When I’m trying to fit bigger, wider wheels on my car, and I just need a bit more clearance, I pull this out of my bag of tricks: the Eastwood fender roller tool. Most fenders have a flange on ‘em that’s parallel to the ground, and it can potentially cut your tire.  Bolt the fender roller onto the hub, turn the handle, and that flange will be curved up flush against the outside-fender skin. Sometimes that extra 1/2″ is all you need.

Fender Roller [Eastwood Co.]

We’ve written numerous times about the art of pulling dash and other modern plastic interior pieces. But no amount of care will prevent damage if you don’t have the right tools. Here’s your chance to stock up in one shot: Eastwood’s 10-piece nylon pry tool set.

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Transmission jacks don’t come cheap — they usually start around $500 — so it doesn’t make sense to buy one for that rare occasion when you have to tear out the tranny on your ‘87 dually. Eastwood offers a more affordable solution: a transmission jack adapter that fits any jack with a 1-1/8″ post-style saddle. Just pull off the stock cup, put this unit in its place, and get to jackin’. Pricing is $85.

Transmission Jack Adapter [Eastwood]

Engine turning (also known as damascening, jeweling, krayling, or swirling) has long been associated with fine metalworking.  Whatever you call it, it’s a great way to add some bling to your project.  The process consists of using a spinning abrasive cylinder to make dazzling 3-D looking patterns on polished metal. You can see examples of the technique on everything from antique handmade pocket watches to retro hotrod parts.  If you want to try it yourself, Eastwood offers 1″ and 1/2″ kits that can be used with any drill press.

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Eastwood’s Tilt-A-Car System offers a simpler, more portable — and cheaper — alternative to installing a lift in your garage.  Sure, it looks like a human-sized drop trap, but it’s also a great way to work on the underside of your car.

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Hazy plastic headlights just scream “worn out,” and often make an otherwise-well-cared-for ride look down-and-out.  Here’s the cure: a restoration kit that lets you polish away the fog to better light night roads and lop years of your aging car.

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Eastwood’s offering 10% off a ton of stuff right now, including their famous vehicle tilter and their very popular line of planishing hammers and English wheels.  We seem to end up on Eastwood’s website at least once a week as they carry all sorts of interesting automotive tools — many of which we have in the shop.

One note, though: they do this 10% sale pretty regularly, so don’t get in a huff if you’re not ready to buy.  It’ll come around again soon.

Eastwood Co. [Corporate Site]

I found this “mini-nibbler” marked down ffrom $30 to $20 in the “web exclusive” section of the Eastwood Company’s website.  Eastwood claims they to require less effort to cut due to their unique blade and handle design, and they’ll start cutting from a hole as small as 1/4″.  They handle up to 16-gauge brass, copper, or aluminum and 18-gauge mild steel.

Eastwood Mini Nibbler [Eastwood Company]

While these are obviously intended for basic auto body panel straightening, they have all sorts of uses around the shop.  If you’ve ever found yourself trying to shape a piece of thin metal — sheet or otherwise — these are the core tools that’ll help you in the process.

And at just $25 for the set, there’s really no excuse not to have ‘em in the drawer, even if you have no intent of learning sheet metal work.  These are perfect for reshaping a metal bracket or putting a curve in a small piece of thin bar stock.  They’re not the best hammers and dollies around, but they’re great for general shop use.

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One of the first tricks to doing automotive interior work is to not be afraid to pull or push like hell on something to find out where the clips or screws are.  The second is to not use a screwdriver to do it.  Screwdrivers almost always leave a mark or gouge in the plastic.  A better choice: a glass filled nylon pry tool set that’s designed just for this type of use. 

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Eastwood Co’s running a sale on their original Hotcoat powdercoating gut, knocking $25 of its standard $99 price to bring it down to $74.99.  If you’ve been considering jumping in and trying your hand at powdercoating, this might be a good way to give it a go.

There are a ton of inexpensive powdercoating guns on the market, but we’ve always thought Eastwood’s was one of the best — mainly because Eastwood has been selling products like these for years and we suspect they can handle the required customer support.  Of course, we’ve also always suspected that the gun isn’t the difficult part in getting started powdercoating; Don’t forget that you’re going to need an oven or heat light setup, which can make the price of the powdercoating gun seem small.

