Shop Sanctuary – A Guide to the Latest Garage Gear and Tools
For hot rodders and car enthusiasts, a garage is more than just a storage facility. It’s their sanctuary. It doesn’t matter if you’re fabricating parts for a new project, wrenching on an old one, or buffing and detailing your pride and joy to a show-worthy luster, garage time is garage time. It serves as an escape from the daily grind and world news. And while garage time can occasionally be challenging or overwhelming, for the most part our hobby workspaces are calming and rewarding places to hang out and work to turn our dreams into reality.
One cool thing about garages and hobby shops is that they vary in shape, size, and appearance as much as our project cars do! There are clean and sanitary garages that look like an F1 race team stop, then those that are packed to the rafters with parts and tools with only a single path to move through. Some reach 2,500 square-feet or more, while others may fit just a single car that gets rolled out to wrench on it. No matter how much or how little space you have, the important thing is to make the most of what you have.
Your garage should be your happy place, even if it’s just to look at your car and ponder cleaning it up, fixing a small rattle, or maybe getting ready for a more ambitious project like installing that new drivetrain. Regardless of the size or condition of your garage, one thing is certain: you need tools and shop supplies! To answer those needs, we called a few companies and took to the web to see what’s new in garage gear to help improve your garage and shop time.
Speedway Motors
Low Lifting
Every garage needs a reliable floor jack and Speedway Motors has you covered with its line of Black Flag Eliminator aluminum floor jacks. These floor jacks were designed by car guys, for car guys and built to safely lift hot rods, muscle cars, and race cars for years to come. One of the key advantages of the Eliminator is its extra low design as it only needs 2 3/8-inches of ground clearance to get into position.
Another important feature is the aluminum construction resulting in an easy-to-maneuver weight of just 37 pounds! The jack features a wide base and broad saddle to ensure stability and support, and the quick-lift pump cylinder reaches max height in under five strokes. The Black Flag jacks are black powder coated and anodized ensuring protection and are ideal for any garage or trailer. Several models are available at Speedway Motors.
Snap-On
Classic, Secure Tool Storage
One of the most important pieces in any garage or shop is the toolbox. A toolbox helps organize, store, and secure all the gizmos, gadgets and mechanical instruments we need to fix and fiddle with our cars. Having the space to keep things sorted and secure is top priority, so why not step up to best name in professional tool storage – Snap-on.
Snap-on offers many different series of toolboxes, but we gravitated toward their 36-inch Seven Drawer Single Bank Classic Series Roll Cab. The 32-inch drawers are wide enough for pry bars and torque wrenches and each drawer is supported with 227-pound slides. The drawer depths come in 3-, 4- and 5-inches to help organize each tool. The Classic Series features a 14-guage bottom panel, corner gussets on each corner, rolled edges, and deep pulls on the drawers with heavy duty casters for a smooth, quiet ride.
Element Fire Extinguisher
Fight Fire with Element
As cool as hoists, toolboxes, and torque wrenches are, there is one tool that every garage needs to have: a fire extinguisher. Remember, we’re making sparks and using fuel, so having an effective fire extinguisher nearby is mandatory. The line of extinguishers from Element provides an innovative and effective way of looking at extinguishers.
Element fire extinguishers are available in two models, the E50 Professional and the E100 Industrial. The E50 is the most popular model, offering 50 seconds of fire-fighting protection, (about four times longer than a standard 5-pound bottle). Plus, the Element is up to 80 percent smaller and service-free. These extinguishers are non-pressurized, potassium nitrate-based units that fight fire on a molecular level, making them safer to use, mess-free, non-toxic, non-corrosive, and environmentally friendly. Be sure to keep one in your car, too.
Summit Racing
Heavy Helper
Working on and around cars means there’s going to be a lot of heavy parts to lift, shuffle around, and store. It’s a good thing that car guys like to help their fellow hobbyists, but what do you do when no one is around to help move a transmission or short block?
Summit Racing has the answer with its Hydraulic Table Cart. This useful cart is perfect for lifting and moving heavy, awkward parts and easily lowers down to ease loading or unloading, then simply use the foot pedal-operated hydraulic cylinder to raise the table to the desired level. Better yet is that you can use the cart as a workbench! The Hydraulic Table Cars feature a robust steel construction and heavy-duty swivel casters and Summit Racing offers them in 500- and 1,000-pound capacities.
