A question of tools... (of the hand variety)

[HARDCORE]

I'm in the strange and very unfortunate position of suddenly having no hand tools pretty much none whatsoever! (No, I haven't been robbed, thank fook..)

Sound ridiculous? I'll explain - for many years I've shared a yard & garage with my younger Bro. We have similar vehicular interests (he has a 2.8i Capri & a Mk1 Fez) and have spent many a sunny weekend there modifying any iota of practicality out of cool old cars Neither of us live there (although it is close to our parents) and we both have garages / car storage elsewhere but all 'car work' has been done there for longer than I can remember. Friends & family regularly turn up to work on their cars there too (or to have me fix them). We also drink beer there. And eat food. And store piles of parts we'll never need.

The tool situation has always been fairly simple - anything is fair game. Even if the other party isn't there all tools were shared. We've always had the up-most respect for each others stuff so that has never been an issue.
Here's where it gets tricky: I've always bought all the 'big expensive stuff'. By this I mean the welder, compressor, all the air tools, power tools, jacks, engine crane, etc.. are all mine. My Bro's contribution was a big red tool cabinet with a myriad of ratchets, sockets, spanners, wrenches, drivers, blah blah blah..

Getting to our workshop last weekend intending to crack on with the car only to find there were no hand tools there was a nasty surprise indeed! A quick call to the Bro revealed that he had moved all his tools to his house and will be working on his cars there from now on (he moved house fairly recently and has his own (tiny) garage there now).

So I now (pretty much) don't have any hand tools here's the question: what should I buy? I've not got an absolute fortune to spend but am not prepared to use mis-matched, mickey-mouse tools. Working on old cars can be quite frustrating enough without having to contend with sh1te tools!
What would you / have you bought? What can you recommend? What sellers / manufacturers should I absolutely avoid? What tools are worth spending the extra on quality and in what areas can I skimp? Any useful (or humorous) input much appreciated!

(A quick note in case anyone that knows us both is reading this: we haven't fallen out, no arguments whatsoever, deciding he wanted his tools at his home hasn't been prompted by anything I've done. Where he keeps his tools is up to him, they're his tools. Things change, I'll get over it *sob*)

10 points for guessing what'll happen next time he needs something welding, or an engine pulling out...

Anyway, the offending workshop / lockup / car lot / spares dumping ground:


(from L>R: Bro's, the neighbors, mine, mine, mine)

Thanks in advance for your input / experiences / advice ;D

HC.

[PandaSelecta]

First thing I would do is pop out to halfords and get the £100 tool set that is on offer. That should keep you going with ratchets, spanners, and sockets. Plus its got the famous lifetime guarantee

www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_173083_langId_-1_categoryId_165572

Secondly, there is a box set of screwdrivers currently on offer for £15 which has a nice selection, and again has that lifetime guarantee

[pauldaf44]

Halfords there tools are suprisingly good and keenly priced. If you know anyone with a trade card get them to buy as they get a substanial discount of ticket price. An example

Vauxhall astra rear wiper
Ticket price £7.50 ish
Trade price £2.79

[JohnnySomersett]

Halford Professional all the way. Get the big set and you're halfway there.

Get down a plumbers merchant and pick up anything made by Bacho that you need - screwdrivers are ace, hacksaws are tough.

Then get down a car boot or two and see what bargains you can grab... normally old-skool, hard as nails tools

[naffa]

Halfords Pro range. I just bought one of their 1/2" drive ratchets and its superb + it has a lifetime warranty.
BN these are much cheaper on Ebay unless you've got a trade card.

Nath

[alexg]

Another vote for Halfords Pro range. Cheep but good quality. Oh, and your Grandad is looking awesome.....

[CIH]

signet, sykes pickavant, mack etc. buy the cheapest impact sockets you can find as they don't really matter either way.

[fastdub]

yeah always bought halford pro stuff. lifetime warranty on them

[Rich606]

The only thing that isn't covered by the lifetime guarantee on the Halfords Pro stuff is the mechanism in the ratchets, but they stock replacements for about a fiver IIRC.

_{(Everytime there's a thread about tools, Halfords Pro comes up and this has to be mentioned. Thought I'd take my turn this time )}

Oh, and every so often Halfords give away a free set of Pro screwdrivers with 5l of oil, so look out for that too. You can never have too many screwdrivers.

[stevek]

I've been happy with my halfords pro set. Was £150 when I bought it in 2003 but I don't feel robbed at all its been great and at £100 its a bargain. I've not had to test the warranty as nothing has broken and I've tried reasonably hard.


Edit to add that a long 1/2 inch drive breaker bar is one of the first things I bought, useful. (I got a machine mart 600mm one and its been good too)

[eightsix]

I use Clarke Pro - lifetime gurantee, well made, better range and cheaper than Halfords, the big plus is you can buy what you want - rather than a set where 50% of it is usless imperial sockets and spanners.

I have been rebuilding my tool set for a year or too using the clarke stuff and I am very impressed with the quality of everything - thats spanners, jacks, ratchet spanners, sockets etc the lot.

