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.
Going against the spirit of the post and recommending nothing.
Start your project. Hit the store for what you need. Rinse and repeat.
Once you get a feel for what’s useful to you, keep your eye out at the flea market, garage sales, whatever.
This is how to properly build up a tool set.
Dropping thousands on tools you might need js silly.
Buy the cheap version first. Its very easy to end up with a pile of unused tools that you thought would change your life, but you only used them once or twice
Once the tool gets worn out/broken or you find the tool can’t do everything you need it to do, then it is time to look into something nicer.
Yarp. Same advice many give for kitchen tools. Buy a cheap assortment set of everything for $20. (You get the point). Then when you break the can opener splurge on a heavy duty 1. 5 years later you’ll find out half of the original cheap shit is still there, as you learned of another tool you preferred or simply never use some. Instead of paying $15 per good utensile and having a $150 up front cost, you get up and going for $20. And likely by the time you break 8 tools, you will know more about what you want/use.
I am starting to get that. I had to borrow a few things last time so I have an idea of what I need, but no need getting other things until they are in use.