Thought I’d start a new fun thread. I’m almost 70, and started working on cars when I was 16 and bought my first MG, a 1958 MGA. I also started working at a boat dealership during the summer, and started my tool collection. Over the years, I’ve accumulated a really good set of tools. My other cars now are a 1998 BMW Z3 roadster, and a 2018 Audi SQ5. I’ve had about 60 cars/trucks/motorcyles over the years and have bought tools as needed to work on them.
For starting my work on the rust on the Avalanche, I’ve recently bought two new tools which have become my new favorites. First is a Dewalt 20V 1/2 drive impact wrench. Never needed one before, but figured all the rusty bolts would warrant the purchase. This thing is awesome. Used it to pull the shock bolts last week when I changed them, and today I used it to pull the rear sway bar bushing bracket bolts. I’d soaked them for 3 days with PB blaster, and tried to break them by hand with a breaker bar first. 16 years of rust and they wouldn’t budge. The DW impact has high/low and a middle setting that stops it as soon as the bolt/nut breaks loose or starts to tighten. This thing worked fantastically to break and unscrew those bracket bolts. I would have spent hours trying to get them out, and probably broken some or all of them.
The second one is a needle scaler I got from Harbor Freight to knock a lot of rust off of the frame, differential, etc. Way cool tool that I’d never used before. Still have a ways to go, but getting there.
Cheers!
For starting my work on the rust on the Avalanche, I’ve recently bought two new tools which have become my new favorites. First is a Dewalt 20V 1/2 drive impact wrench. Never needed one before, but figured all the rusty bolts would warrant the purchase. This thing is awesome. Used it to pull the shock bolts last week when I changed them, and today I used it to pull the rear sway bar bushing bracket bolts. I’d soaked them for 3 days with PB blaster, and tried to break them by hand with a breaker bar first. 16 years of rust and they wouldn’t budge. The DW impact has high/low and a middle setting that stops it as soon as the bolt/nut breaks loose or starts to tighten. This thing worked fantastically to break and unscrew those bracket bolts. I would have spent hours trying to get them out, and probably broken some or all of them.
The second one is a needle scaler I got from Harbor Freight to knock a lot of rust off of the frame, differential, etc. Way cool tool that I’d never used before. Still have a ways to go, but getting there.
Cheers!
