Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

baconsdozen · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 1119 Location: Under the car.

I sell tools for a living so am seldom stuck for anything and have some tools I still use that I bought as an apprentice.
I have an old Sykes Pickavant brake flarer that I've used hundreds of times and which has out performed any other that I've seen or sold and I would never like to part with and a huge record vice bought in a rusted condition at a car boot years ago for a fiver that has saved me more times than I care to remember. Another fiver at another car boot also provided a big,scissor action ball joint splitter with a damaged end that I welded up,it releases the tightest joint or track rod end with no damage and a satisfying bang.
What tools would you be most reluctant to part with?.
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Thirty years selling imperial hand tools for old machinery(Now happily retired).

D4B · Joined: 28 Dec 2010 Posts: 2083 Location: Hampshire UK

My Taskmaster Tap & Die Set, bought from Brown Brothers when they
were a real Paint & Motor Factors Cool

peter scott · Joined: 18 Dec 2007 Posts: 7219 Location: Edinburgh

I don't have a favourite tool pre se but I certainly have a "favourite spanner" and always refer to it with that title.

I carry a small tool box in the boot but "favourite spanner" has pride of place and is the only tool that lives in the passenger compartment under the front seat.

Favourite spanner is a Superslim 1/4 and 5/16 BSF open ender that is correct for many of the nuts and bolts in the engine compartment.

Peter Very Happy

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https://www.nostalgiatech.co.uk
1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon

Uncle Alec · Joined: 14 Jan 2008 Posts: 734 Location: Manchester

Frost shrinker/stretcher without doubt. Made a lot of tasks so much easier.

Rootes75 · Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2014 5:11 pm Post subject:

A couple years back at Beaulieu I found a lovely pre-war steering wheel puller. It is the one tool that has really earned it money on our classics.

pigtin · Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 1879 Location: Herne Bay

A battered old AVO Mk 7 test meter. When doing anything electrical I feel naked without one. The nice thing about the big old avo's is you can check current consumption up to 10a.
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Due to the onset of my mid eighties I'm no longer sprightly and rarely seen in my Austin special. I have written a book though. https://amzn.eu/d/7rwRRqL

Fluffle-Valve · Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2014 4:10 pm Post subject:

My Grandpa's old Hammer... I'm not sure how many handles it's had over the years, but he past it down to my dad and now I have it. I’m 55 and I haven’t a clue as to how old the hammer is. 60 or 70 years old at a guess? Could be older?

I have many good tools that seem to go on and on where'as others have just broke the day you buy them. Crying or Very sad

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Series 3 1972 LWB Truck Cab Pick Up. My daily drive.

BigJohn · Joined: 01 Jan 2011 Posts: 954 Location: Wem, Shropshire

Kettle, to make a brew to drink whilst musing on whatever mechanical disaster confronts me. Usually what my Old Man called a "Two pipe problem", but I don't smoke. Laughing

Keith D · Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 2:57 am Post subject:

I can relate with the old Avo and also the favourite spanner (1/4" - 5/16") but my real labour saving device is an old A40 front mudguard that lies in the corner of my workshop.

When ever I drop a spanner down between double skins or some other inaccessible place, or some other disaster occurs like a small washer or nut in the air intake, this mudguard receives a severe kick to relieve tensions bottled within me. This saves me much labour in repairing the damage to a panel on the car that would otherwise have probably copped the kick!

n.b. It is essential to be wearing steel toecapped boots before using this labour saving device!

Keith

Rusty · Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 3:04 am Post subject:

Without doubt the instruments I feel naked without are my micrometres. I have several, a Moore and Wright 0-2" adjustable, a 2-8" Starrett of Jedburg Scotland internal and a quite interesting 2-8" adjustable external by Ambrose Shardlow of Sheffield. Ambrose Shardlow only seemed to have 2 major product lines, micrometres and engine crankshafts. They were famous during WW2 for building the crankshafts for Rolls Royce Merlin aero engines.

I do also have a favourite set of spanners, and that is a set of American Blue Point ring spanners that my uncle "acquired" from the Yank army at the end of WW2 !

MikeEdwards · Joined: 25 May 2011 Posts: 2744 Location: South Cheshire

At the moment, my bench-mounted shear which was a bargain from a stall at Tatton Park show 3-4 years ago. As I'm making a lot of repair sections I've used a nibbler, cutting discs, tin snips, all sorts of ways of cutting steel but the shear is the nicest so far.

47p2 · Joined: 24 Nov 2007 Posts: 2009 Location: Glasgow

Air compressor for me, hardly a day goes by where it doesn't get switched on
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ROVER
One of Britain's Fine Cars

Tech12 · Joined: 04 Jul 2014 Posts: 9 Location: South Wales

I've got 3 really: My test lamp, my avo 8 & my old Wilkson volts & amps. (Analogue naturally)

Andy

goneps · Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2014 11:26 pm Post subject:

An early variable-speed Black and Decker Powerfile, a brilliant and indispensable invention. Now supplemented by an air-driven version.

That aside, nearly all my hand tools are at least 45 years old and still as good as new.

Fatbloke · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2014 2:15 pm Post subject:

The right one for the job would be my favourite tool!! but I never seam to have it.