EASTWOOD TOOL COMPANY
Eastwood Tool Company, founded in 1978, has evolved into offering thousands of products for auto restoration DIYers.
WHY EASTWOOD?
My wife and I started restoring project cars with a few tools and no auto body experience. So we finally decided to take a welding class. And if you start watching any type of DIY automotive content, you’ll probably run into Eastwood. They’ve been selling and making welders, tools, paint products, and even powder coating systems for DIY automotive enthusiasts for almost 50 years. They also do a great job showing you how to use some of their most popular tools too.
So after we completed a few MIG classes and watched quite a few videos we went out and bought an Eastwood MP140i Multi Process Welder during a Black Friday special.
EASTWOOD TOOLS FOR BEGINNERS
Since purchasing our MP140i we’ve teamed up with Eastwood to package together even more DIY beginner how-to videos. We also put a list together of some basic Eastwood tools along with reviews and educational how-to content below:
Sheet Metal Cutting
You’re probably going to need to remove and replace rusted sheet metal with fresh sheet metal. When you do, you’ll need something to cut your new sheet metal with. That’s where the Eastwood electric sheers comes in.
The Eastwood Throatless Electric Shears will help cut up to 18 gauge thick steel like butter.
Cutting curved shapes or straight lines is effortless for these shears.
If you need to cut something thicker, take a look at the manually operated Eastwood Throatless Metal Shear, it cuts up to 14 gauge mild steel.
SAVE 10% w/code THEBUILD10 on www.eastwood.com
Bending Sheet Metal
The next tool that’s great to have for forming automotive sheet metal is an Eastwood sheet metal brake.
A brake can create up to 90-degree bends across different lengths of sheet metal.
Eastwood carries a variety of sheet metal brakes that accept different sheet metal lengths and thicknesses.
For smaller sheet metal bends, we recommend the Versa 20” Sheet Metal brake. It has a built in clamping system that helps create the perfect bends. You can find a full review of the Eastwood Versa 20 here.
SAVE 10% w/code THEBUILD10 on www.eastwood.com
Bead Rolling Sheet Metal
As you start working with larger sheet metal such as floor and firewall panels a bead roller will help you to make any panel rigid. You can also add unique designs into your sheet metal too.
Eastwood carriers manual crank and motorized bead rollers options.
We’re using the Eastwood 8 inch bead roller that clamps to a bench vise. With an additional die set, you can create many different shapes and edges too.
SAVE 10% w/code THEBUILD10 on www.eastwood.com
Body Panel and Chassis Welding
The last thing you’ll need to finish up your sheet metal work is a welder.
Eastwood carries an entry-level budget flux core welder that can be upgraded to MIG all the way up to high powered MIG/TIG and multi-process welders. Don’t worry, if you only have 120v outlets in your garage, Eastwood has welders that can run off 120v too.
Check out our Eastwood welder comparison tool which will help select the best Eastwood welder for you.
Stylize Your Car Parts
Stylizing parts isn’t necessary, but who doesn’t like the look of a fresh powder coating job.
With an Eastwood Powder Coating system you can powder coat metal objects from tools, to valve covers, and even brake calipers.
Eastwood sells a nice entry-level powder coating system along with a bench top oven too.
We love all things Eastwood because their products help us get the job done in half the time.
