I hardly know where to start.
In the 1980s or earlier, a person in your position would watch the weekly Sears advertising supplements, until a medium-large Craftsman tool set was on sale, and then buy it. Then wait until the Craftsman Metric add-on set was promoted, and buy that. And somewhere along the line, they'd have a decent-sized Craftsman tool box for sale at a discount. Craftsman
was Professional- (Apprentice-) grade tools, FABULOUS value, wonderful warranty. Tools themselves varied between "Really OK" and "Great", with the "Great" stuff generally not being part of the heavily-discounted sets.
Craftsman has become "Crapsman". Offshored, reduced-quality, specializing in useless junk "gimmick" tools that go on sale for Christmas and Father's day, when people are tired of giving Dad cologne.
I decided years ago to buy a large, wheeled tool cabinet, rather than a small, wheeled cabinet, and stack intermediate- and top-chests onto the small wheeled cabinet. That way I have enough storage, but also a
usable-height work surface. I don't need a step-ladder to see into the top of my tool chest.
Hit the pawn shops, rummage and estate sales, eBay and Craigslist. Buy USED, MADE IN AMERICA (or Canada) tools instead of brand-new Communist Crap. If you're built like me (on the smaller side) pay extra for long-pattern wrenches, and long-handled ratchets. The extra leverage is most useful. But then, you may ALSO need to buy extra-short wrenches and ratchets due to tight working clearance, later.
GOOD screwdrivers (and tools in general) are an investment. Cheap screwdrivers are disposable. Choose wisely. A good compromise--for most uses--is a good-quality ratcheting screwdriver handle and shaft, and interchangeable/inexpensive straight, Phillips, hex, Torx and other specialty bits. One of the (small) ratchets you buy should be specifically for those 1/4" shank bits, for when you need more leverage than a screwdriver can provide.
If you're in a Hazzard Fraught store, you're probably buying "disposable" "Tool-Shaped Objects", although I've heard they've made some improvements.
You'll need 1/4" drive, 3/8" drive, and 1/2" drive ratchets, various extensions, U-joints, and sockets. I'm heaviest on 3/8" drive, but with a good selection of 1/4" and 1/2" as well. I have little in 3/4" drive, and I have to be really angry to use it.
IN GENERAL, and with exceptions, any hand-powered wrench or socket for hex nuts and bolts should be 6-point for any size smaller than 1/2" or 12mm. 12-point makes sense for sizes larger than 5/8 or 16mm, and you need both for the sizes in-between (1/2--5/8, and 12--16mm). Impact sockets are nearly always 6-point. I don't think I own a 12-point impact socket.
Flare-nut wrenches are used on...well...flare nuts. Flare nuts are what connect brake tubing, and some fuel tubing; and various other hydraulic/pneumatic plumbing. Cheap tools will spread open and wreck the flare nut. Snap-On is "the" company to buy from for flare-nut wrenches and crowfeet. SK has done well in some testing.
Most flare-nut tools are a potential disaster. Even the "good" tools need considerable care and experience when used with rusty/seized flare nuts.
You WILL need a multimeter, and it will need to have a dwell meter or duty-cycle position. Miliamps to ~10 amperes, higher is better. Milivolts to as many volts as you can get. Ohmmeter capable of measuring and displaying down to one-half ohm, lower is better; and into the megohm range. Capacitance testing is a bonus. Battery testing (AAA--D cell, maybe some "button" batteries) is a bonus, but not for automotive use.
Timing light. Dial-back ("advance") is nice, not absolutely essential. Pretty much any timing light you pick up at a pawn shop should be fine, IF it works properly.
75 ft/lb or 100 ft/lb 3/8" torque wrench, plus a 50--250 1/2" drive torque wrench. Don't buy junk. And don't buy "electronic" torque wrenches, as they cost extra to re-calibrate.
Vacuum gauge/low-pressure fuel pressure gauge (the fuel pressure part will be useless to you, but they're often sold as a vacuum/pressure gauge)
Get a spark-tester that's suitable for HEI. You want one with an actual spark gap, DO NOT buy one that flashes a stupid light-bulb.
You'll need some kind of "12 volt" test light. Mine has a regular incandescent light bulb which works well for some stuff, and not at all for other things, especially related to electronic (as opposed to "electric") devices. A "computer safe" test light with LED bulbs (red and green, typically) is what I should get. A self-coiling cord with a proper alligator clip on the end is very recommended.
