$300 To Spend on Tools (Page 1 of 2)

Pick air or electric for impact. Honestly my air one is way stronger than my battery powered one. Air is nice because of all the other air tools you can buy down the road.

make sure your socket set has a full set of 6-point sockets. When you start fighting with old rusty bolts you strip them faster with 12 point.

The Harbor freight aluminum jacks are really nice, do get that.

So I do want to go air, but I was thinking that electric would be more convent to bring to races.  Air would be smaller though.  I don't really have the space or the budget for a huge air compressor and tank. 

We will get a HF floor jack eventually,  probably worth the money just never got around to it.

I say get the electric impact wrench.   Electricity is more available at the track than air.
I got the Harbor Freight one and have found it to be perfectly adequate.

For tools that you are only going to use at home/shop, air tools will save you some money as well as being lighter and smaller.   But weigh this against the hassle of the air hose versus an extension cord.   It's a lot easier to take a 100' extension cord out to do some work at the end of the driveway than 100' of air hose.

If you decide to go with air, get the largest compressor/tank that you can.   Not only can't the smaller ones keep up, but the noise will drive you crazy (especially the "oil-less" ones).   My first compressor was an oil-less one, which was stolen less than three months after I got it.   I was actually glad, since it gave me an excuse to get a good one.

I did an A&D over the weekend. The car owner had a cordless Milwaukee Impact driver. It took off wheel lug nuts with no problem. Nice tool!!! But it $250 new. So for the garage, and maybe at the track, yes get a big electric Impact driver.

Shop Craigslist for used Ryobi 18 V impact driver and drill. The lime green ones. Not good for taking off tight lug nuts, but good for taking things apart fast, once you've loosened things with the breaker bar. Find homeowners who want the drill and sell the impact driver cheap. Then buy the bigger batteries at Home Despot (2 for $55). or find a set and get the drill too. Cause you'll need to drill holes in your car at the track.

Shop CL for used Craftsman wrenches
1/2 craftsman breaker bar

Shop CL for Kennedy tool chests, old school less desirable, maybe cheap.

Tap and die sets on CL also. metric or standard depending on your car. Or the craftsman dual set

But do NOT get the Harbor Freight (Drill Master) one, it sucks big time.   I tried to use mine to cut down a 1.5" diameter sapling, and it failed.   So I got out 150' of extension cord and my Milwaukee Sawzall and that took care of it with no strain.

My list if you are too impatient for CL cruising:

Jack...every team member now has one of these and often $69 with coupon:
http://www.harborfreight.com/3-ton-low- … 61282.html
Ryobi cordless impact wrech is weak compared to the the bigger Dewalt but the batteries were there (I got minr for $69 on CPO tools):
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-ONE-18 … /205885687

A good breaker bar, 4-5 extensions and wobble extension and a few key speed wrenches should all be from slightly better quality than Harbor freight but otherwise we have built and maintained 2.5 Lemons cars for many years with only one or two 13 MM sockets getting killed and I think on 10mm 1/4" socket dying.

Jack stands are another one where you either need to buy well or always keep and eye on them...the broader the base, the less they like to tip while you are jacking the other side.

CHEAP 4 1/2" grinder

Two nice hand-carry tool boxes and a bag for longer stuff.  You can get 24-26" 4-drawer boxes for all the sockets and misc wrenches. a 24-26" top opening with tray for bigger stuff and then the large canvas bag takes prybars, breaker bars, cheaters, jack stands the 32" pipe wrench, 3# hammer, 5# hammer, Ford hammer (mini 10# sledge). etc.

Cheap off brand "rhino" ramps are nice to have, too.

Finally, a rotary tool (dremel) with Dremel's excellent quick change cutting discs, plus a couple of end mills/carbide burs.

I would get this one because I already have the batteries from my drill and small impact driver(its the woodworking one for screws)

I killed THREE HF electric impacts in three years.   All the exact same problems, either FWD or REV will just quit working.  If you are going corded, get a Dewalt or other brand name.

Upgrade to the larger, $100ish aluminum jack from HF.  It has a higher lift, and lifts more per stroke than the $69 one.  Just tighten all the bolts every month or so and it will be good.  Much lighter than steel, and works great. 

Add a BIG hammer to the list.  You will need it, trust me....
Quality timing light.

That one is a beast!!! but it is also long.  My teammate has a shorter, but less powerful one.  Our Chief Mechanic has the one you posted and it really is powerful but so big it rarely gets used on thins like suspension components.

Unless they are Germanic, doesn't everyone us a piece of pipe, a hammer and the old bearing?

Plenty of us have cars that still have distributors. Daytona has electronic ignition, but you still have to set the base timing.

Plus a cheap timing light can be used for diagnostics. You can use to to see if the car is actually sparking without pulling wires and risking getting shocked.

Dont forget S&K and Proto when looking for tools. Their quality as good if not better than Craftsman but most people don't know the name and pass them off as junk. I have a scratch and dent Proto top box that i picked up for home and the quality is right up there with my Snap-On boxes at work. I have the HF low pro long reach steel jack Its awesome and worth the extra $. +1 on the timing light but we still have points on the Lark.