Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.
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Rick Site Admin

Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22783 Location: UK
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Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 9:17 am Post subject: Favourite tools, best tool finds, tools you'd never lend out |
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Morning all
Inspired by posts in oddball's intro thread, lets see or hear about some of your favourite tools.
What great finds have you had at autojumbles, or at car boot sales and garage clearance sales?
Have you inherited great quality old tools from a family member?
Have you lent cherished tools out, only to never see them again?
Do you have a correct set of factory-supplied tools to match your old vehicle?
Let's hear it for classic tools, what brands are/were your favourites?
Are makes from the past still around? - I'm thinking of the likes of Britool, King Dick, and so on ...
RJ _________________ Rick - Admin
Home:https://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk
Videos:https://www.youtube.com/user/oldclassiccarRJ/videos
OCC & classic car merchandise (Austin, Ford ++):
https://www.redbubble.com/people/OldClassicCar/shop |
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MikeEdwards
Joined: 25 May 2011 Posts: 2704 Location: South Cheshire
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Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 10:21 am Post subject: |
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I've had a few car boot sale finds - mainly Britool and Snap on spanners and sockets at low prices because a lot of people are getting rid of imperial sizes. I'd once sworn off buying any more sockets as I must have more than I can ever use, then saw a nice Britool metal box containing 50-odd sockets and a couple of handles, all for a tenner.
I've had a few "Colourtune" kits for a pound a go, which is handy as it means I can put them on multiple cylinders at the same time to check the idle mixture - the twin Dellortos mean it is adjustable per cylinder and it saves letting the car cool down enough to remove and swap from plug to plug. I just need one more to have a full set. And a nice find last year was a "Trackrite" device to set the tracking, which has been used to good effect on my modern after I changed some front suspension bits.
Britool are still around as far as I know, but they somehow don't look as good quality. For example I see a lot of new spanners marked Britool, but it's etched onto the metal rather than being stamped as they used to be, so I don't know if they're really the same. |
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Rootes75
Joined: 30 Apr 2013 Posts: 4173 Location: The Somerset Levels
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Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 12:31 pm Post subject: |
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I remember when i first started out with classics I spent years trying to find a valve guide tool for my sidevalve Ford, I was over the moon to find one at Beaulieu as I recall. Now with ebay I have seen many so the find is not that rare now.
The best specialist tool find has to be a pre-war steering wheel removal tool with adaptors to suite various sizes etc. Its one of those tools that you don't use often but when you need it its worth its weight in gold. |
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kevin2306
Joined: 01 Jul 2013 Posts: 1359 Location: nr Llangollen, north wales
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Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 3:26 pm Post subject: |
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I have an old 3'0 folding joiners ruler that I bought when I was a 16 y/o apprentice, its made from boxwood and brass.
that doesnt get used by anyone but me due its sentimental value and fragile nature.
kev |
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Dipster
Joined: 06 Jan 2015 Posts: 408 Location: UK, France and Portugal - unless I am travelling....
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Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 4:38 pm Post subject: |
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For me it is all the old tools that I inherited from my Dad. He started putting his tools together in the 1920s when he set off as a "Motor Engineer" in what I think he saw as an exciting new technology.
It is just a shame that I could not inherit the vast experience and all the metal working skills he acquired over many years. He taught me a lot but I would never claim to be as good as he was in skills such as machining. |
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Ray White

Joined: 02 Dec 2014 Posts: 7102 Location: Derby
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Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 7:12 pm Post subject: |
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Dipster wrote: | For me it is all the old tools that I inherited from my Dad. He started putting his tools together in the 1920s when he set off as a "Motor Engineer" in what I think he saw as an exciting new technology.
It is just a shame that I could not inherit the vast experience and all the metal working skills he acquired over many years. He taught me a lot but I would never claim to be as good as he was in skills such as machining. |
This sounds just like my experience too. Amongst my most treasured possessions is a very ornate cast iron spirit level that belonged to my Grandfather. My Dad inherited it and now it has come down to me. Grand dad was a cabinet maker (mostly he made high quality coffins).
My Dad was a mechanical engineer and machinist who specialised in making hydraulic/ pneumatic machinery.He also ran a couple of garages. One of the tools that I inherited from him is an A60/MGB king pin reamer which I believe to be quite scarce these days. If anyone needs to borrow it please let me know.. |
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Rick Site Admin

Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22783 Location: UK
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lowdrag
Joined: 10 Apr 2009 Posts: 1600 Location: Le Mans
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Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 8:51 pm Post subject: |
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I have a rather stupid obsession with the little Carrington adjustables that came as standard in a Jaguar took kit. I don't know how many I have, but it is a few. It was the one thing that never got sold with the car, always ending up in peoples everyday kit in the shed. Talking of which I came across a Mk 1 toolkit - or part of one today - buried and found during the spring clean, complete with timing key and a few Jaguar spanners. |
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MikeEdwards
Joined: 25 May 2011 Posts: 2704 Location: South Cheshire
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Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2015 6:26 pm Post subject: |
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Rick wrote: | I recently rescued a modern-ish, 12-ton pressure, pipe bending tool. It had been left out for the scrapman, which seemed like a waste, so I offered it a home. Whether I'll ever use it is another matter, but, well ....
RJ |
So, when it comes to bending the replacement exhaust for my next project, I know who to ask... |
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BigJohn
Joined: 01 Jan 2011 Posts: 954 Location: Wem, Shropshire
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Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2015 6:39 pm Post subject: |
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A pair of pre-war bumper ringing irons that were my dads, I have used them for all sorts of jobs and they are never used by anyone else in case they walk. (They are about 18" long bar with a F shaped head for dropping onto bumper blades and tweaking them, one of them has a stepped F so fits all sorts of things that need unkinking). |
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Rootes75
Joined: 30 Apr 2013 Posts: 4173 Location: The Somerset Levels
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Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2015 8:46 pm Post subject: |
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Talking of tools going down the generations, my grandfather left me a battery charger. This is no ordinary charger but a pre-war Westinghouse type that is about a metre tall by a half a metre deep by about a metre and a half across the front. It is hidden away at the back of the shed now but I remember when I was younger seeing it charging 4 or 5 batteries at a time.
Lovely piece of kit that I really should have set up and working. _________________ Various Rootes Vehicles. |
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Jonv8
Joined: 28 Jan 2009 Posts: 66
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Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2015 9:10 pm Post subject: |
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I have two favourite tools,neither is old but I greatly enjoy the results I get with them.First is my 4 channel Pico oscilloscope. This is helping me to fix old and new vehicles/engines on a daily basis,the oldest engine I have used it on is a 1917 Wade 2 stroke dragsaw engine.
Second tool is a Thermal Dynamics 200A AC/DC Tig welder,lovely bit of kit - again useful for repairing just about anything that can be welded.
Many of my hand tools I have had from the age of about 10 when I first rebuilt a bike engine,the collection has steadily grown since then. |
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Ellis
Joined: 07 Mar 2011 Posts: 1386 Location: Betws y Coed, North Wales
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Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2015 11:17 pm Post subject: |
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One of my favourite tool possessions is this complete and original Jaguar Mark 2 toolkit :
[ ]
On the subject of lending tools you might be interested in the experience of my cousin's husband, Tony. He's a very good self taught mechanic and about 15 years ago, fed up with hiring engine hoists, he bought a good electric one and attached it to a huge beam in his garage which I helped him install.
His sons were now 17 - 20 and destroying engines or buying bigger ones and asking their father to fit them.
As they grew older and bought better cars the engine hoist was used less and less and one day a resident living on the same estate asked if he could borrow it.
That was the last Tony saw of it and he even forgot to whom he had lent it.
Four years ago, when I was there one evening, his friend called and said that there was a garage sale at the house of a departing resident. A magpie for tools of any sort I accompanied him to this house and there was a good selection of tools - compressors, jacks and so on and included in the sale was the very same electric hoist Tony had lent out some years previously!
A "fair and frank" exchange of views followed and he was reunited with his engine hoist after some 7 years.[/img] _________________ Starting Handle Expert
1964 Jaguar Mark 2 3.4 litre
1962 Land Rover Series 2a 88"
2002 BMW M3 E46 Cabriolet |
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goneps
Joined: 18 Jun 2013 Posts: 601 Location: Auckland, New Zealand
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Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2015 11:43 pm Post subject: |
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Ellis wrote: | Four years ago, when I was there one evening, his friend called and said that there was a garage sale at the house of a departing resident. A magpie for tools of any sort I accompanied him to this house and there was a good selection of tools - compressors, jacks and so on and included in the sale was the very same electric hoist Tony had lent out some years previously! |
I wonder how many of the other items on sale had been borrowed and never returned. As good a reason as any for not lending tools. I once loaned a workshop manual for the BMW R26/27, and the borrower promptly moved to Johannesburg and disappeared. Never again!
Richard |
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BigJohn
Joined: 01 Jan 2011 Posts: 954 Location: Wem, Shropshire
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Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2015 9:49 am Post subject: |
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When my sons were at home, and the garage became a hangout for various broken items from bikes to cars, with various dishevelled youthful owners, tools were lent out on the usual deposit applies rule.
One youth asked what the usual deposit was.
"One testicle" I replied.
I never lost any tools, but I never had any borrowed either!  |
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