[RobinJI]

As said, Grab one of the Halfords 'Advanced' (used to be called 'profesional') socket sets. They really are spot on.

As people have mentioned, the ratchet internals aren't covered by warranty. I've not had a problem with mine, a couple of mates have stripped them, but always through miss use. Speaking of which, it's worth grabbing a 1/2" and 3/8" breaker bar at some point too. So as to avoid the temptation to miss use the ratchets your self.

A decent allen key set's always useful, the halfords set comes with a small set of them, but they're a bit short to get any decent torque though. I use a 'Park Tool' multitool, for anything up to 6mm, which you can get from the bikehut section of halfords, and are about £8. Simply the best allen key set I've ever used, and as a push bike mechanic, I've destroyed a hell of a lot of them in my time. The park tool one absolutely urinates all over the snap on stuff at college, and it's much more compact too. Although it's no longer than the individual ones that come with the socket set, you can get a lot more torque through the chunkier handle, much more than you'd expect.

It's also worth getting one of those 10mm hex drive bit set things, the ones that are always in a blue box, and have all the larger allen keys, torx and star drive bits in them, and you'll need them sooner or later. Not sure what to recomend on them, but they all seem to be similar from what I've seen, I've got a lazer set that seems to do the job just fine.

[elmotheewokking]

Apr 23, 2010 20:43:09 GMT eightsix said:

I use Clarke Pro - lifetime gurantee, well made, better range and cheaper than Halfords, the big plus is you can buy what you want - rather than a set where 50% of it is usless imperial sockets and spanners.

I have been rebuilding my tool set for a year or too using the clarke stuff and I am very impressed with the quality of everything - thats spanners, jacks, ratchet spanners, sockets etc the lot.

Useless imperial? Teehee.

I've got a clarke full tool chest, most of the stuff is ok. But there's not a lot in there.

[dubwarrior2]

Not wanting to sound like a copy cat, but alsorecommend Halfords.

When I got my first beetle at 17 I used to buy a new tool every week and now have almost all their stuf.
My particular fave is the 3/8 drive long reach sockets.

Have given my 3/8 and 1/2 ratchet some serious abuse over the last 16 years when I should have used a breaker bar and they have taken it all in their stride (apart from losing one litle screw).

Also get yourself a trade card for Halfords.

IMPORTANT - don't listen to the people who tell you that you have to be trade or provide some sort of fake trade ID. Its rubbish.
Just go in, explain to the manager that you do a lot of work on cars and have a lot of money to spend on car products and tools and they will throw a card at you.
Like most people they appreciate honesty.

[maladroit]

I too am leaping aboard the Halfords bandwagon, bought the £100 socket set based on recommendations from others here and it's proved its worth repeatedly in the 3 weeks I've owned it (even down to using the larger sockets as improvised drifts to seat the rear wheel bearings on my Jetta ).

Money well spent

[pauldaf44]

Halfords pro sets are very good especially if like me you lose screwdrivers and sockets for wales. Probably worth investing in a chest if you don't want to be like me and constantly losing your hand tools (leaving them in Norfolk / bristol / essex or anywhere else I may have used them)

[RobinJI]

Apr 23, 2010 20:52:21 GMT dubwarrior2 said:

IMPORTANT - don't listen to the people who tell you that you have to be trade or provide some sort of fake trade ID. Its rubbish.
Just go in, explain to the manager that you do a lot of work on cars and have a lot of money to spend on car products and tools and they will throw a card at you.
Like most people they appreciate honesty.

This man speaks the truth, although it does depend of the manager.

You can also get one by simply having a qualification in the trade. Or even just being enrolled on a relevant course. It doesn't matter if you're actually using that qualification in the slightest.

[pauldaf44]

Apr 23, 2010 20:59:21 GMT RobinJI said:

Apr 23, 2010 20:52:21 GMT dubwarrior2 said:

IMPORTANT - don't listen to the people who tell you that you have to be trade or provide some sort of fake trade ID. Its rubbish.
Just go in, explain to the manager that you do a lot of work on cars and have a lot of money to spend on car products and tools and they will throw a card at you.
Like most people they appreciate honesty.

This man speaks the truth, although it does depend of the manager.

You can also get one by simply having a qualification in the trade. Or even just being enrolled on a relevant course. It doesn't matter if you're actually using that qualification in the slightest.

Would my course

Beng Automotive Engineering qualify me for a trade card then?

[dubwarrior2]

It should do.

I just went in one day and said

"Look, I'm not going to lie to you. I am not in the trade and I'm not going to show you fake headed paper. I have a VW splitty that I'm restoring and a budget of about 6 grand to spend on materials.
Please can I have a trade card"

Within 5 minutes, I had one.

And its been a godsend for some service stuff. It doesnt cover everything but it does cover the useful stuff.

[RobinJI]

Apr 23, 2010 21:06:31 GMT @pauldaf44 said:

Would my course

Beng Automotive Engineering qualify me for a trade card then?

Yep, most of my motorsport engineering course have got them, and all my mates studying automotive engineering have too.