25 Tools Every Gearhead Needs

Related: 10 Common Car Problems You Shouldn't Need a Mechanic To Fix

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Related: 10 Signs You're Not Taking Care of Your Car

The garage is a gearhead's sanctuary. It's where he spends a large majority of his time, caring for his car(s), learning the ins and outs of every piece of metal, plastic, and rubber. It's necessary to keep this place an enjoyable environment. So, before you buy any of your large sets of tools, it's extremely important to grab some storage and organizational tools first. Big honkin' toolchests with lots of compartments are perfect for keeping things tidy and in place.

An average driver has one set of all-purpose, all-season tires. A person who's extremely into his or her cars might have up to four sets. You could have your regular tires, your track tires, your winter tires, and if you own an off-roading vehicle, mudding tires. Maybe you even own slicks. The point is, if you have this many tires but don't want to purchase rims for every set of rubber, you're going to need to learn how to change out the actual tire. Having to take it into Discount Tire all the time would be annoying, so you might as well just add this piece of machinery to your three-car garage.

There are hundreds of uses for a compressor in a garage. You fill up your tires, you use pneumatic tools, and you could even use it for clean-up. Make sure you've got one of these in the corner.

We can't begin to tell you how much money and time one of these little geniuses will save you. See your check engine light on? Plug this bad boy in and out pops a code or set of codes. Look to the book, and the code translates into a specific problem, whether it's a misfiring cylinder or a problem with the fuel sensor. It tells you what you need to get on the right track.

If you use your drill bits as much as we do, they're going to get dull. It's inevitable. So, get a sharpener, instead of getting new ones every time.

You don't have somebody come into your home and paint your walls, do you? Oh ... you do. Well, you shouldn't, it's really simple to paint, actually. Painting a car is much morem difficult. That's why you need a bunch of specialty tools and an immaculate environment (hence, the spray booth). You can't have dust and dirty air particles floating around, so you need to create a vacuum-like, sterile area to lay down the coats, which you'd do with your fancy new spray gun.

Cars, especially these days, don't have much space in between their lowere extremities and the ground. In order to properly work on something you're going to get under there. Using a hydraulic car jack, that's a piece of cake, Give it a few pumps (pause) and you're good.

If you love your car, you're probably going to end up spending just as much time underneath it as you will in it. That's why this piece of safety equipment is largely important. It's not good idea just to leave the car propped up on a hydraulic car jack (they have wheels, duh!). You don't want something to accidentally shift and have thousands of pounds of metal falling directly on your face or chest. Always make sure you have backup security.

For a lot of jobs, a jack and jack stands are completely appropriate and adequate. However, if you're really serious about working on your ride, a car lift might be the way to go. The pain of the price will be eased, once you realize how much easier it is to simply stand under a car and fix it, rather than trying to squeeze under. Exhaust work, transmission work, clutch work will all be infinitely more accessible. Hell, you'll be able to change your oil in five minutes with a full lift.

If you're a true gearhead, you should be able to completely tear your car down and put it back together. When you're working on that old '60s muscle car and want to replace the current V6 with a big block, you're going to need a way to get that hunk of complicated parts out of the bay. Something like a crane, maybe?

The crane isn't the end of the line. Once it's out, you don't want it swingin' all around like a 6-year-old on a tire at the playground. You want it in a sturdy, secure place, especially if you're going to be working on it more.

If you're capable of changing out an engine block, then you're definitely capable of swapping a transmission. You don't want your parts just lying on the ground, so make sure you've got a place to put it.

Face it, dude, your impressively strong fingers still aren't enough to get that bearing off. A set like this gives you a slide hammer puller, hub puller, jaw pullers, a bearing puller attachments, and a gear and pulley puller (no, we didn't make that last one up). You'll never have to worry about pulling your wrist out of place ever again.

The freon, or refrigerant, in your car's air conditioning unit doesn't go bad per say, but it does occasionally need recharging and cleaning. These tools suck out the liquid, charge it back up and put it back in. That's that simple life.

Let's get into the body work division of the garage. When you're restoring an older car, there's a good probability that you're going to need to replace some part of the body or floor panels (damn you, rust). This will help you cut your sheet metal into the correct shapes. These were once expensive, but have recently become more affordable to people like you and me.

Time to learn some terminology. MIG stands for Metal Inert Gas. This type of welding is when the gun uses a piece of wire connected to an electrode current and inert (unreactive, nonoxidizing) gas to connect two pieces of metal together. Argon is the most common inert gas used. TIG stands for Tungsten Inert Gas and uses Tungsten attached to an electrode current and inert gas to join the metal. In these processes, the wire in MIG welding is incorporated into the metal, while the tungsten in TIG welding is not.

The combination of Oxygen and Acetylene is another option, when it comes to the welding world. If you look, these torches have to pipelines coming to the tip. Each has its own valve and tank to regulate pressure and amount of each gas. When the two come together and are sparked, this creates an extremely hot-burning flame. This gets the metal close to its melting point. Then, a second stream of oxygen is pumped in, oxidizing the spot, and essentailly cutting through the metal.

You want a new exhaust, do you? Don't take it to the shop. Build one on your own using one of these metal piping benders to shape the necessary line.

This is another body work tool. You can bend, break, shape, and cut with one of these puppies.

Shop presses are pretty versatile. Whenever you won't be able to produce enough pressure with your massive shoulders, you use an electric press. It helps with things like bushing, bearings, joints, or any other pressure-fitted piece. It can also be used for forming and shaping metal.

Another staple in automotive restoration is a pneumatic grinder. Most often than not, rust is going to be the victim.

The air chisel is definitely not an everyday tool in the garage. You won't be using this on any simple repairs, but rather on the big jobs of dismantling a vehicle you're planning on restoring. This will making tearing through sheet metal much easier.

Ever have those lugnuts that won't budge no matter what you try? Even after spraying rust solvent on it for five straight minutes? Prevent pulling a muscle with an impact wrench. It does all the work, without you even breaking a sweat.

Cars don't car what season it is. They're going to break down on you when they damn well please. Summer, winter, spring, fall, you're going to end up in your garage at all times. So, it's necessary to make sure you're not sweating bullets (dydration and slippery hands can be equally dangerous) or freezing to death (numb body parts are never good when you're trying to feel out where to put in those bolts). Ventilation is equally as important, as there will surely be fumes that you're going to need exiting out of your work space.

At last, we've come to the most important tool of them all: the device that keeps your beverages of choice (did somebody say beer?) crispy. A garage isn't complete without one of these