Restoration Series: Tool Kit Essentials

You’re going to need to have an angle grinder and power drill of some description for drilling holes, cutting, grinding and sanding tasks on your vehicle. Most angle grinders and drills used to have a power cord and run on 240 volts which can be quite limiting as to where you can use them but there's a lot now that are cordless and the technology has moved on so they have very good battery life and don't run out in 2 minutes like the first generation did. This means you don’t have to have power out to your garage or drive to complete some tasks. My advice would be to buy the best quality one that you can, there’s a cautionary saying I like to use, “buy cheap buy twice”. A quality one will have spares back up and you’ll be able to buy things like brushes and other spare parts should they wear out and some even have a return to base for fixing warranty too. This will mean you’re not just having to throw it away if it breaks then buy a new one. A lot of the time when you see people using grinders, wherever you’re watching it, you’ll see that they’ve removed the guards, this is a big no no – the guards are there for a specific reason! I always leave the guards on mine but I’ve still managed to catch myself with a disc that jammed and jumped back at me when cutting some metal. It cut through my glove, and I ended up in hospital having some stiches, luckily no permanent damage was caused so I’ll say again, please don’t remove the guards! I also have something called finger file or belt Sander these are great for knocking the tops off welds, getting into little areas that are difficult to get to when your angle grinder won’t fit, a very worthwhile investment. Again, buy the best one you can afford, what you’ll find is the better ones are also usually smaller lighter, and you can use them for a longer time without your arms wanting to drop off through fatigue. When using all of these tool’s PPE is very important, overalls, goggles, ear defenders, gloves and a dust mask for when your grinding or drilling. You really don’t want to be breathing that metal dust in or getting it in your eyes and keeping your clothes free of all the contaminants too.

Being able to see your work is very important, this might seem obvious, but many people forget about it. You’ll probably find that no matter how bright you think your garage is lit there’ll be areas under the car or under wheel arches in places where you’re trying to work that you won’t have enough light. A good plug in or battery powered work light is a good investment. A lot of work lights come cordless and with magnetic bases these days so you can stick them where they need to be and they light the specific area you working in. One thing to do though is don't forget where you've left it and end up driving off with the light on underneath the car or worse your mate drive off with your light stuck to his car.

One of our most popular demonstrations at the show is our panel fabrication demonstration showing how the Wheeling machine (English wheel) works metal. I always get people coming to ask about buying a Wheeling machine after that demo. What I usually ask them is “why” they want a Wheeling machine and what projects they are working on, because nine times out of 10 we find that a Wheeling machine isn’t the best first piece of equipment they need – unless you’re restoring a coach-built car you probably won’t be needing a Wheeling machine. My suggestion for the best first investment in your garage would be a decent shrinker stretcher machine, there will be way more use for this than a Wheeling machine. If you don’t use them as much as you’d like, then you’ll always get your money back when selling them on. A good second investment, alongside your shrinker stretching machine is a folder. With these two pieces of equipment and your other basic tools you'll be able to make most panels for a classic car at home.

If you are taking on the restoration of a hand built or coach-built car or another vintage vehicle that requires a lot of double curved panels, then you will need to buy a Wheeling machine. When I first started restoring and went back to college Wheeling machines were few and far between and lots were getting scrapped or discarded, people didn’t want them not many knew what they were for, it was a lost art at the time. Luckily times have changed in the intervening years, TV shows and the Internet have helped make coachbuilding and metal shaping a lot more popular and so wheeling machines are more easily available now. It doesn’t take much time on the Internet to find a varied array of different machines for sale. If money is no object and you’re going to be using it to make your living, then invest in the best one that you possibly can. Lots of people prefer the old cast machines by companies such as FJ Edwards or Kendrick and if you can get an old original Ranalah they’re said to be the Rolls Royce of Wheeling machines. Having used one they are a lovely machine. You can now buy a brand new Ranalah that’s been cast recently in this country or made in this country, and they look exactly as the originals did. I also think half size ones are going to be available soon too. If you can’t go as far as a cast machine, then there are fabricated ones which are fine and work well. The important thing you need to make sure of is that the wheels, the top wheel and the lower wheels or anvils as they're sometimes called, are of good quality because these are what moves the metal to shape the panel, alongside your skills obviously. I’ve used a very cheap vice mounted machine that was not particularly stiff, wobbled about a lot, but the wheels were really nicely shaped, and you could get a good finish on small panels with that machine so that’s what you need to look at when buying a machine if you've got a limited budget.