air tools, which brand?

[Slowpoke]

I am getting ready to start on some body work on the charger and need new air tools.
last time I had used my brothers ones but need my own now.
What brand and which tools should I be looking for.
The parts I am working on are fenders, hood and trunk lid to start with, some minor rust repair and getting ready for paint mostly.
Thanks in advance for the help guys.

[b5blue]

  While not an air tool, a member here suggested I get a large electric disk sander to strip the body. I got a 29.00 Harbor Freight and a mess of disks. Boy did that save time and money! Not running the crap out of my compressor was a big help also. Their shears and cut off wheel worked well for cutting sheet steel/body panels but the small air driven saw never worked at all. If your just doing one car you can save $$ there but it's depends on your goal. I used the HPLV spray guns for epoxy prime and at 12.00 could just chuck them in the trash after a few jobs rather than deal with all the cleaning.  (They could have been saved, I just got sick of messing with 18.00 per gal. Lacquer thinner!) Except that stupid saw all the tools lasted and still work so I'm okay with it, just save the receipt and use/test the tool right away as they will refund for any reason within 30 days.   

[AZMoparboy]

I'm an aircraft mechanic and when I go to work I want to know that my tools are working because I make a living with my tools. And if you can afford it you can get the best tools that will do the job for you and perform day in and day out. But at home I buy tools that I'm going to use one time or two and I am done with it, I can't afford to expose my wallet to those kind of numbers. I really like IR tools. In manufacturing I see more of these used and perform adequately. They are totally re-buildable and can live a lifetime plus many more years, but again you're going to drop some change and be that far in the hole if you're only trying to use these tools half-dozen times.

I know that when people say Harbor freight it's like saying a dirty word. But if you buy an air tool and it wears out in the short amount of time you spent a fraction on the tool and you can go buy another one and still many dollars in your pocket. I marched to my drummer you'll have to march for your drummer good luck

[b5blue]

Well said! Another dirty word may be Pawn, I got a 35.00 jigsaw for 7.00 that included a bunch of blades worth 7.00. 

[sardillim]

I will only but Ingersoll rand or  Chicago Pneumatic





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[bill440rt]

I have a pretty wide range of air tool brands, like I.R., Chicago Pneumatic, MAC, Blue Point, Snap-On, etc. Spray guns range from $20 cheapo swap meet picks to Devilbiss & SATA.
It all depends on what I needed the tool for at the time. I try to find the best deals on the best tools that fit within the budget first. Cheap tools have their place, there is nothing wrong with them if you can get good usage out of them.

[A383Wing]

I'm in the same boat as Bill above...wide range of brands....

just remember, you need a better compressor to keep up with long time air tool usage..if you can also do electric, go for it

[Slowpoke]

some good advice here. I will look for I.R. to start and also an electric sander.
like most of us I cant stand a tool that breaks when you need it.

[jaak]

I too like everyone else have several different brands. Tools that get heavy use/abuse, I get better brand, stuff that stays in the box and only comes out a couple times a year is usually CH from walmart or CP from Harbor Freight. I will say this I bought my Snap On impact probably 13-14 years ago, and it is a good one. When I bought it, I sort of had buyers remorse spending 300+ for an impact, but still using it now all these years later, I'm glad I bought it. It is just here recently seems like its not as strong as it use to be, but I talked to a Snap On rep here not long ago, he said I could send it by him and get it remanned for $130, thinking about doing that instead of buying a new one.

Jason

[Troy]

Honestly, for bodywork I've been using Harbor Freight stuff. (See the Harbor Freight tools thread for a full list.) I use a pair of straight cut-off tools for the bulk of cutting and grinding welds (one with 3" cutting wheel and one with a 3" 3M grinding wheel). I paid under $8 each and have had them for over six years. I never oil them and sometimes my compressor blows water through them. One is starting to make little gurgling noises. I use HF cutting wheels in the 10 packs so they're cheap but the 3m grinding wheels cost as much as the grinder for a 3 pack. Luckily I'm almost done with a whole car and I'm only on the fourth wheel.

Then there's the "high speed metal saw". Love this thing! Under $15. Mine is cut and scraped and generally beat up but still (mostly) cuts when I need it too. If you bind it up (real easy when working on floors or contoured metal) you have you "unstick" the blade by yanking on it. Finger off the trigger of course!

I finally broke down and got an air drill last year. It might have been $15. It's much smaller and lighter than my electric drill so I can maneuver it around inside the car without wearing myself out. It cuts holes for spot welds in a jiffy. I have successfully used it with my spotweld cutter - but the speed has to be kept low of the bits wear out way too fast (and they *are* expensive!).

Air Hammer! Yeah, with a sharp chisel you can cause yourself 20-50 hours of extra labor in a heartbeat! If you're careful you can save yourself about 10 minutes. I have an attachment to use it as a body hammer with a dolly but, after the chisel experience, I'm a little leery.

There's a 5" D/A sander. It works. It's too slow for me so I also have a 6" sander/grinder that will eat through the outer sheet metal on a car with 36 grit discs in a few seconds!

There's an air sander with little belts. It's very fragile but it's awesome when you need it! I recently had to grind some welds inside the area between the radiator support and frame rail. Took about 3 minutes - after I remembered I had the tool!

I have a flanger/punch tool that I used twice. Of course, NOW, I don't flange anything so that was sort of a waste.

I have several of their HVLP guns (primer, detail, etc.). Most of what I spray gets sanded off.

I have a pile of inline air dryers. Mainly for the paint guns.

I have nipples/connectors on all my tools from HF. I think I bought a pack at Lowe's once just because it came with a free air chuck that I needed.

I *was* buying their 50' air hoses. The PVC ones are on sale for about $10 regularly but the rubber ones are $20+. The place where I bought my compressors now sells commercial grade rubber hoses for $20 so I buy them. I have only blown up one hose (now I replace them when they look worn) and it was an interesting experience! Crawling around inside a car with hacked off metal pieces really wears the end of the hose closest to your tools. You can buy 5-6' armored "leads" if you're worried about it.

One of the tools I use often that isn't HF is an Ingersoll Rand 90 degree angle grinder which cost $60. It works about as good as the HF version. It replaced and identical one that lasted about 3 hours - which is how I ended up with the HF models. It's easier for me to toss a $9 tool in the garbage five times than warranty a $60 tool. I originally chose the more expensive tool just because it's a 90 degree version and it gets twisted and torqued on fairly heavily. HF tools with bad reviews are usually ones that have some sort of complex gearing (like 90 degree turns).

Now, my compressor is a beast! It's a commercial version with "constant run" capability. It cost about $1,100. Air sanders/grinders eat up a very high volume of air (cheap ones even more so) and a small compressor will be overloaded almost instantly.

Troy