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.
Ratcheting wrenches are a must.
TWO comments
1. They break if you try to really toque on them
2. Reversing are delicate,
Missing a BFH AND BFS!
Please don’t forget to mention having a small assortment of “posidrive” screw drivers. They look like Philips screwdrivers, but aren’t. If you put a standard Philips screwdriver into a posidrive screw head you’ll wreck the screw. The converse is also true. Learned this the hard way working EU, UK cars, and later Japanese cars. The posidrive screws seem to be favored for parts that are rarely changed but may loosen with vibration. For example, carburetor parts and injector parts — and oddly exterior mounted lights like brake, backup, side marker, etc.
So strange!
I have found the head band LED lights to be indispensable especially in tight places where a flood light just doesn’t fit. No more fumbling in the dark and hands free to boot. In fact, I just found some on the clearance shelf at a local hardware store for $4 each. Of course I bought 3. Just couldn’t resist.
Hammer assortment: 6oz copper mallet; 8 oz brass hammer; small (1 1/2 ” diameter) rawhide mallet and a larger (1/2 lb) rawhide hammer; a jeweller-size ball pein hammer.
i agree with the listed pry bar & pics. i have 2 matching sets of the pry bars, or lady fingers as i’ve heard them called. using 2 matching small pry bars allowed me to remove a bearing race recessed in the blind hole of a transaxle case. i would add to the pics a pocket screwdriver. one of the most if not THE most universal tool in my toolbox. i also miss my 4-in-1 screwdriver. it had a # 3 phillips tip in it (haven’t found one since that has this tip). greatly reduced the amount of trips to the toolbox.
i would add to the collection of hammers a dead blow type as mentioned earlier. i have 4-5 of different sizes & weights. the 1st & largest i bought when i started to wrench for a living 40+ years ago. loosened wheels and brake drums stuck to hubs without damage. 3 of these have a brass head on the other end. very handy.
i find stubby, extra long, flare nut, and thin wall wrenches more handy than ratcheting wrenches. i have a bright led light that runs across the underside of a car hood. it’s ac/dc, making it that much more versatile. and i find a pocket screwdriver worth their weight in gold.
wobbly impact sockets, 3/8 & 1/2″ drive. awesome.
i know i have other life-saving though not often used tools. just not coming to mind…
Hammers are great. Small hammers for tune-ups and large hammers for overhauls.
WD-40 and a good heavy hammer with “Armstrong” force!
I have them all except for the reversible wrenches. One of my faves for clumsy me is a 3″x1/2″d magnetic cylinder with an extenson for reaching for those escaped-into-the-abyss parts…Lady slipper is a new moniker for me, too.
Plastic sticks with a point on one end and a flat blade (like a screwdriver) on the other. They are called “plastic spudgers” on Ebay. You buy them as a pack of 10. Great for tiny harmless poking and prying.
I also have an antique button hook. You can look on Ebay for a picture. It gets used a lot.
The seventh tool would have to be snap ring pliers. Absolutely a must for wheel cylinders. I got my clips to slip on Midget, but as the operation is almost blind I have no idea how I did it. I just got lucky. Snap ring pliers would have made all the difference.
Line Wrenches and Crow’s Feet when lines have close clearance.
Ladies Heel for Rolling Wedge Bar name. Gearwrench makes a large and small bar with an angle adjustable Heel.
My husband always made sure to ask our family dentist when he was getting ready to replace his used dental tools. They make a nice pick for mechanical work on airplanes AND cars! The dentist would get to where he’d save them aside for Gary!
With a little touch-up to the point, those pry bars make a pretty good center punch, too. Works well for those hard to reach places.
So. I grew up calling the “Small Pry Bar” listed a ‘butt hook’. Don’t ask me why but to me (and my brother) that is still a butt hook.