I took my wife’s car into the dealership for a warranty a few weeks ago and while they were checking stuff, they said the car needed 1300 dollars of work (piston soak and replace some transmission parts). I ended up doing the soak with my grandpa and took it to a shop for the transmission (wasnt even an issue, just a rivot replacement on a wheel well cover) and ended up saving 700 dollars after accounting for tools, jacks, jack stands, etc.
I want to start working on my own cars for things that can be done easily without expensive specialized tools, and I might be buying a house in the next year. I just want to start getting a decent collection of tools to hopefully save money in the long run.
I currently have a huge range of screwdrivers, soldering equipment, plyer set, socket set, file set, wire cutters and a small tool kit with some misc stuff.
I am mainly looking towards a torque wrench and a good spanner/wrench set, but looking for suggestions on what to get. Holding off on power tools until I wrap my head around brands and batteries.
A friend with a good set of tools. Who you can trade labor with. Many car tasks need 2 people so if you can hang out with someone else working on their car and they return the favor you are greatly ahead. Not only that but you will teach each other (well at the start that person will teach you - do plenty of work to pay them for their effort to teach you).
After that tool do you need for the current job that either your friend doesn’t have or you use so often it is worth having your own. Every car has its own set of special tools that are not used for any other car you will ever have but you need it to do some job. You will need several torque wrenches as they have different ranges, but you won’t need them all for the first project.