If you’ve been following along, you may have already heard the news. I’ve got a motorcycle restoration project coming up and I am genuinely pumped about it. If this is the first you’re hearing it, well, now you know. The video below has the full rundown, but keep reading because there’s plenty here worth getting into.
Table of Contents
Making Room for the Restoration
Before any wrenching happens, I needed space. A restoration means a motorcycle lift and a dedicated workspace, and my garage wasn’t set up for either. So I spent the weekend doing a full cleanout and reorganization. What started as moving a few things around turned into a whole project on its own.
I’ll be honest, the cleanup was long overdue.
What I Found When I Started Digging
Cleaning out a garage sounds simple until you start opening bins from your last move and realize you’ve been hauling around stuff you forgot you owned. That was pretty much my weekend.
The big discovery was tools. Specifically, how many duplicate tools I’ve apparently accumulated over the years. We’re talking multiple sets of standard and metric wrenches. I think I counted four sets at one point. I’m not sure how many 3/4 inch wrenches one person actually needs, but I’ve apparently been stress-testing that question for years.
Part of it I can explain. A few years back, a hurricane came through and my basement flooded. Back then my workshop was down there and I lost a lot of tools, including some that had real sentimental value. Some stuff got salvaged but a lot of it got thrown out. After that I rebuilt my collection in pieces, which explains some of the duplicates and the mismatched sets with missing pieces.
The other part is just impatience. If I couldn’t find a tool and the search went on too long, I’d go buy another one rather than keep looking. I’m not proud of it, but there it is.
My Thoughts on Harbor Freight Tools
This is where the video kind of took a turn, and I want to talk about it because I’ve had a change of opinion here.
For a long time I looked down on Harbor Freight. I came up as a professional woodworker and cabinet maker, and in that world Harbor Freight was considered throwaway stuff. Equipment you used once and tossed. My experience backed that up, so I wrote them off.
But recently I came across a mechanic on TikTok, older guy, silver hair, long ponytail, runs a shop down in North Carolina. He does diagnostic and repair content and I’ve learned a lot from watching him. He put out a series talking about how new mechanics get crushed by debt from the Snap-On truck right out of the gate. His point was that for the basic stuff like wrenches, ratchets, everyday hand tools, you don’t need to spend Snap-On money. He did a head-to-head comparison between Snap-On and Harbor Freight’s Icon line, which is their premium tier, and the results were closer than I expected.
That shifted my thinking.
The Icon Line and the Inside Track Program
I’ve picked up a few things from Harbor Freight since then and I’ve been reasonably impressed, especially for the price. There’s certain stuff I just buy there now without thinking about it. Ratchet straps, tie downs, bungee cords. It’s all reasonably priced and it works.
I also signed up for their Inside Track Club, which is basically a paid membership that gets you discounts on products. Thirty bucks a year. With the motorcycle restoration project coming up, I’m going to be spending money at Harbor Freight on miscellaneous stuff regardless. The big thing I’m hoping to land a discount on is a motorcycle lift. If that comes through, the membership pays for itself pretty fast.
The Tools I Actually Trust
For a long time I was a Craftsman guy. There was a Sears on my way to work and I’d stop in regularly. Lifetime warranty, decent quality, convenient. But Sears is gone and the Craftsman tools being sold at Lowe’s these days don’t feel like the same product to me. That’s mostly what pushed me toward Kobalt. I bought a large set a couple years ago specifically to keep in my shed as a dedicated motorcycle maintenance setup and I’ve been happy with them.
So right now my shop has a mix of Craftsman and a slowly growing collection of Kobalt and Harbor Freight pieces. That’ll probably do the job for what’s ahead.
What’s Coming With the Restoration
I’m not going to spill everything here because I want to let it play out on the channel. But I will say I’m looking forward to this more than just about anything I’ve done with the channel so far. The motorcycle restoration project is going to need its own space, its own workflow, and probably a few tools I don’t have yet.
The lift is the first big purchase. Once that’s in place the workspace gets set up and we can get into the actual work. I’ll be documenting all of it, so if you want to follow along make sure you’re subscribed.
Ride With Me
If you want to follow the restoration as it unfolds, subscribe to the WaltInPA YouTube channel
so you don’t miss any of it.
If you know someone who’s been thinking about wrenching on a bike or just likes this kind of content, share this post with them.
And come hang out in the WaltInPA Discord. That’s where the conversation keeps going between videos.
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