When you spend enough time at the junkyard, you're going to find free tools on a regular basis. Some are in the cars when they get scrapped, while others get lost by fellow junkyard dogs.

I've been a junkyard regular for many years now, so my tool collection contains many junkyard finds. Here's a more or less random selection of some of my found tools; click on a thumbnail to get that tool's story.

Since this type of wrench in the Detroit-centric 1/2" and 9/16" sizes is so useful for old American (and some British) cars, it ranks as one of my favorite junkyard tool finds. I found it in a late-60s Mercury Montego at Ecology Auto Wrecking in Santa Fe Springs, 20 years ago.

Here's a detail of the ratcheting box wrench. Not sure of the era, but I'm guessing 1960s or older.

Genuine Vise-Grip™ locking pliers, not some generic substitute! I found this in use as a window crank on a mid-70s Nova and made it my own.

Here's a recent find; these diagonal cutters were sitting on top of a mess of wires in a Volvo 244's harness, which I was harvesting for connectors to use in . For some reason, this is the most commonly found tool in the junkyard (other than tire irons, of course); I have a half-dozen of these things, all scored at junkyards.

Remember that Fiat tachometer I scored at Junkyard Half Price Day? Well, it and many other…

This one didn't come from a junkyard, but it's still my all-time favorite found tool. I found this half-buried in the dirt beneath a wooden floor I was replacing in the 1880s stable behind my parents' Victorian house.

This screwdriver has been a very useful tool. The steel is too soft for it to be any good for serious prying (you can practically bend it in your hands), but the metal frame is set up to enable serious hammer pounding, which makes it a great pseudo-chisel.

The manufacturer's name is obscured by rust, but you can make out the word "Handle" and an August 25, 1903 patent date stamped on the shaft

I've had this for so long that I don't recall what kind of car it came from, but it has the look of a piece from a VW or Porsche tool kit. Remember when West Germany was a country? That's where the "W" at the beginning of the VINs of German cars comes from, trivia buffs!

I had to look up the generic name for this type of pliers, because- like Xerox or Kleenex- the has become the de facto title for this tool.

I found this tool just last week, sitting on the front seat of a Jaguar XJ-6. It appeared that the former owner, Jim C, was using these pliers in a futile attempt to remove the steering wheel nut, then was too exhausted to pack all his tools after he gave up in despair. I always associate the words "Jaguar" and "despair."

It's always worth digging through the crap in the back of a junked plumber's truck, because you might find something like this 1901 . I must admit I haven't used it very often (having been spoiled by power drills), but it's still a pretty cool thing to have. Still works perfectly after more than a century!

It came with a full set of bits, which store inside the handle. You can pick these things up nowadays.

Here's another very common junkyard freebie, that favored accessory of the English football hooligan. Rather than using a Stanley knife to slice up the faces of my rivals, however, I'm more likely to put it to use slicing troublesome hoses and belts that block access to engine-compartment fasteners. I have several of these, all junkyard-obtained.

For years, I used a junkyard-found Blue Point (aka "Snap-On Lite") quarter-drive ratchet, but the day came when I overtorqued it one too many times and made hash out of its delicate innards. Fortunately, I found this Matco ratchet in the glovebox of a mid-80s Tercel wagon before that happened, so I had a backup.

I find so many flat-tip screwdrivers in junkyards that I tend to give them away to my friends who can't scrape up Tool One when it comes time to replace a switch plate or something. Here's a cheapo that I grabbed off the ground at a junkyard last week, just sitting among the hoseclamps and weeds between the cars.

This screwdriver, which I found in a gym bag full of spray-paint cans in a Sentra, has become my default JB Weld and Bondo mixer. It's just the right size to pry the lid off a Bondo can!