DivByZero
SILVER Star
So if, like me, you're somewhat mechanically inclined, and don't mind spending your weekend pulling bits off your 80 and putting them back on again, but this is your hobby and not your day job, you probably have a limited set of (hopefully) quality tools you've picked up over time to help you. They get you by just fine, until every now and then, you come across that one bolt that just won't shift. You know the one. It's that one you run into at 11am in the morning, when you've already taken a bunch of stuff off and you're now committed, but that one bolt or nut just won't shift, and you spend the next few hours cursing and swearing and stripping your knuckles trying to get it out. Suddenly this job is a lot less fun, and your wife is rolling her eyes at you again as you explain that the job you said would be done by lunch is now extending into tomorrow, while you let some PB Blaster soak in, or are attacking it with a propane torch.
Our 80s are all ancient now. We have a lot of bolts that are frozen in place. What you need in your arsenal is a little tool I never properly appreciated until I got one last year. You need an impact wrench. I bought this gizmo last year, and it changed my life:
It's the DTW700Z in Australia. Equivalent seems to be the XWT17Z in the US. This baby delivers 1000nm (740 ft-lb) of nut-busting torque, and watching it work is magical. What made me go out and buy this last year was that one bolt I couldn't remove. I worked on that thing for hours. I was there with my breaker bar that comes up to my waist. I soaked that thing in penetrating oil. I hit it with alternating heating and cooling. I was banging on the bracket and the bolt, trying everything I could think of. It was on, it wasn't going anywhere. I've been here before, and I could have kept on going until it eventually gave in, but I got fed up, dropped some cash on this thing, and it removed it in one second. One. Frigging. Second.
This thing quickly became my favourite toy. I started removing random tricky looking bolts just to see if I could (don't do that, re-torquing them is a pain). I now look forward to each stuck on bolt with a kind of glee, just to watch this thing work. Best of all, it does it without hurting my hands, and more importantly, damaging the car. I've come to appreciate that the impact wrench is actually a much gentler way to remove a stuck bolt than me going at it with a breaker bar.
This won't be a revelation for many of you I'm sure, but it was for me, and maybe it'll help out one or two other people here. One thing that turned me off getting one of these a decade ago, was that an impact wrench until recently meant an air tool, which was a whole extra set of gear, with a fair bit of effort involved in getting it setup. The modern battery operated ones like I showed above are so much easier, you just pick them up and go for it.
So, if you don't have a torque wrench in your arsenal, I strongly recommend you take a serious look at getting one. It'll make your life so much easier. I went for Makita, they make good stuff, and they're in the right price point for a DIY guy like me. Those of you with bigger budgets or more industrial needs would probably go for something from Milwaukee, I'm sure they make some great ones.
You also need to get a decent impact socket set. Your typical chrome vanadium sockets for hand tools aren't up to the task, you need something made out of chrome molybdenum, like this set I got:
It cost me around $800 all up to get setup with the impact wrench, battery system, and impact socket set. No idea what the price will be in the US, but it'll cost a little I'm sure. Well worth the money though.
Our 80s are all ancient now. We have a lot of bolts that are frozen in place. What you need in your arsenal is a little tool I never properly appreciated until I got one last year. You need an impact wrench. I bought this gizmo last year, and it changed my life:
It's the DTW700Z in Australia. Equivalent seems to be the XWT17Z in the US. This baby delivers 1000nm (740 ft-lb) of nut-busting torque, and watching it work is magical. What made me go out and buy this last year was that one bolt I couldn't remove. I worked on that thing for hours. I was there with my breaker bar that comes up to my waist. I soaked that thing in penetrating oil. I hit it with alternating heating and cooling. I was banging on the bracket and the bolt, trying everything I could think of. It was on, it wasn't going anywhere. I've been here before, and I could have kept on going until it eventually gave in, but I got fed up, dropped some cash on this thing, and it removed it in one second. One. Frigging. Second.
This thing quickly became my favourite toy. I started removing random tricky looking bolts just to see if I could (don't do that, re-torquing them is a pain). I now look forward to each stuck on bolt with a kind of glee, just to watch this thing work. Best of all, it does it without hurting my hands, and more importantly, damaging the car. I've come to appreciate that the impact wrench is actually a much gentler way to remove a stuck bolt than me going at it with a breaker bar.
This won't be a revelation for many of you I'm sure, but it was for me, and maybe it'll help out one or two other people here. One thing that turned me off getting one of these a decade ago, was that an impact wrench until recently meant an air tool, which was a whole extra set of gear, with a fair bit of effort involved in getting it setup. The modern battery operated ones like I showed above are so much easier, you just pick them up and go for it.
So, if you don't have a torque wrench in your arsenal, I strongly recommend you take a serious look at getting one. It'll make your life so much easier. I went for Makita, they make good stuff, and they're in the right price point for a DIY guy like me. Those of you with bigger budgets or more industrial needs would probably go for something from Milwaukee, I'm sure they make some great ones.
You also need to get a decent impact socket set. Your typical chrome vanadium sockets for hand tools aren't up to the task, you need something made out of chrome molybdenum, like this set I got:
It cost me around $800 all up to get setup with the impact wrench, battery system, and impact socket set. No idea what the price will be in the US, but it'll cost a little I'm sure. Well worth the money though.