Incredibly Helpful Gearhead Christmas Gifts
To borrow a phrase, there are three things upon which one can rely in this world: Death, taxes, and the endless parade of gift guides on every single website around Christmas time. We’ve got one too - but it’s a bit different than some others.
No doubt you’ve run across (and perhaps wanted to run over) a few of these articles which have seemingly been authored completely by AI slop. Weird recommendations, terrifying photos hauled out of the depths of the internet featuring V8 engines with 16 cylinders or cars without headlights, and generally useless information appear to be the type of gruel served at the trough of AI these days. But our list includes a few car-centric gifts that actual human authors at this site have received and enjoyed. What a concept.
[Image: Author, Kong Industries]
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The first is what I’ve jokingly described as the best present my parents have ever given me, second only to the gift of life. At its core, this thing is just an extension cord for plugging in items located at inconvenient corners of my garage - but how the whole lot is packaged is what massively increases its practical value.
Wrapped around an inertia reel and encased in robust metal, the extension cord stands ready to be hauled around the garage like Linus hauls around his blanket. Your author has taken this thing with him across several moves, always securely re-mounting it on the ceiling into a rafter next to or near an electrical outlet which more often than not was intended for an overhead garage door opener. So installed, it has never fallen on any of my cars and continues to retract neatly into its inertia reel home even after about 15 years of hard use. For the gearhead on your list, this item won’t miss.
Also landing high on the top forty of gifts over the years are specialized gloves intended for working on vehicles. The familiar Mechanix brand is known by anyone with an internet connection or cable television subscription.
Such is, after all, the proliferation of the brand around places like NASCAR pits and associated productions. Go for a simple-as-you-like variant for value but be sure to pop for ones with extra polyurethane on the knuckles if the person for whom you are buying tends to bust fingers whilst wrenching. These additions do hamper access into small spaces, it must be said.
Another brand which has proven useful is called Kong, making brightly colored gloves intended for use in the oil patch but are equally useful in the garage. Extra grippy material on the palms are meant to help roughnecks get a handle on the jobsite but also ends up being useful whilst working on cars.
