6 Underrated DIY Tools
There’s grease on your elbow. It stands as proof you’re literally elbow deep in your project car, and it’s at this point that you realize all your favorite tools are still in the toolbox. Instead, the floor and fender wells hold a wide variety of the tools you actually use, not just the ones you enjoy using.
It’s these tools that get the job done. They may not be flashy, pricey, or have a good story, but these are the chunks of steel and plastic that make our lives easier. They’re the unsung heroes of the toolbox, or at least some of the under-appreciated mainstays.
Ratcheting wrenches
The open end wrench is an indispensable staple of working with most types of threaded fasteners. Sockets and ratchets make the work easier, but the slim profile and extremely durable nature make wrenches critical for some tasks. Wrenches are a necessity, but ask anyone that has been forced to spend 20 minutes removing a three-inch bolt an 1/8th of a turn at a time and it’s easy to see why ratcheting wrenches can be unsung heroes of both disassembly and assembly. Switchable ratcheting wrenches make life even easier and prevent that situation where you use a ratchet to back off a bolt only to pinch the wrench against another part and be left with an even more frustrating situation.
Center punch
Need to drill a hole? You’d likely reach for your drill and bits, but those with experience know to grab a center punch as well. A small dent in the center of your planned hole will help keep a drill bit from wandering off course. Upgrade to an automatic center punch and you’ll likely never look back, but even years after doing so myself, I still have multiple “regular” center punches that get frequent use.
Small pry bar
Need help aligning bolt holes or popping two corroded pieces apart? You don’t need tons of persuasion, but just a bit more than can be imparted with bare hands. That’s the time a small pry bar comes out. My personal favorite has this spud end that can be used to aid in alignment and easy holding of parts during assembly. Everyone benefits from a little extra leverage, and despite their lack of size, these little bars provide just that.
Little hammers
The big hammer gets all the love from just about anyone who has been forced to deal with the corrosion and otherwise stuck hardware and parts that come pre-installed on every project car. Big hammers impart big forces though, and while a skilled DIY’er knows how to swing a large hammer softly, there is a time and place for the little hammers too.
Big hammers sometimes just don’t fit the work area or put a little too much smack on relatively delicate parts. A “big” hit with a small hammer can put just enough shock into part to break things loose while also being perfectly sized to cut gaskets. Little hammers hide in most toolboxes.
Wire wheels
When talking about projects, what most gloss over is the amount of time spent with the project apart, cleaning and dressing each individual piece so that when everything goes back together it will fit correctly. Just a small amount of rust or corrosion can bind threads or prevent good fit of mated parts. A wire wheel makes quick work of removing surface scale and junk. While a bench grinder with a nice 8″ wire wheel is great, even simple cordless drill wire wheels can be enough to solve a lot of problems.
Picks
For how big our cars, trucks, and other project vehicles are, there are a shocking number of tiny parts. Little o-rings or orifices that even dainty digits can’t investigate or grasp are easily handled by a pick. While tempting to ask your dental hygienist to slip you some spares, ones from your favorite tool company are likely a better choice—the ones designed for dental work tend to be more fragile. Maybe I need that cleaning though…
Regardless, even a humble tool chest is filled with literally hundreds of tools, and some get all the praise while others sit patiently waiting to be the star of the day before disappearing into storage once again. Have a favorite underrated tool? Tell us about it in the comments below.
3 piece roller head pry bar set 6″, 12″, 16″ for $10 at Harbor Break
https://www.harborfreight.com/pry-bar-set-3-piece-68339.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=12169518939&campaignid=12169518939&utm_content=114845773617&adsetid=114845773617&product=68339&store=158&gad_source=1
Cotter pin removal tool. Never used it on a cotter pin, but have for everything else
Small rare earth magnets that can fit inside 1/4” drive sockets to hold bolts/screws. Especially effective when coupled with flex extension where alignment to hole is offset and space is limited preventing battle scared arthritic fingers from getting the fastener started
I agree these are really handy. When I was young I used bubble gum stuck in sockets – LOL. ( but it works).
One of the most useful tools in my shop is this stubby ball peen hammer, mine came from Harbor Freight. It will provide persuasion in tight spots where a normal sized hammer won’t go.
https://www.harborfreight.com/hand-tools/hammers-pry-bars/ball-peen-tack-hammers/8-oz-stubby-ball-pein-hammer-95930.html
Anybody mention a plastic hammer? Good tool when its needed
Mine’s double-headed – plastic on one end and hard rubber on the other – both slightly rounded. Nice for working a dent out of a hub-cap – and more.
The only tool that was forgotten was the red devil 4050 pry bar. If you learn to use this little jimmy bar it will be the number one tool in the box. If it needs to move it will move it. If you need to lift it it will lift it. If you need to scrap it it will scrap it. Hammer yup that too. Pull nails yes. They are like $8 on Amazon.
Mine is made by Richards, and it used to be red. I call it my red bar even though it only has a speck of red still on it. Use it all the time for a million different things. My kids say they are going to bury me with one.
