Buying tools?

not sure about advice on jacks and jackstands since i've never bought a set, already had one from parents.

what i know is, avoid chinese tools.

all you really need to do anything mechanical with a car is a socket set, a torque wrench and jack/jackstands. anything else is a specialty tool or something to make your life much easier

1/2, 3/8, 1/4 sockets, extensions, ratchets
metric/standard wrenches
screwdriver set
pliers, sidecutters, channel locks

just go to Harbor Freight on a weekend sale and load up.

>>17729538
Craftsman is going out of business, but they sell a ~200-300 piece mechanic tool kit that comes with 6 point 12 point 1/4 3/8 and 1/2 tools, along with spark plugs sockets. It is probably the best bang for your buck when it goes on sale for about $200. It also includes wrenches and Allen keys. Pretty much everything you will need.

Add some pliers and an oil wrench and you are set. You can drive your car on top of a plank of wood for oil changes.

The trolley Jack's generally suck. You might be better off buying a good set of jack stands on any old bottle jack until you can afford a nice jack. However, Jack's are more of a convenience too, as any lift does the job until you set it on stands.

>>17729571
Also just to make a point, never put a car on 4 jack stands unless you absolutely have to. You're meant to chock two of the wheels, lift one end of the car, and put it up on two stands with two wheels still on the ground.

Also you only actually need a jack rated for about 75% of your car's weight, since you're not jacking it up from the center of gravity.

Money is an issue, but Home Depot sells some plastic ramps that are really nice to have if you're getting under the car a lot and they're like $40. Personally, I don't like using a jack and stands unless I don't have a choice. Suspension and brake work is one of those instances.

Ramps also come in handy in conjunction with a jack, like if you ever have to drop your transmission, or support the engine to change your motor mounts. You can do this with the jack while the car rests on the ramps.

Use your head when you're working under your car. It's easy to get complacent and forget how dangerous that shit is. If something heavy slips and falls, it can crush you and kill you.

Im the opposite of most anon's in this thread. I prefer a hydraulic jack and jack stands over ramps, if properly placed a jack stand will never fail. Craftsman, kolbalt and husky are all petty good "cheap brands. I don't truck harbor freight or amazon brands.

File: 1502458413970.png (146KB, 304x304px) Image search: [Google]

146KB, 304x304px

>>17729538
Firstly know the bolt sizes on your vehicle as you can eliminate a lot of the more expensive ratchet sets when starting out and grab a service manual for it too. KEK only knows how many times I've gone to my phone for it for some random value I forgot about.

I picked up my starter kit of shit for like 400 Canadian monopolies, but that was like a quality jack, nice stands, Stanley 178 kit, torque wrench, converter impact set and breaker. OP always get a dealer or specialist's quote on the job prior to doing anything, that way you can take say 1/2 off of the labour cost and that's your tool budget, after a while of repairs you won't need to buy anything anymore and the money goes to your pockets. I'd recommend Amazon for the torque wrenches (all the stores around me thought it'd be funny to stock 50-200ft-lb wrenches in 3/8ths only for like 3 times the price I can get in the jungle), for leaf fags go to Canadian tire whenever they've got general clearance (red/orange sticker) on like $400 sets then rent the specialized-one-off tools unless you're managing 4-5 cars. Also be sure you have everything you need prior to starting anything unless you've got a spare vehicle, eventually when you've saved enough money or you're starting to take apart a lot of cars invest in a complete quality set, power tools and the rest.