Tools you've found at the roadside...

[ruffgeezer]

Everyone will have done it at some point, done that road test with a spanner still flapping about on the scuttle panel or balanced on that chassis.

If we're lucky, we remember and that tool makes it home, if not it becomes someone else's treasure. 

I have a massive socket in qr41my collection with no size on it from the Horncastle bypass as well as a wire brush with scraper that I found only yesterday on the road outside my workplace.

I can't recall finding anything amazing mind... 

[loserone]

A 10mm SnapOn spanner, found round the back of a shopping centre

[Honey Badger]

4lb club hammer, almost brand new on the road when I lived on the sinkhole council estate in sunny Kettering.

 

It's only now with almost 30 year of separation that I think there's a fair chance I was using a murder weapon to lay slabs at work every day.

Still it was free.

[Schaefft]

Recently found a large rusty socket. Usually I find all my tools in the cars I buy...

[Back_For_More]

Not roadside but in the undergrowth on site here.... Brit tool. Reminds me of my Triumph 

 

[DavieW]

The only tool I've found was  a large flat blade screwdriver.

In Edinburgh, heading back to our hotel I found a huge handful of cable ties left by some fly poster. These went in the wife's handbag. Needless to say, she wasn't best pleased!

[HMC]

Never on the roadside but various sockets and screwdrivers that had fallen into recesses of the engine bay and been forgotten by previous owners/ garages

[Mally]

I've found rusty mole grips clamped on bolts under a couple of cars I've purchased.

[warch]

1 hour ago, HMC said:

Never on the roadside but various sockets and screwdrivers that had fallen into recesses of the engine bay and been forgotten by previous owners/ garages

Undertrays are often a happy hunting ground for things like sockets, spanners, nesting mammals etc. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

2 minutes ago, warch said:

Undertrays are often a happy hunting ground for things like sockets, spanners, nesting mammals etc. 

Correct. We received a wild rabbit from the undertray of a Fiat Doblo that had come down from Arnie Shark in Glesga to Ayr Fiat. We gave it to the SSPCA to let them set it free etc etc.

[Kiltox]

Found a big pair of Stanley mole grips down the back of the airbox of a Skoda Felicia once, still use them today  

My only snap on tool is a 10mm spanner I found in the X5 of much brown. 

[Schaefft]

I just remembered. The most spectacular find must have been a screwdriver and pliers in the rear quarter panel of my Celsior. They were rotten to the extent that they were almost unrecognizable, despite the car being in generally very good condition rust wise. They must have been in there for absolute ages and came all the way from Japan. If a solid screwdriver almost rusts away entirely in this environment it's just a testament of the excellent rustproofing of these cars.

[DavieW]

1 hour ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Correct. We received a wild rabbit from the undertray of a Fiat Doblo that had come down from Arnie Shark in Glesga to Ayr Fiat. We gave it to the SSPCA to let them set it free etc etc.

If we're talking animals, I once found the back half of a cat (furry variety, not converter)  in the undertray of a Volvo.

Also, I was in a van hire company's office, sitting in the corner was a cardboard box with a live chicken inside. Apparently it had stowed away on the chassis from a hatchery near Glasgow Airport to their yard in Newhouse (approx 20 miles) and was waiting to be collected.

[ruffgeezer]

If we're talking on or in cars, I once found a pair of Snapon long nose pliers behind the airbox on an Xtrail, and then 10 minutes later a Stanley Tx20 T handle under the pollen filter housing.

Someone had a shit day when they last serviced it!  I'd normally go looking to the garage who did the work to return them, but they'd done such a shit job I kept them.

I've a Snapon mini flatblade from inside a bodged up saxo door.

Also I found a snapon tx30 t handle on an Audi undertray but was unsuccessful finding it's owner.

All this makes it sound like I've done well, but after many years in the trade I am still at a deficit with tools lost. Especially torches!

 

[Richard_FM]

I've not seen tools by the roadside, but a gas engineer left some pliers on the top of my boiler, which I didn't find until I was having a sort out a few months later.

My parents have gains some tools this way, including at least one screwdriver & a basic multimeter an electrician left behind & never came back for.  This was used by me for a bit, went into the attic then dug out by my Dad & now at my flat.

[Soundwave]

Recently found a handsaw in a remote layby. Seemed in good nick, not stained with anything, no suspicious binbags nearby. 

[Timewaster]

As an apprentice in a Peugeot dealer, there were 3 mechanics, and none of them got on, two hated each other.

There had been a big row over a missing snap on screwdriver with one accusing the other of stealing it. 

The manager had to step in, tool boxes got searched, nothing found. It was all pretty horrible.

 

Fast forward a few months, there was only me and the accused mechanic in the workshop, he brought a 205 in for a service.

Bonnet up and there, perched on the inner wing was a dusty long handled snap on screwdriver.

It was a good job I was there to witness it as he would never have been believed.

The next day came the most awkward and begrudged apology I ever saw.

[Bren]

I picked my long deceased xantia up from the garage to find a lump hammer in the engine compartment.

When I had the valve stem seals done on the 545 I found a brand new fire extinguisher in the boot along with a box of valves, springs and collets. A phone call to the proprietor confirmed they had been picked up on the road test and they were desperately needed. I posted them and I was told I could have the extinguisher.

Years ago we bought  a cheap 2.9 granada - oddly two of the doors had rusted through at the top of the skin. Two replacements were procured from the scrapyard. When I pulled back the foam membrane on one of them I could see something inside.

It was a sharp calculator. And it worked. No doubt an engineer in Belgium or Germany was wondering where the fuck he had put his calculator. I still have it. But it needs batteries.