UCoat It
Clean Floor, Clean Space
It is amazing how a floor can transform a garage or small shop. A well-finished floor can brighten the space and make cleanup of spills and drips so much easier. UCoat It floor coatings will help you transform your garage floor into a great looking and extremely durable surface that will last for years to come.
Known for their durability, chemical resistance, and easy maintenance, UCoat It products are ideal for automotive showrooms, garages, and shops. Their multi-layer coating systems include primers, color coats, decorative flakes, and protective topcoats – resulting in a professional finish. The installation kits are easy to prepare and apply and are available in a high-gloss solid color, a bold flake broadcast, a slip-resistant texture, or other customizable solutions to fit your needs.
TP Tools & Equipment
Bench Size Blaster
Playing with old cars means you’re going to be working with some grimy, painted, and rusty parts. To make these old parts look like new, you’ll save a lot of time with an abrasive blast cabinet and TP Tools has just what you need with its Mini Bench Top Blast Cabinet.
TP’s compact model SC-28BT comes fully assembled and measures 29-inches wide, 19-1/2-inches deep, and 28-inches high, making it ideal to strip away the paint and rust on a multitude of parts. The cabinet, made of 24-gauge USA steel, comes fully assembled and includes 24-inch gloves, 7-feet of air hose, a large viewing lens, and requires 10-15cm @ 80-psi. Pour in the abrasive, connect the air, and start blasting.
Trick-Tools
Multi-Tasking
When garage space is at a premium, it’s important to have tools that can adapt and be used in different applications. The MutliTool Belt Grinder from Trick-Tools is a perfect example of a multi-tasking tool for any garage.
The Multitool Belt Grinder provides four different grinding surfaces to cover the needs of nearly any project. The most used surface is the front contact wheel, which has a serrated surface making grinding and deburring controllable and smooth. The top can be used for straightening or profiling longer edges, and the underside of the Multitool has a slack belt area for blending and finishing. Lastly, the 7-inch disc on the side can be used for beveling and profiling or final finishing. The belts can be changed in seconds depending on the task and Trick-Tools offers different belts to match your needs.
Armadillo Tough
Solid Storage Cabinets
A challenge in setting up your garage workspace can be getting the right size cabinets and toolboxes to fit together to produce the most efficient space for your specific application. The team at Armadillo Tough has made it their mission to provide preconfigured cabinets and storage that can transform your garage into a useful workshop.
Armadillo Tough’s 7-Piece Storage and Cabinet sets, available through Summit Racing, offer five different flexible configurations to suit your needs and space. They cabinets are made from 21-gauge steel for durability and covered with a scratch, stain, and rust resistant red, black, or gray, powdercoat finish. The 7-Piece Storage and Cabinet system is supplied with mounting brackets and hardware to set up in different configurations. Other sizes and kits are available ranging from three to 12-piece sets.
Griots Garage
Reel in the Power
We all know Griot’s Garage for its line of advanced cleaners, detailers, and waxes to help protect and make our cars look their best, but did you know they also offer a line of cool garage accessories? One that caught our attention while at their open house before the 37th Griot’s Garage Pacific Northwest Nationals presented by Wicked Fabrication was this heavy-duty Retractable Extension Cord Reel.
Griot’s Swivel Mount Reel is easy to mount and features a 45-feet extension cord that accepts three grounded plugs. No more extension cords on the floor to trip over! The Reel features a 3-foot-long inlet cable with a 16-amp circuit breaker, and a reset button. The reel’s auto-latching mechanism sets the desired length of cable in 18-inch intervals and has a manual lock option to ensure safety.
Woodward Fab
Under Pressure on the Workbench
A hydraulic press might not be a tool that you need to use a lot, but when you do, wow is it nice to have your own. Woodward Fab has a great solution with its 10 Ton Hydraulic Press (model PR102) that is ideal for pressing, bending, shaping, or assembling parts, yet it features a compact design that fits on a sturdy workbench to save valuable floor space.
The Woodward Fab 10 Ton Shop Press utilizes a hydraulic cylinder to generate smooth, controlled force ensuring consistent results. The strong steel construction frame reduces vibration and ensures durability with extra stability during use. The frame also features a good amount of travel to help work with larger components and the press plates are easy to adjust and position.
