Well, i went over to my grandmother(mid 60s)'s house the other day, and we were chitchatting and whatnot, started talking about her garage and how filled up it was....i told her i'd clean it out, but asked what was all filled up, she then told me that it was my great-grandfather's stuff....so i was talking to the great grandmother (82)and she said a bunch of his old stff was downstairs in the corner....i had never thought his old tools were there, but sure enough after he died my grandmother didn't sell them even though apparently when they sold off his mint 65 fairlane 390v8 car the buyer wanted all his tools also....my great-grandfather was a mechanic for the better half of his life, about 65 years or so, so today i went to my grandma's and cleaned out the garage...thought i was never going to find the good tools amongst all the things i pulled out, about a milliion tins of drill bits and tap and die sets, then i kept finding portable tool boxes, thinking i'd hit the jackpot, but inside i'd find a few wrenches, but nothing much more and normally speradically placed drill bits. LOL (he mustuva done tons of drilling). Then i found the motherload, stashed away in the coner was a red toolchest, opened it up, and every type of mac/craftsman/and snap-on tool was in the box that anyone could ever want. Even found a set of racheting wrenches (i thought that couldn't be right, since i thought it was a newer idea, but the box hadn't been opened since about 1987). either way, i now have about 3k of tools weighing down my firebird, just thought i'd tell my good fortune and give a big thanks to my great-grandfather.

 

awsome. why to go great grand dad.

my grandfather was a mechanic for a long time too. was the best in the LA area i am told. my grandmother says he could diagnose any car just by driving it.

 

My grandpa's been a mechanic in the past...never really did it as a job but he fixed all his own cars...but he doesn't know anything about modern cars. He's used to carburetors and points...

Way to go on the motherlode man! Wish I had that kinda luck!

 

Pretty cool! Did he have any metric taps/dies? I need to get myself a decent (not $20) set of SAE and metric taps/dies... those damn things are expensive (~$100 each set)!

 

While we're on the subject, I inherited a set of tools from dad that were bought in a dirt cheap lot, and most of them are old, rusty, etc. not well kept. What can I do to clean them off? My friend suggested soaking them in karosene, but I'm not sure this will take the rust off them. What do you guys use to clean tools?

What about that electrolysis thing Doward showed us a while back?

Mathius

 

cleaning them in some fashion is a good starter. But I would think normal use would help take some of the "age" off.

 

Dale,

I agree with you on that, but some of them are just a pain in the *** to work with, for example, using a pair of pliers that are barely loosened with WD40 is no fun! Any tips would be appreciated.

Mathius

 

A mix of kerosene, mineral spirits and ATF is a good cleaner. Can even soak them in just the kero & ATF and see how it works.

RBob.

 

Supposedly you can use http://www.por15.com 's "Metal Ready" for tools. It's a zinc wash that helps remove rust... and the zinc it leaves behind helps prevent rust. You could use it after you clean the tools.

And hey, brake cleaner always works wonders

 

I would doubt that there are a set of SAE metric Dies in there, haven't gotten to look through all of it yet though . Today i think i'm gonna go ahead and get te karosine (if i can find out where to get some) and start dropping them in to get the ages off them.

 

ATF? Doesn't ring a bell.

Mathius

 

Automatic Transmission Fluid.....