Impact wrench options

Oooh, you're lucky you got the warranty.

I love my coordless impact use it alot. Buzzing lugnuts on/off, motor work, exh work, etc. I use it much more than my big bad boy NAPA pnuematic one. The big one is a must have to for the serious stuff.
I carry it with me when ever I go to buds houses to work on cars and always to the track. I use a craftsman I got when I went to buy a drill, drill/impact (19v) for 99$

I've never used a cordless, so I can't compare it to the impacts. I used to use a portable air compressor (seems like it was 30 gallon). I started with a 25 gallon Harbor Freight; it was a waste of money; when I took the second one back they refunded my money and I bought a Porter Cable. It got the job done for turning wrenches, but if I was doing anything that took a continuous air supply, it was wheezing pretty quickly.

IMHO, the single best thing you can do to get good use from your air tools is have a GOOD compressor.

I got an 80 gallon with like 11+ CFM. It'll rock an air gun!

If you want to spend a little more, the Husky (Home Depot Brand) is actually pretty good and has a good warranty. They are competing head to head with Sears/Craftsman. This deal is probably the best bang for the buck, $449 for a 60 gallon with enough CFM to run just about any tool you want for a good period of time. Might not be able to paint a car lol but its gonna work good for small jobs.

http://www.homedepot.com/Tools-Hard...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

If you don't want to spend that much, then you can go with this portable at $249 which is small as I would go. I actually own one of these and its good. Its only 26 gallons but for auto tool purposes it works great and its easy to haul around still. I've actually done some small paint jobs with this like my engine bay.

http://www.homedepot.com/Tools-Hard...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

When it comes to harbor freight tools, yes the impact guns are great, but most of their air tools suck a lot of air i've discovered. I don't use some tools as much thats why i only got cheapys but if you used for example a cutoff wheel a lot, the harbor freight ones drain the tank quick where as a pro tool holds air a lot better.

EDIT - One more option- i've randomly seen industrial air compressors on craigslist from businesses getting rid of them or going out of business. You'll need a truck to haul it but i've seen some pretty incredible deals they just wanna move this stuff most of the time.

I have a craftsman portable torque wrench but I only use it for breaking loose lug nuts when I change tires at the track. Other then that I dont use it for anything. For heavy impacting I have the compressor and craftsman air gun at home

I run a Matco 1/2" impact and a 3/8" butterfly impact on a 13gal or a 5gal with no problems.