Guni Wheel
Project Rolling
It’s a lot easier to move a project vehicle when it has wheels and the GUNI Wheel was designed to help roll projects around the garage. The wheels feature heavy duty steel construction with an airless molded rubber “tread” to make it easy to move a half-finished project. In fact, the GUNI Wheels are safer to have on your project rather than having it on jack stands or rolling on wood wheels.
The original GUNI Wheel is available to fit hub patterns from four to eight lugs, and each powder-coated rim features slotted mounting holes for adjustability. The popular 45S model offers a deeper offset to clear large-caliper disc brakes. The latest design, the GUNI Wheel X, has an interchangeable hub system plus the unique ability to convert to a free-spinning wheel by removing the four outer locking bolts to move vehicles with locked axles or brakes.
Real Garage Life
Hoist it Up
For home garages and small workshops, a hoist is the crown jewel of tools. Not only does a hoist give you easy access to underneath your car, but it also frees up workspace and even provides room for another car! Real Garage Life are experts in two- and four-post lifts and can help you select the right hoist for your specific application – and be sure to check out their new “View in My Garage” app to see how a lift will fit in your garage.
One of the company’s most popular four-post hoists is the Advantage Lift DX-9000-HD with its 9,000-pound capacity and 7’9” height. Advantage supplies this lift with a set of heavy-duty casters to reposition the lift when needed, aluminum ramps, wheel chocks, four drip trays, a rolling jack tray, and automatic-engaging wheel stops.
Optima
Charging and Maintaining
When it comes to performance batteries, Optima is the first name that comes to mind with its proven line of AGM batteries. To help you maintain and keep your battery at its optimum performance level, Optima also offers a line of battery chargers, with the D200+ Maintainer and Charger.
This compact, smart little device will ensure your battery is maintained at its full capacity and act as a slow charger when needed. The Charger features a two-amp output, an integrated LED charging status indicator, and a dual-function battery gauge for pre-charge testing and in-progress charging status. The D200+ can be used on lead-acid 12-volt batteries, all AGM batteries, as well as 12-volt lithium models such as Optima’s new Orange Top Lithium series.
Obsessed Garage
Wall Mounted Air
Every garage needs an air compressor. Even if you don’t use air tools or have a sand blaster, there will come a day when you need air in a tire or even for your kid’s bike. There are plenty of air compressors to choose from depending on your needs, but if you simply need some air to maintain tire pressure or dust out the interior, take a look at the FIAC Wallair available from Obsessed Garage.
The Wallair is a compact consumer air compressor that can easily be mounted to the wall and out of the way. The Wallair is a tankless compressor that is perfect for airing up tires, using small tools, or to dust off your engine or interior. It even has a built-in reel with 30 feet of hose to be able to reach all the tires without moving the car.
Grizzly
Organized and Charged
Battery-powered tools and lights are an essential in every garage, but it doesn’t take long for all those different chargers to clutter up your workbench. We found a number of useful wall mount organizers made specifically for battery-powered tools, such as this handy example from Grizzly.
This Power Tool Charging Station has three sections to keep your tools organized and the batteries charged. There are hangers on the bottom to secure up to six different cordless drills or impacts, while the mid shelves can store smaller devices. Up top there is a four-outlet surge protector, space for different chargers, plus two USB ports. Charging and storage all in one space!
10+ Garage Gear Essentials
Don’t know where to start to get your garage or workspace organized? We did an informal survey of our staff and developed this list of must-have garage gear for any DIY hot rodder – in no particular order.
LED Lighting – See the light! Upgrade everything from overhead to underhood
A Big Vise – It’s like a strong set of extra hands; bigger the better.
Jack Stands – Imperative to have on hand; no explanation required
Thread Pitch/Bolt Size Tool – Handy in helping find the right fasteners
Grinder – A wire wheel makes quick work of cleaning threads and more
Shop Fan – Moving a little air around makes a big difference
Mini Fridge – Cool beverages, leftovers, and a canvas for your favorite decals and magnets
Parts Washer – Nice to have for greasy/grimy parts
Leak Tray or Absorbent Pads – Old things leak, keep your floor clean and dry
Bolt Organizers – Organization is a huge time saver – highly recommended
A/C and Heat – A luxury more than an essential, but climate control makes a huge difference
Photos: Courtesy of the Manufacturers and from the Goodguys Archives