Both, SAE & Metric adjustable wrenches. Different drawers so as not to confuse yourself.
And a metric screwdriver for those rare occasions
I have a full set and keep them in a different drawer to avoid using on SAE screws by mistake.
Save some money and buy just one fit-all wrench.
Would those work on whitworth or do I need to get one just for those?
#1 basic small headlamp with adjustable angle and a simple on off switch No multi-function colored flashing blinking Etc ever ready used to make one with a slide left for white and a slide right for red. For some reason they stopped making it. Indispensable for mechanical and electrical maintenance/repair. As a pilot it made walking a PreFlight in the dark without temporarily blinding yourself delaying departure. You always knew that the red was to the right. Also great if you needed to look around inside the plane during flight to locate charts backup handheld radios batteries spare glasses and anything else you absolutely need to get into your hands during flight.
#2 curved and straight hemostats. perfect for holding everything too small for your fingers.
#3 non petroleum based silicone grease. A dab on the fingertip will pick up any teeny tiny clip or part. Pre-lube threads before removal or installation to reduce galling or breakage.
#4 4″ Makita open shoe grinder with 1/16 in cutoff disc. With the shoe removed. Perfect for cutting through or weakening hoses pipes wire defective parts or cutting multi-layer hose with wire reinforcing by cutting the rubber watching the sparks from The Wire reinforcing stop as it’s cut through moving along to the next spiral until the sparks stop lean the hose and pull it right off. At the hose end I’m always replacing the clamps anyway so I just go right through them first. Practice controlling the depth past the depth of the Spiral wire will avoid cutting into a barb fitting below it. I then grab a razor knife and make a slice through the inner layer lean and pull or just kick it right off. I replace a lot of massive multi-layer Marine hose. Why struggle with junk that’s going to get thrown away anyway.
#5 flat chisel. I always keep a small and medium flat chisel to hammer a stretch line perpendicular to a threaded pipe hole in a part that is going to get thrown away anyway. Why struggle with a pipe fitting that in a lot of cases is custom that needs to be reused.
As a 40-year equipment and Marine servicer these are the top hand items aside from the standard pliers screwdriver diagonal side cutters. Things like end wrenches and sockets fall below all of these. I also have a tapered leaning pry bar that I carry in my bag that the author discusses and have found it to be extremely helpful aligning things by the holes particularly if they are heavy.
Wrench on dudes!
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Wrenches with thin/narrow heads instead of big fat heads, when working on smaller engines etc often found on old British sports cars, the big ones often don’t fit in the available space
BFH. Sometimes you need something heavy.
Got to have metric screwdrivers
Something I used a lot are Q Tips. When you got to get a bit of crud out of here or there just what you need. Also work well to clean out the groove on a paint can. Usually they ate too wide but I give them a smack with a hammer on the bench and they work perfect then
Spring hose clamp pliers. Yes, regular pliers can work, but they slip sometimes and do not lock the spring clamp open which makes it much easier to slide the clamp down the hose. Once you get a good pair you will never go back to battling clamps with regular pliers.
I notched one of my channel lock pliers just for this purpose.
Got a pair of these from my dad 40 years ago and had no idea what they were for until one day trying to get the hoses off my washing machine. Then the light came one. They sure do work better than any pliers.
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A propane (MAP even better if you can still find it) torch when a touch of heat will help.
I normally cannot recommend tools from the “Tool Truck” however it is worth every penny purchasing a GOOD set of screwdrivers. Defiantly helps on stubborn fasteners. When I help friends, and they give me a Philips that is rounded or a flat blade the is twisted I just shake my head. I have had my Snap-on set for 20 years and the work like they did new. Of course, never used them as a pry bar or a chisel.
Another tool is extensions 3/8″ and 1/4″ that have a build in wabble. They don’t have as much deflection as a universal but helps to keep the socket square on the fastener. The good ones will lock straight if the socket is pushed on all the way.
Another helpful type screwdriver I finally got after 40 years of fighting those metric type screws that look like a phillips, but aren’t, is the JIS screwdriver. Tool is for the made in Japan hardware, like Honda’s, etc. JIS is Japanese Industrial Standard. Ask for a JIS screwdriver at the hardware or tool stores, and you’ll get a blank look! Ever try backing out one of those metric phillips looking screws (with the “dot” on the head), and your phillips screwdriver keeps popping out, eventually rounding out the fastener? It’s because it is a slightly different angled head. Sometimes you can grind a standard phillips screwdriver’s end point a little flatter to get a better grip, but still not correct angles of the fluted machined pattern. The right JIS bit, and the fastener comes right out!
1/6 of a turn. 6 sides to a nut.
But, sometimes you need to flip the open end over and can’t get a full 1/6th turn. The standard open-end has a 15° offset so there’s a chance, in tight quarters, that flipping the wrench allows another bit of a turn after the first movement. It’s very possible 8 wrench flips could be needed to complete one revolution of a hex-headed fastener.