And thanks for the environment kudos.. as we are having a huge Christmas party in the garage this year.. while it is clean and before tables get set up... I'll take some pictures, expecting 46-50 people. =)

 

my advice for starting a tool collection is to buy the tools as you need them. Though i would start with a set of sockets, open ended wrenches and other basics.

you dont need air tools, though they are nice. A 1/2" breaker bar + pb blaster with undo almost anything.

do get a nice jack stand (i have the tire rack version). ramps are nice as well, if you want to lift all four corners, they will make that easier.

I would post a picture of my garage, but its full of boxes and furniture

 

Our military base has a auto hobby shop for 4 dollars an hour including all toos and lifts and oil removal etc..i stopped buying any tools when i found this place.

 

so with that radiant heated floor you dont need any other heater to keep your garage warmed in the winter?

you have a badass garage!

 

I just went to home depot and bought the husky HD tools or whatever
have all ratcheting style wrenches, all my sockets 3/8 and 1/2 drive, deep sockets etc
i spent under 300$ and pretty much have everything ill need tool wise

Or u can get stuff from lowes, and pick up one of those 15% coupons

got 4 jackstands from harbor freight, and got a heavy duty lowprofile jack with a siqq LED light on it for 100bucks lol

After winter im probably going to buy a standup air compressor and one of the earthquake guns or whatever from harbor freight, i guess they are pretty good quality. After doing my car during the fall with mostly air tools, its so much faster and easier to work with.

As far as taking out a motor, exhaust, suspension stuff goes

 

Thanks... nope no other heat.. this setup can put out over 70k BTU... I am outside in the garage right now.. even when we had single digit nights.. never under 59 in here (I keep it set at that, aside from parties I raise it to mid 60s)

100% electric house, yet to have a bill creep over $350 in the winter.

 

Just an FYI... in our area, the post office "moving packets" have a 10% off lowes coupon... (packets are free just have to go in and ask for one), and Home Depot, Menards, etc all honor those coupons as well..

 

Well I was just going to put the floor jack on some very large flat boards if i needed to match the height of some higher jacks. ya i wonder if there is a good jack than lifts more than 22/23". just so u know here is the one i'm thinking of getting... 30" long, very low profile for the height of my stock evo. let me know what u think? thanks for the help!

http://www.homedepot.com/Tools-Hardw...atalogId=10053

 

You can get that but, harbor freight is a good place to go for that kind of stuff. i got the same jack basically with a lifetime warranty incase it ever breaks.. just go in and get a new one

 

Should have taken some pictures this weekend.. as I de-modded the car, back to stock wheels, winter tires, stock springs, silencer... was a productive weekend, and definitely enjoyed working on a warm floor, and one that can be cleaned up with a wipe (never liked oil soaked/stained concrete look)

 

My setup so far:
Jack and a couple set of jack stands (necessary)
Work bench with a mounted vice (necessary)
Large Craftsman toolbox
Full set of 3/8 shallow and deep 6 point and 12 point \
Full set of 1/2 shallow and deep 6 point and 12 point Metric and standard
Full set of 1/4 shallow and deep 6 point and 12 point /
Full set of Flat head and Philips screw drivers from stubbies to 14"
1/2" 16" long breaker bar (necessary... trust me)
Several sizes and types of ratchets, 1/4 3/8, and 1/2
Full set of box end wrenches for metric and standard
Several extensions for ratchet/sockets from 3" to 12"
Ratcheting wrenches (sooooo awesome) metric and standard
20ft/lb-150ft/lb torque wrench
10in/lb-200in/lb torque wrench
Metric and standard allen keys
Torx drive
Various sizes of adjustable wrenches
Soldering kit with lots of butt connectors etc....
Dremel with lots of cutting/sanding/buffing/etc...
Drop lights (more than one, necessary)
Kerosene heater
Extendable magnet (NECESSARY)
Hammer and rubber mallet
Ramps
Oil drain pans and a bucket to dump them into (I do 3 or 4 cars at a time when I do our oil changes)
Table mounted band saw
Miter saw
Table mounted router
Electric end grinder
Electric drill
Battery powered drill

I have a ton more, but I can't list it all.... Next up is a big compressor and air tools. I buy mine as I need them as well, and I only buy Craftsman and Snap-on due to their warranties/quality. You'd be amazed at how often you can break something when working on a car, case in point I shattered 2 19mm sockets a few weeks ago trying to take apart the front suspension on my Evo to install some Swift Spec-R's. Free replacements :-D

 

A couple things to mention/keep in mind. With Craftsman now part of the Danaher tool group, many of their hand tools are now chinese made. Yes their warranty still stands currently, but just bringing this to light for those who think Craftsman is the same it always was. The HF tools are also lifetime gauranteed, and free replacements, and may be at a better price point. I would suggest finding their items that are Taiwan made, rather than China made, such as some of their 'professional' tool line up.
Broke two 19mm sockets!?! Wow.. is your car sitting outside or in salt all the time? I just did put stock springs back on mine, (2004 evo w/ 84k miles) and broke them loose with a 1/2" breaker bar, no issues.

 

I think i bought my tool box first since mine doesn't have the bling bling wheels on it.
This is a pic of my box, my roll cart and my buddies garage where i work on my dsm. I was a tech for 7 years and lost my job for leaving a note on a 1g GSX asking if they ever wanted to sell it to give me a call. Two months later i bought my laser, but lost my job.

 

The best investment in tools that I have done is for an air compressor and quite a bit of pneumatic tools. Impact wrenches are amazing and make most jobs go that much quicker. I typically buy the tools as I need with the exception of last year where I bought a large list of tools that I wanted. Working on the car is much easier now and the only thing I don't have that I would like is a garage to work in. I would take a non heated garage at this point since I have to do everything in my driveway.

I also bought a majority of my tools and equipment online from an assortment of sites. You can find great deals online and a majority of the tools I purchased were tax free and shipped free.

 

Online is a good way for things that are expensive, to save tax... as long as the 'free shipping' isnt built into the price, which isn't uncommon. Yeah, I did the driveway work before... parking lot work... and made sure that when we built the house.. I had plenty of room to 'grow' into...

Agreed on the air compressor as well.. I have a 60 gallon, 5 (real) h.p. 2 stage.. puts out over 17cfm @ 90psi.