Tools you wish you'd bought sooner....

[stretch]

Gotta be the Ikea clip on light for welding. Clip it right next to your panel.
https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/naevlinge- ... -20449881/

[Nashman]

Battery powered rattle gun.... unbelievable for those rusted suspension bolts....saves hours. Mine shares batteries with my other kit so was not that expensive. Gets stuff undone that would otherwise defeat or shear....

[inaglasshouse]

Already mentioned: Impact gun (size big f-off).

Less conventionally, I offer for your consideration... the Winbag



https://winbag.eu

Very useful for gapping of bolt-on panels.
Also handy if you are a dimwit and manage to mess up the luggage compartment latch adjustment so badly that it won't open when you pull the cable...

[Winston Teague]

And this little chap

Sent from my G8441 using Tapatalk

[cubist]

Ditto Winston. My teeny Tengs have been cracking value and seemingly inburstable under the heaviest of hammer blows.

[Nine One One]

Couple of these tools mentioned up on Lidl at the moment


https://www.lidl.co.uk/en/p/car-essenti ... era/p29574

https://www.lidl.co.uk/en/p/diy/parksid ... set/p29556

[David Rooke]

Scissor Lift - provides motivation to get on with stuff due to ease of listing car + safety
Milwaukee M18FHIWF12 1/2" impact driver - have not yet found a nut / bolt that cannot be shifted with this
Ratchet spanners...

David.

[mycar]

Knipex 86 03 180. Nicely engineered grips, also available in a larger 250 version for bigger hands/nuts.

[dragonfly]

Knipex 86 03 180. Nicely engineered grips, also available in a larger 250 version for bigger hands/nuts.

When I saw this thread, that was the first tool I thought of. Brilliant thing and well made

[Bruce M]

Not fully tested this one on various applications but it seems to be effective with one small reservation...

I don’t enjoy high torque fasteners & ending up with high loads on a car/engine on a stand. I read on DDK a post from Mike@PRS some time ago, that a 4:1 torque multiplier is a useful tool. However these tend to cost a lot from a good tool brand. There are similar cheap tools but they have very high gearing for undoing lorry wheel nuts so are not useful for precise torque settings.

However recently a “mini torque multiplier” has appeared on the market and one version has been picked by Laser Tools to add to their product line. These are geared to 3.4:1 so are useful for hub nuts and such like.

https://www.lasertools.co.uk/product/6948

Laser tools picked the version with a 3/8” input drive (1/2” output) but you can get a higher rated version with 1/2” input. The Laser version can be bought direct from China (ebay) for circa £50. I bought the higher spec version from eBay, direct.

The counter torque arm is the weak spot in the tool. The main body seems well made and hefty (weighs 0.75kg) but the arm is too thin so isn’t a precise fit on the tool and tips slightly. The hex is 46mm so I will possibly use a ring spanner instead.

Due to the shape of the counter arm, I needed a pry bar as the arm didn’t catch anything. However it was very easy to use and enabled the hub nut to be taken to full torque without any stress or worry. I also didn’t need to use the hydraulic brakes to lock the wheel as the handbrake/ pry bar was enough. No worries about the car tipping off the axle stand while pulling on 2m scaffold pole. At 1:3.4 gearing I was pulling less torque than I use on a regular wheel nut.

Hopefully this will also see service doing pulley bolts and other high torque fasteners.

[mycar]

A battery powered tyre inflator that uses the battery from my cordless drill. There's a digital readout, you can preset the pressure then pull the trigger and you're done.

[deano]

Ooo, great thread:

Black & Decker power file for those hard to reach spots (copied BarryC)
CJ Autos mobile axle stands (go to 50 cm high)
Argon refill - I ran out just before lockdown.... doh!

[Ollie]

A stubby spanner set;



And a decent pair of terminal crimps.

[Green912]

Scissor Lift - It has to be the one item that I could do with.
Does anyone have any recommendations or is using one at present?

[hot66]

Scissor Lift - It has to be the one item that I could do with.
Does anyone have any recommendations or is using one at present?

Ive just got one ( literally yesterday) . Did a lot of research and the one that suited me the best was a strongman Clifton

https://strongmanlifts.co.uk/product/clifton/

I’ll let you know more once I’ve got a bit of experience with it