History Tool availability back then

I was watching Michael Waller on "Britainia Motorcycles" on youtube this morning where he filled a hole in a switch panel with a metal patch on the back side with solder saying that while he could have done it with TIG, MIG, or torch welding that not all of us have these tools. Got me thinking about this old picture where Barris' shop cut a hole to install an extra tailight on a Sting Ray by drilling a series of small holes around the circumference. Now I would just use an appropriate hole saw or buy one if I didn't have the right size. Today we are spoiled by the plethora of affordable tools available to us from places like Princess Auto or Harbor Freight, but what did Joe Lunchbox have back then?

 

an oval shaped hole saw

 

First, you gotta stop using those big words....plethora? Whats that....a movie monster from japan? (just kidding, I ain't really that dumb).
I think we were more like craftsmen then, less so now, a friend just passed away two weeks ago, Frank McCabe, an old school body and fender man, worked at Brown Brothers ford for 40 years, I seen him repair and make some wondrous stuff with worn out hand tools, which I was lucky enough to get. Patience was his forte, he rebuilt a crushed garbage set of front fenders for my 36 that are beautiful, he never had quality tools, made his own slap hammers, inner fender hammers, odd looking tools only he knew what for, absolutely amazing work, but he thought of himself as a hacker.
Got a blood infection and at 87, went peacefully in the night. Classified as a covid death. Great loss of a huge talent.

 

When I started in a shop nearly 55 years ago , I had a ballpeen , two pick hammers & 2 dollies made from railroad rail , all used. My grandfather bought me a new s-k Wayne 3/8 drive socket set , 3/8-1" , one 6" extension & ratchet ,I bought a set ( sort of) of used craftsman box end open end wrenches , a couple pairs of pliers & a couple screwdrivers , &a crescent wrench. Borrowed what I needed the first few months. Tools were available , they just weren't affordable . Back then ,because no one could own everything , each guy bought his " special" tool to share with everyone , different times ..

 

In 1972 when I graduated from auto mechanics trade school I went to my first mechanic job with a 3 drawer Snap-On top box that wasn't exactly brimming with tools. I moved on to a different field of work (good move in my mind anyway) but still have the Snap-On tools and box, but have added more tools and a smallish Matco bottom box.....but nothing like the walk-in closet sized tool "walls" of today! I think working wisely with the tools you have is much more important than the collection.

Lynn

 

Sorry to hear about your buddy. I wish my could have met him. I still think my idea of car clubs canvassing retirement homes to build up a roster of mechanics, body and paint men, automotive electricians, etc. so someone could hire them, bring them to your place, give them lunch, and pay them. More importantly they would be able to use their brain/skills and educate at the same time!

 

Yes, thats a pretty good idea, he coached me while he was able, never lost his want to be in the shop.

 

I wanted to ride really bad. I had a '48 Ford Coupe, with a dead engine, and an engine and transmission in the shed, stretchers for barbed wire that had two pulleys, a kind of gripper and used thick rope. I also had a screw-driver, a pair of wire pliers and various bits and pieces of baling wire. Using the wire wrapped in a loop (also known as a Portuguese Windlass) around the handles of the pliers and tightened with the screwdriver, I was able to take the hood off, get the engine out (using the wire stretcher and various two by fours and a few other boards) and install the engine and transmission, get it hooked up well enough to drive away, filthy as a rat and with the sure and certain knowledge that when you apply yourself to a task, and have that lever Archimedes bragged about, you can move the world. Of course, I have had endings to some other stories that didn't end as happily as that, so I can report Life balances itself out with the sweet and the salty. But, tools properly used do not have to be what we imagine, only what we can make of them. After all, man started out with nothing more than his hands and feet, and his brain. That last part is biggest tool we have.

 

Had the same Snap-On set when I graduated. Got a really old Craftsman bottom box that a guy had a radial arm saw attached to through the want adds.

 

When I was an apprentice I enjoyed listening to an old English machinist who did his time right after the war. He told me that ordinary people didn't have tools then (in England), only tradesmen had a few, particular to their industry.

He would visit tools stores just to look at tools he couldn't afford. He related how when "Vise-Grip" pliers first showed up he just had to have a pair so saved up his money. The price was one pound sterling, which was exactly one week's wages as an apprentice.

 

I remember when I first started messing with cars I had a Craftsman tool box about 18” long with the lift out tray, a ratchet and sockets a set of combination wrenches, a Stanley hacksaw and an old Sioux body grinder. My Dad had an oxy-acetylene rig and a 12” disc sander mounted on the end of his workbench. One year he gave me a Miller buzz box stick welder for my birthday. That was it. I did everything on my cars and a lot of stuff for other guys with just those tools. Later I added some good Wiss snips and a Rigid pipe cutter because I was doing a lot of exhaust work. From 1966 to 1980 or so I made do with those tools and worked in one car garages. I thought I had everything I needed.


Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

There is a guy on youtube that has a bunch of how to body videos that are really informative. Goes by Fitzees Fabrication. He shows the tools he uses to do all his fabrication and body work, 110v wire feed, couple angle grinders, a few hammers, and some home made anvils to shape metal. He explains how he does everything in detail and why you don't need all sorts of fancy benders, brakes, presses and makes it look easy. His video on how to set up a small wire feed MIG welder is one of the best things I have ever seen for the home builder just starting out. I went to a community college to learn to MIG weld and never was shown the way to set up a welder. I think sometimes we get carried away now buying tools we don't really need to do a job. I have tools in my roll away I haven't used in five years!

 

I started getting tools at about 10 years old, Thorsen, as that was what you could get with Top Value trading stamps. My mom made me a deal that if I would stick the Green trading stamps in those little books, that I could have the Top Value stamps for whatever I wanted. Got a 3/8 and 1/2 inch ratchet set, some combination wrenches, a pair of adjustables (knuckle busters...), and a set of screwdrivers. I still have the screwdrivers, of all things. Over the years I started buying Craftsman tools, and the occasional SnapOn or Mac tool (too expensive and couldn't buy on Thursday night at Sears, the night they stayed open in those days, and it was payday).

The Thorsen tools for the most part were sold when I left an industrial mechanics job after 10 years to go to college. All the rest were bought for my racing efforts over the years, or just because...

Now I have to sneak new tools in the garage when She Who Must Be Obeyed isn't looking, unless it was bought for a project she wanted done.

Oh and I have a penchant for acquiring old used machinery now that I'm retired.

 

Adjustable spanners formed the heart of most home tool kits. Socket sets were exotic items out of reach for most. These are King Dick adjustable spanners ranging from 3" to 9". Strangely the smallest are the most expensive today.

Sent from my moto g(8) power using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

The sharpest tool is the one under your hat

 

I was always impressed with the people who could turn out some amazing body work with just a hammer and a tree stump!

 

What is it if don't wear hats ?

 

I just did a "cave and pave" job on my Granddaughter's theft recovered pick-up (a buy back from the insurance company). In the old days it would have been done with a bumper jack, a rock and a tree limb plus my one sanding block. I think I wound up spending about $400 or $500 on a porta power, Morgan knocker and other stuff just because it was easier that way to justify buying more one time use tools.

 

My Dad bought me a Craftsman starter set when I was 17 or 18. I've added a lot since, but still have and use the old stuff. And I have a few pieces that were my Grandfather's. And I use them too. A few years ago when my grandson was 6 or 7 he wanted tools for his birthday. Not play tools, real ones. I bought him a combo set from HF. I figured he would lose pieces so I didn't want to be pissed about it. To my surprise and great pleasure, he takes care of it!

 

When I was stationed at Clark AB years ago, a friend of mine had an OT Chevette that was always getting run into (no rules of the road off base, apparently). He often used a length of chain, a comealong, and a utility pole to pull the damage out again. One time the rear of the car was smashed in; he chained it to a utility pole and popped the clutch to yank everything out.

 

My dad built his t bucket in a storage shed. When the car was done he cut the end of the building off, made it into a hinged door to get the car out.

Now I have a decent 2 car garage and most any tool I need, and sometimes think i dont have enough tools, or space to do a job. Then i remember stories of building his, or people like you all mentioned above. Its less about the # of tools or the space, its how you use them

 

I still have the Thorsen 1/2" drive set of sockets that I got in high school. Have only broken one socket in all those years. Let's see, a break away with a 3 foot cheater on it. Opps. Still the first ratchet that I reach for.

 

Been there done that. Usually a tree instead of the utility pole however. LOL

 

“Tool availability “ to me goes back to the 60’s and 70’s with my dad. Hand tools he had, but the stuff we did while I was growing up...man.
Biggest life changer we had was when he bought an old Clark forklift. Looking back on those pre-forklift days, we’d joke about and wondered how we got by without it.
This was changing engines in his Pete, etc, moving tons of iron with home built crap that probably was the safest, but got the job done

Many years later I bought a Milling machine a few hours from home, brought my dad with me, some pieces of 2 inch water pipe a toejack , come along and a pry bar. The guy asked “where are the riggers?” We said we’re here. 20 minutes later we were strapping it in the trailer


You make do with what you have

 

When I started out with my first car about all I had was a hammer, the basic 3/8 to 7/8 combination wrenches screwdrivers and some pliers.
I have been collecting tools ever since because you can never have too many. I have never gotten rid of a tool and never will, even if I only use it once.

 

Did my first engine swap with a cheap Western Auto 3/8" socket set, a carpenter's hammer, 2 chains and a come-along chained to the rafters. Life was simpler, yet always an adventure.

 

Slightly above and behind the hole that passes from ear to ear.

 

Get one....?

 

If it worked, you did

 

Still have most of the Thorsen end wrenches from the first full set of wrenches I ever owned. Bought them on layaway from the local hardware store in the little one horse town I lived in in Oklahoma. Spent a lot of time bucking hay bales off the ground and throwing them six high on the wagon to pay for them.