Workshop Fitout

On top of the lessons learnt, I thought I would share the additional tools I have used or added to the workshop during the build. This will give new builders an idea of what is needed beyond spanners.

• Engine crane - rated to 750kg with adjustable boom and castors. I used this to lift the car a lot as well when fitting the engine
• Engine stand - for dressing the engine before it goes in the car
• Trolley jack - spend as much as you can and get one with as much lift as possible
• Chassis stands - height adjustable with fine screw adjustment.
• Digital vernier calipers
• Hex head sockets - better than Allen keys!
• Torque wrenches - I have two, one with a smaller range and one with a much larger range for big jobs like flywheel bolts
• Sharp set of side cutters
• T-bar - with connectors for sockets or hex bits
• Stepper drill bits - for carefully enlarging holes out to as big as 22mm
• Quality soldering iron
• Electrical wiring crimper (good quality)
• Auto electrical specific multi-meter
• 1mm metal cutting wheel for the grinder
• Fine tip paint pen in a bright colour - for marking position or marking torqued nuts/bolts
• Good files for rough shaping of aluminum or steel brackets
• Dremel - used for everything! From cutting, finishing, sanding, grinding
• Rivnut gun - an expensive luxury best shared with a friend!

On top of this I had the usual set of ring and open ended spanners, sockets and screw drivers. I added quite a few larger spanners and sockets for jobs like fixing the upright ball joints, or tightening hub nuts. Most of these can be added as needed, but I can't emphasise enough the importance of using the right tool for the job. A vice and bench grinder is also handy.


One of the things I thought I would use a lot more was my compressor. I already had a rattle gun and I also got an air powered socket wrench. I guess the capacity and duty cycle was a little low on my compressor as it was more of a pain to use than being of any great benefit. I ended up using a cordless driver with socket attachments a lot more than anything else.