You need to research the "Tool Truck" tool brands, so you can recognize high-quality stuff at the rummage sale or Craigslist. Tool-trucks rarely sell junk, but they're hatefully expensive when new, and often "high" priced used. Identical quality tools can be purchased under different brand names--and sometimes made with different-color plastic boxes or different-shaped handles on the ratchets--from the
same companies that supply the "Tool Truck" brand names. Beware "knockoffs", cheap-junk imported tools designed and presented to "look" just like the big-name originals. Lang, Mayhew, Mastercool, Wilde, Lisle, Thexton, Trusty-Cook, and others make some of the things that get branded with the Tool Truck logos, but are available under their own name for less money from Amazon or perhaps from
www.harryepstein.com. Another good tool source selling closeout/distressed merchandise is
https://www.cripedistributing.com/
Snap-On is the King of the Tool Trucks. They actually
make a large proportion of their stuff, the bought-in tools are often sold under their "companion"* brand "Blue Point" rather than Snap-On. The Snap-On company owns a lot of other tool companies that supply "custom" stuff to Snap-On, but sell very similar stuff directly and at lower prices. Snap-On owns Williams, an "industrial"** brand which has a Taiwan line and a USA line, and the USA stuff is very good at less than Snap-On pricing.
Mac Tools is often supplied by
Proto, another "industrial" brand--both companies are owned by Stanley Black 'n' Decker.
Matco Tools buys-in almost their entire line. They "make" some tool boxes, and source everything else from a variety of suppliers.
Cornwell Tools also buys-in almost their entire line. They do make some stuff, on the expensive end of the range. They own a tool-box manufacturer, having bought-out Kennedy. The bulk of Cornwell sales is product sourced from outside suppliers.
Wright is an "industrial" tool company,
family-owned and mostly USA-made. They don't sell from "the Truck", and they're not bargain-basement priced, but not as high as Snappy or Mac or the other Truck brands. Their wrenches are exceptional, (if not as long as I'd prefer) and everything else is "only"
really good. Their focus is NOT on auto repair, so they have little or nothing for specialty tools for automobile work. But wrenches, screwdrivers, sockets, ratchets...all the "universal" stuff is top-notch.
SK
used to be a fantastic, USA tool company. The company goes back about a hundred years. They got sold to the Communist Chinese a couple of years ago, and went
straight to hell. USED SK is great. New SK is a total crapshoot--some OK, some direct from China.
You will need a scan tool. There's a multitude of devices, including laptop-computer-plus-software-and-adapter cord, to "dongles" and smart-phones, to cheap-junk "consumer grade" tools, to genuine pro-level standalone scan tools. Too much to cover here, and I have zero experience with anything but a couple of Snap-On Pro-level tools.
Doesn't matter how much you've invested in tools. You WILL run into situations where you need something "special". Sometimes you have to buy what you need, sometimes you have to fabricate what you need. Don't overlook the "loaner tool" program at various automotive parts stores. All sorts of specialty equipment can be "bought" and then returned for a full refund.
* "Companion" brands are lower-cost alternatives sold by some of the Truck brands. Snap-On has the companion brand Blue-Point. Mac has their less-expensive "Advantage" line. Matco sells "Silver Eagle". The companion brands tend to be imported, lower- but still decent-quality, and generally equivalent to what you can get at NAPA in the Carlyle line, or through other generally-imported Taiwanese or Japanese brand names. One of the earliest "Companion" brands was an alternative to Sears Craftsman--the Sears Companion brand name.
** "Industrial" brands are companies that sell a range of tools to non-automotive end users--from mining and oil, to hotel maintenance. They don't have automotive specialty tools, but they would have wonderful wrenches, ratchets, sockets, screwdrivers, pliers, pry-bars, and so forth; and perhaps into truly-huge size ranges that would make your eyes pop. Because they're not sold off the "truck", the prices are high but not crazy-high like the Trucks. Several of the "truck" brands also have an associated "Industrial" brand with more-rational pricing.
Tool companies get bought and sold, discontinued, bankrupt, offshored. This graphic is out of date--lotsa changes since this was put together. I'm not posting it because it's accurate, I'm posting it to show that one company owns multiple other companies, some of the names you'll recognize and some you won't.
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