10 Household Items for Your Automotive Toolbox

Over the years, the number of items in your automotive toolbox might have grown. Despite your expanding arsenal of tools, your toolbox might lack one or more of these common household items—secret weapons for getting things done in your garage or driveway.

Baking Sheet

A used baking sheet with a raised edge is a convenient work surface. If you are repairing a carburetor, small pieces tend to fly out of your hand at the most inopportune time. Working on top of a baking sheet provides a surface to find and retrieve those pesky runaway screws and springs.

Cardboard Boxes

DIY car projects sometimes require keeping track of similar parts in a particular order. For example, when removing spark plugs temporarily, returning them to the right spot can be a challenge. Try this remedy.

Punch holes in a sheet of cardboard, insert spark plug #1 into the first hole, mark it with a marker as #1, and continue down the line. The spark plug can stay in the cardboard until it returns to the engine. Use this process for anything with similar-looking twins, like fuel injectors or oil pan bolts, which often have different lengths for different spots along the rim. A little effort when disassembling car parts and the use of a common household item prevents a lot of head scratching later.

Clothes Hanger Wire

Are you making hard brake lines? You can use the wire as a template showing where bends are needed and at what angle. The wire is strong enough to serve as a temporary exhaust plumbing support if one is missing from your car. It is also sturdy enough to hang a part ready for spray paint or to keep it out of the way.

Craft Sticks

As a kid, you might have called them popsicle sticks. Nowadays, they are known as craft sticks. We use these for stirring small cans of paint, batches of epoxy, and body filler. They can also be used as a cushion when prying something loose and as a guide when aligning body panels. While they might not be a common household item for empty nesters, who doesn’t enjoy a tasty popsicle?

Matches

Back in the day, when cars had points and condensers, a match torn from a matchbook could substitute for a feeler gauge. It might not have been entirely accurate, but it could get you on the road again. Now, a single match applies enough heat to activate a length of shrink wrap around a wire connector. That match can also do the job if your propane torch lacks a self-igniter.

Plastic Lock Bags

Zippered plastic bags hold all the wayward parts from your project car. Use a black marker to label this common household item’s contents—or tape the bag directly to the associated part. Are you considering fabric swatches for new seats? Keep them in one bag. Maybe you have extra spare sockets in various sizes. Store them in one bag for future use. Bags can also cover open carburetors and manifolds so nothing accidentally falls into openings.

Razor Blades

Plastic razor blades are ideal for pushing on weatherstripping or a wayward upholstery piece. A screwdriver or a metal razor is more likely to gouge the paint or push through the fabric. Do you ever get road gunk stuck to your paint? A little detail spray and the plastic blade will remove it without drama.

Red Solo Cups

These cups are common sense items to have on the workbench. While taking equipment apart, the cups can hold nuts and bolts, springs, clips, valves, screws, or clamps. Besides, you can handily write what you have on the side. Cups can also be used when pulling a hose off the engine, and a little dribble of gas, coolant, oil, or brake fluid oozes out. Just be sure to dispose of the liquid safely. Plastic cups can also be used as a mixing pot for larger quantities of epoxy or other liquids.

Sharpies

A large black marker is valuable for labeling boxes of parts or body panels stored for future projects. Stash one in the glove box so that you can write down information about your car on the display card at your local car show.

You can also write notes with the marker to remember if the red or black wire goes on the left terminal. Use different colors for distinct cars or parts from a single vehicle. We save a ton of time searching for air conditioning parts because we know to look for blue writing.

Paper Towels

Every auto shop used to have a supply of red cloth rags for cleaning oil and dirt off parts. Safely store the oily rag to prevent spontaneous combustion. But the final disposition of those rags was always in question. Using a paper shop towel offers a one-time use and is more convenient. They can also be used as a toolbox drawer liner.

If you take an engine piece to another shop for work, they’ll appreciate your efforts to keep everything clean by packing the item in a few shop towels. Some disposable towel makers offer a blue shop towel and a sturdier towel in red. A roll of this common household item hanging above your workbench saves the day.

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