OUTFITTING YOUR AUTOMOTIVE WORKSHOP

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Hand Tools

All country households have a junk drawer holding (amid the odd rubber bands, tacks, chewing gum wrappers and outdated store coupons) an odd assortment of pliers, screwdrivers and wrenches. Inherited with the house or bought to install curtain rods and repair leaky water pipes, they seldom have precision-shaped, hardened-steel jaws or bits suitable for serious automotive work. Cheap, wrong-sized or ill-shaped tools will only frustrate you, and can damage the work.

Here is my suggested list of hand tools you really need, some you should have but can live without and some that are luxuries but worth it if you have a few spare dollars. Unless otherwise indicated, get the absolute best quality you can find. Nothing is as sweet as applying the right tool to a job and having it work. Nothing is more frustrating than having a sloppily made wrench or socket slip off a bolt so you bruise your knuckles, or bruise the head of a nut so you can never again get a good purchase on it.

You must have tools to fit both inch measure and metric fittings. The world is slowly adopting the universal metric system, but so long as there are fine old American and English-made vehicles in service, we'll need tools and fasteners in inch-measure approved by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE).

An all-American/Canadian car should be all-ASAE, a Japanese vehicle all-metric... in theory. But, in today's global economy vehicles are assembled from major components made all over the globe, which in turn may have sub-components made who knows where. A General Motors truck assembled in Canada can have an engine assembled in Malaysia Out of U.S. and Japanese components so you'll have an SAE-made alternator attached with metric fasteners, an SAE carburetor fastened to the intake manifold with metric bolts ...and you need tools and fasteners to fit them all.

Wrenches: In time you'll want a full set of combination wrenches-the kind with an open-front/four-sided crescent jaw at one end and a closed 12-point box at the other in SAE sizes from V," to I 1/2" or 2" in Y,,,inch increments and metrics in sizes from 4mm to 20mm. You'll probably obtain these in several increments as needed: a set of mid-sizes to start, angled "ignition wrenches" for the small sizes, and a set of "tractor wrenches" for the big ones. Accumulate odd and off-sizes as the need arises.

To start, get a basic nine-piece SAE set in 1/4, 5/16, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 9/16, 5/8, 11/16, 3/4 inches ...or an 11-piece set that adds the expensive 7/8 and 1-inch sizes. Metrics come in comparable sets: 10mm to 19mm to start. I find a set of thin wrenches invaluable for getting into tight spots-get them in as many sizes as you can find. Wrenches in 1/64 " increments, with odd-angle heads, or crescents, or closed-sockets at both ends are nice to have, but unessential for home mechanics. Good-quality 16- or 18-piece sets run about a dollar a wrench. S-K, the premium U.S.-made professional-quality brand sold by auto supply outlets, and Snap-On tools sold from trucks that call at local shops cost more and, arguably, are worth it.

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