We’ve heard of people installing old household ovens as an inexpensive alternative to professional rigs, and we do know that Harbor Freight sells a small oven specifically for powdercoating.

If you have experience with this particular product — or any of the many, many knockoffs, drop us a line and let us know.

Original Hotcoat Powdercoating Gun [Eastwood Co.]

PS: If you’re interested, the page linked above features a video showing the gun in action.

Eastwood’s offering a nice price on this 50 lb bottom-feed abrasive blaster right now.  One thought: Though they’re advertising it as a way to “get started abrasive blasting for just $99,” but that’s not entirely true.  As anyone who’s done any abrasive blasting can attest, you’ll need media and protective gear as well.  Thankfully, they have some pretty decent deals on those as well.

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Eastwood Co’s emailing subscribers today with an interesting daily special: a 3-piece adjustable profile gauge set.  If you haven’t seen profile gauges before, you’ll want to check it out — they’re pretty slick.

Essentially, they consist of a formable material that can be captured between a two-sided, firm frame.  To emulate curves on a surface, simply form the material to match, then lock it down with the frame.  Now you can carry the form-fitted gauge around to check other shapes against the one you captured.  In the photo in the email you see a gauge in common use — matching the curve of a Jaguar headlight cowling, probably to compare it to the other side to make sure they’re the same.

Anyway, the gauges are on sall for $49.99 (from $56.99) and come in a kit of three including 5″, 10″ and 15″ gauges.  They’re also for sale individually (though not discounted) should you require only one.

Adjustable Profile Guides [Eastwood Co.]

This is just a quick note to let you know that Eastwood Co. is currently holding a 10% off sale via their website.

The sale includes most items on the site, excluding a few high-value items such as Henrob torches, some replacement/aftermarket wiring harnesses, and a few electronic auto parts.  (See below for a link to the exclusion list.)  That leaves a ton of auto restoration goodies on sale.

If you’ve been considering a major purchase from Eastwood Co. — like an e-wheel for example (drool) — now may be the time.

Main Website [Eastwood Co.]
Sale Exclusion List [Eastwood Co.]

Here’s how the pros get at every square inch of the car during a restoration: They mount it on a rotisserie, just like they do chickens at the market.

Eastwood Co. offers this version for your home shop.  It requires a minimum 8′ ceiling and 67″ base width clearance — and about $1,400 plus shipping in your wallet.  They offer a variety of brackets for mounting various types of cars to it, including cars with leaf spring suspension and unibody cars.  The Camaro’s so popular that it gets its own kit by name.

Auto Twirler Restoration Rotisserie Plus [Eastwood Co.]
Quicktime Video of The Rotisserie in Use [Quicktime/Eastwood Co.]

When we were at the Eastwood Co. site yesterday looking up pricing and specs on the panel clip removal tools we told you about, we stumbled across some pretty slick tech articles including one on “painting your own car.”

The article suggests you ask a couple of basic questions:

• Do you have a place to prep and paint the vehicle?
• Do you have (or are you willing to purchase) the needed tools to paint a vehicle?
• Will the vehicle be stripped to bare metal or are you going to paint over the existing finish?
• Are you painting the complete vehicle (door jambs, trunk area, underhood, etc.) or only the outside?
• What type of paint do you plan on using?  Acrylic Enamel, Urethane, Acrylic Lacquer, Base coat/Clear coat, Water-based, etc.?
• What brand of paint system are you going to use?

They also mention that while in many places it’s illegal to paint your vehicle in a residential area, “you can still strip it down and prep it for the body shop.  This is a good way to save money.”

The article goes on to give you a decent (for free) idea of what kind of equipment and skills you’ll need based on your answers to the questions above, and includes links to their products.

If you’re considering doing something like this, we advise you to check out the article, and while you’re at it check out Eastwood Co., which sells pretty much everything mentioned in the article.

Painting Your Own Car [Eastwood Co.]

This afternoon we were helping a friend install car stereo speakers and found ourselves quickly reaching for our panel clip removal pliers and door panel removal tools.  If you’ve ever wondered how the pro shop installs your speakers in 1/4 the time it seems like it should take, you should know the answer now: they have the right tools. 

We learned this watching the pros:  Pick up a couple of tools that make removing door panels simple.  Details after the jump.

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