[busmansholiday]

More the opposite way, we were coming north around the roundabout on the A38 on the top side of Derby "at a rate of knotts" in our preserved AEC coach when we heard a loud bang and Dave, who was driving, noticed the nearside locker door flapping open. We pulled up and realised that the wheel brace and associated bits had just fucked off into the undergrowth at high speed. We had a look, but somebody else no doubt now owns a very big wheel brace set.

[Boycie]

23 years of inspecting hire cars has resulted in a very hefty toolbox .....

[Back_For_More]

I once lost and found my mobile phone.... Mate had a crapped out Seat Ibiza and I did some work on it in a supermarket car park to get it home.... Bad earth iirc. 

It started, he fuxked off home. 3mins later I realised my phone was under the bonnet still as I'd used it as a light source. 

All week, we worked in the same office - his wife called up saying the car was making a funny noise.... It was my alarm on repeat. 

Finally got it back from the umdertray 3weeks later none the worse for wear.

 

[bunglebus]

6 hours ago, ruffgeezer said:

after many years in the trade I am still at a deficit with tools lost. Especially torches!

Funny enough, one of my best finds is a magnetic inspection light I found on the road not to far from the local Kwik Fit. Works a treat as a camping light inside my tent too, but I wish they'd had the courtesy to lose the charger too, I have to remove the AA size batteries and charge them separately 

[warch]

4 hours ago, busmansholiday said:

More the opposite way, we were coming north around the roundabout on the A38 on the top side of Derby "at a rate of knotts" in our preserved AEC coach when we heard a loud bang and Dave, who was driving, noticed the nearside locker door flapping open. We pulled up and realised that the wheel brace and associated bits had just fucked off into the undergrowth at high speed. We had a look, but somebody else no doubt now owns a very big wheel brace set.

On a related note I can remember thinking what a brilliant design feature those warning lights for open doors on vans were when they were introduced. We had several loads jettisoned due to open SLDs prior to this.

[MikeR]

one of those cheap tin box sets of sockets , it was pushed down into the soil at a pull in at a remote spot ...  was ok as well

found a mole grip attached to the clutch arm on a beatle ,

various sockets on the road and found a spare tyre for a Micra when I jumped over a remote wall for a pee ..

[Snake Charmer]

  I was given a Snap-On 11mm long series 3/8 drive 12 point socket and ratchet a few months after a friends Belmont SRi went in for accident repair. The ratchet was stolen a few years later after I left my Sykes 3/8" metric sockets, extensions and water pump pliers on a building site whilst servicing a pump. The threat of Police to the site manager had all but my ratchet returned. (I did find out who stole it.) I  still have the 11mm socket.

I have and still use a Nobo deburring tool that rolled out from under a lathe I was moving at Petters Diesels. 

I recently watched a 22mm Halfords Professional spanner appear in my rear view mirror after bouncing under the Golf from the slam panel. It was perfect height to go through the following cars grille but drooped to the floor and laid in the road for me to retrieve after an epic reversing manoeuvre!

I lost a 13mm Kamasa spanner from a set my Father bought me in the 80's. I replaced it with a Laser that is still good as new. I subsequently recovered the lost Kamasa from the drivers side carpet underlay when I bought my old car back from a friend some years later for parts. I also retrieved a £1 coin from the same car that dropped into the handbrake cavity 10 years earlier a friend asked to borrow and dropped.

I found a Torx bit on the Mercedes undertray,  I would gladly swap it for the 21mm Snap-On socket I lost presumably left on a suspension bolt!

A friend bought an early Jago Jeep and gained a 7/16" combination ring spanner rattling along a brake pipe.

I was pointed to a 12mm combination spanner hanging off my CBX550 when I parked up at Box Hill. The same Kamasa set that 13mm came from! Still have it.

If golf balls count, during the 70's I had to run back many times to retrieve them on the A308 after my Father screeched to a halt from 90mph in the Rover 2000. My elder brother and sister were spared the long distances I had to run due to the previous cars being an 850 Mini Van and an elderly wooden floor Wolseley.

[catsinthewelder]

A 1/2" Kamasa ratchet and a very rusty 13mm spanner found on the road.  The spanner while walking, I stopped the car for the ratchet.

[GR8 PL8 M8]

15 hours ago, Richard_FM said:

I've not seen tools by the roadside, but a gas engineer left some pliers on the top of my boiler, which I didn't find until I was having a sort out a few months later.

My parents have gains some tools this way, including at least one screwdriver & a basic multimeter an electrician left behind & never came back for.  This was used by me for a bit, went into the attic then dug out by my Dad & now at my flat.

My parents gained an entire toolbox full of tools this way - some cowboy builders forgot it under a pile of debris that they left in the corner of a bedroom after they fucked off.

[Dan the van]

Quite a few over the years,4lb lump hammer spotted on Wandsworth Bridge roundabout,did another lap and scooped it up leaning out the drivers door.Still have it 30 odd years later despite losing it for 2 years in the fields(I stepped on it one day),various big ratchet straps,18inch long flat blade screwdriver,high end multimeter and complete Halfords Pro 5/8 socket set from a P38 I had(still use regularly) and most recently a Sykes Pickavant torque wrench/short extension and 27mm socket in the back of my Disco.

[Asimo]

First was a 13mm Elora combination spanner whilst cycling back from SantaPod drag races in 1973.

Many otheruseful things over the years. Most recently

Wheel keys

 

     

 
 

[paulplom]

I found a new piston ring compressor in the street. Very random.

A snap on torch still stuck to the subframe of my transit. They must have a decent magnet. Took it back to the garage who serviced it last.