Section : Advice for Buyers / New Owners

Basic Toolkit

Posted By : Ben Taylor, 06-Mar-2007, 12:06pm

I'm due to pick up my Spitty 1500 on Friday!!!

I just need a bit of advice on workshop kit. What tools and bits and pieces am I likely to need for basic maintainance and repairs? Are there any essential or useful bits and pieces? What is the one tool (aside from spanners/ wrenches etc.) that you have found most useful? Is there anything which could make my life easier?

The car currently seems to be in fairly good nick mechanically. There are a couple of very minor jobs to do (replace wiper blades and the poppers for the soft top)- but I don't need to full kit out for a complete strip down rebuild just yet (I hope!)

I need enough at the moment to allow me to do basic maintainance (including things like oil changes), and occasional repairs/ adjustments.

Ta in advance
Ben

Followups :

Basic Toolkit

Posted By : Graham Cowan, 06-Mar-2007, 12:33pm

Ben,
Have a look at the Machine Mart web site and make a wish list which should at least include axle stands, oil filter wrench, grease gun, a decent inspection lamp, garage heater....
The best 'tool' I could recommend is a car creeper, particularly the kind with the angled head rest. It makes life easier when working underneath the car and saves on overalls. By the way these are another item you will need including decent workboots, gloves AND safety glasses. Another tip is to compare prices of those pump action garden sprays, the ones of about 5 litre capacity. Any garden centre will have these and they make a cheaper alternative to the Waxoyl system.
Best of luck for Friday.
Graham
- Basic Toolkit
  
  Posted By : Stephen Weblin, 06-Mar-2007, 01:26pm
  
  An essential piece of kit is a decent workshop manual. When I first got my Vitesse I bought a Haynes manual. I have since moved on to the factory manual and parts books.
  
  The club sells a CD with all the relevant manuals for your car - get a copy. It is so much more convenient to be able print out the relevant pages and have them with you in the garage - with no worries about spoiling them with oil and grease.
  
  The Haynes manual includes a list of tools.
- Basic Toolkit
  
  Posted By : Colin Wake, 06-Mar-2007, 01:26pm
  
  Imperial spanners and sockets.
  
  3/8 7/16 1/2 9/16 5/8 11/16 3/4
  
  feeler guages
  
  couple of decent flat-bladed and phillips/pozi screwdrivers.
  
  A good sense of humour.
  
  Cheers
  
  Colin
- Basic Toolkit
  
  Posted By : Steve Cureton, 06-Mar-2007, 01:28pm
  
  These cars are so easy to work on you don't need too much beyond the basic AF sockets & spanners. Useful additions are grease/oil guns for steering joints and trunnions, ramps, feeler gauges, trolley jack, and a strong work bench with a good vice. A MIG welder can be very useful depending on how good your car is, but obviously not cheap. You might occassionally need a hub puller but I wouldn't buy one of these until you need it, alternatively you wil probably be able to hore or borrow one from your local club or garage. Finally make sure you've got a decent jack and wheel brace in the boot as they're often just equipped with someones cast offs and don't work when you need them! Depending on much cash you've got spare things like a compression tester, timing light, engine hoist etc are great additions but won't get much use.
  
  Hope you like your new motor.
  - Basic Toolkit
    
    Posted By : Jon Morton, 06-Mar-2007, 01:50pm
    
    Plasters (first aid kit), and a library of new swear words to accommodate all scenarios.
    
    I do find it useful to carry some latex gloves as you can guarantee a problem when you have your best clothes on.
    
    A set of spare points and condenser is useful
    
    The biggest tool you can carry with these cars is your brain. Always take a deep breath and think logically, and you will find it's a joy to own
    - Basic Toolkit
      
      Posted By : George Ralph, 06-Mar-2007, 04:53pm
      
      I always keep some cheap tools like screwdrivers for abusing (levers/paint stirrers etc) and save my good stuff for best i.e assembling new parts etc. You will find the Machine Mart catalogue is essential bedtime reading!
      
      Other ideas are: a reasonable quality torque wrench; a cheap multimeter and a simple carb balancer and Colourtune to keep her running nice. Also make up a little emergency kit for the boot, mine has a multi-screwdriver, pliers, adj spanner, fuses, tape bulbs and other sundry useful items.
      
      After a while you will find you will learn your cars idiosyncracies and you'll amaze people with your powers of diagnosis (they're not know that it does the same thing everytime there's an "R" in the month)!
      
      Welcome to an obsession....
      - Basic Toolkit
        
        Posted By : Ian Mulford, 06-Mar-2007, 05:12pm
        
        I carry an AA card too for those times which WILL happen.
        
        Like when my stereo kept cutting out everytime the wipers moved. Stopped at the side of the road, used my toolkit to get behind the dash, un-wire my stereo and put the wiring right... only to find that the car wouldn't start as the battery was flat due to a faulty regulator on the alternator which was the actual cause of the problem... DOH!!!!
        
        Basic Toolkit
        
        Posted By : Chris Taylor, 06-Mar-2007, 05:51pm
        
        As well as AA (or similar membership) a mobile phone is useful!
        In terms of spanners, while I would always generally use "ordinary" 1/2" drive sockets, try and find a set of "impact sockets" with the same drive size as your ratchet bar etc. These can be used with the normal extensions, universal joints etc, and have six sided rather than twelve sided sockets. They are much less likely to slip on rusted or rounded nuts and bolts. If the cost is little more, I'd also go for a socket set that also has metric sockets as sometimes you can persuade a slightly smaller metric socket onto a rusted nut and grip it even tighter (eg 12mm on a nominal 1/2" nut).
        A mole wrench is always useful, and don't be tempted to use an open ended spanner on the brake adjusters; buy the correct spanner with a 1/4" square drive hole in the end.