impact sockets to go with it, never use standard sockets with a breaker bar unless you want busted knuckles and broken sockets.

a scan tool for reading codes.

then you have some of your misclilanious such as scrapers, sand papers of different grits, carb and break cleaner, WD 40 or RTV or liquid wrench sprays to break loose rusty bolts.

a good drill that you can drill out any broken bolts with a good center punch to punch a center punch to keep that drill bit centered

a good set of hammers can save the day, rubber mallet, dead blow, and good old ball pean

If you have access to compressed air…

Impact wrenches with sockets

Blow guns

If you aren’t afraid of playing with fire and have common sense enough not to burn down your house

Propane torch

a nice big torch

a welder

A FIRE EXTIGUISHER

wet rags

Hope this helps, this is just some of my input.

[Gregory Sammartino]

Thanks for responding fast and thanks for the list of items, it will go a long way to giving me a mile marker of where I need to be.

[James O’Hara]

13aceofspades13 Pretty much gave you a generic setup very accurate though.

My suggestion to you as a DIY is read through this post skip the stuff that does not apply to you unless you just want to learn it anyway: So you want/are going to be a mechanic/technician and watch the videos it will answer a fair number of your questions and give you a lot of important info especially the videos. I wouldn’t necessarily watch my work tools videos though. Also anything Craftsman if it does not say made in the USA stay away from it. Their largest screwdriver set was as of a couple months ago its what i use at work and what i use at home and recommend to DIY guys. I will be upgrading some of mine at work just for extremely rusty fasteners.

[Sam Roodman]

If you’re on a budget also check pawn shops and cl for closing business. The civic is going to be mostly metric but if you progress to other cars or small engines then the sae will be your friend. If you have harbor freight try and get their pro tools. Still crummy but better to start with until you graduate to extra money 🙂

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[David]

With a limited budget, I would strongly recommended looking for used tools – craigslist (as suggested above) and ebay are good sources – while you don’t need professional quality like snap-on, you do want a good set – junk tools make everything more difficult.

I’d start with the basics (metric box wrenches and sockets (standard and deep, along with some extensions), pliers (regular, needle nose, offset, etc.), and stuff like that (a flexible grabbing tool and a magnet on an extendable wand are really nice to have when you drop stuff) – a good light is extremely helpful, as is a mirror on an extendable wand (for looking at hard to reach things) and a metal bowl with a magnet in it (to hold bolts, etc). You’ll also want a good jack (a floor jack) and jack stands, if you are ever going to get under the car.

Beyond that, I’d just amass tools as you need them. A code reader is good to have, though those can get very expensive, too (depending on what it can do) – basic units are really inexpensive.

[Bernadette Nabulneg]

For starters (like myself), I highly recommend buying minor tools first and getting to know their uses before jumping to the big ones.
Wrenches, rackets, screwdrivers, pliers, the likes.

[Dave]

Your budget is very limited so I would suggest metric wrenches 8 to 24mm
1/4 drive metric shallow. 3/8 drive metric deep and shallow, 1/2 drive metric shallow, some 1/2 drive deep impact set or select sizes you need.
a 1/2 drive johnson bar.
A couple Of ball peen hammers a long chisel a few punches, a couple of pry bars.
screw drivers. some long 3/8 drive and 1/4 drive extensions and swivels.
a needle nose pliers a side cutters a big channel lock and a small channel lock pliers.
Look for craftsmen tools on sale, husky, cobalt etc are ok. Wallmart once had Stanley tools if that is what they still have that would be ok.
Look for used at pawn shops, yard sales or at flea market liquidation items.

[Author]

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