Torches are a MUST...you cant do squat without them really,especially on old rusted vehicles..they loosen bolts,cut steel,heat up and free stuck parts,baze,weld,and can even heat up a cup of coffee if you wish..
I wasn't able to do much until I bought a set of torches..
Drill Press is another indispesable tool too...though mine sucks ,its a 50's Sears "Companion" bench top woodworkers style that someone moused a Jacobs chuck to its 13mm spindle,and the chuck was 1/2"x 20 thread.so it wobbles slightly..and I've yet to find the only chuck key made that fit it halfway decent I lost--I must have bought 30 of them and none seemed to work just right..anyway,despite its shortcomings,it beats the hell out of using a hand drill when boring BIG holes..it only has a 1/3 HP motor on it,but it does the job...I've beten it mercilessly over the years and it still works as well as it ever did..
It goes a bit too fast on its slowest pulley speed though,when doing bigger holes,but I've always planned to add a third stepped pulley on the "pipe" the table slides on,and use two belts instead of one,that will gear it down much slower and make it easier for it to drill bigger holes with less strain on the motor and bits..its not that hard to do,seen the idea in and old popular mechanics book...but I've held off ,hoping I might stumble across a "real" drill press like the floor model Rockwell ones we had in shop class back in the 70's..for under 100 bucks or so..but I paid 75 for my current POS one 15 years ago,you just dont see decent drill presses selling cheap any more,unless they are china crap..
I get by with a sawsall and sabre saw for cutting sheet metal,or the 4" grinder and 9" monster grinder ,no costly plasma cutters in my garage,much as I'd love to own one..
Never owned or even used a MIG welder much either,all I have is an AC arc welder and the torches for welding...and a DC gas powered welder thats "down" at the moment,that I hope to resurect someday..
I have used mostly brazing and pop rivets and drive screws on my body patches...been tempted to buy one of those disposeable 90 dollar flux core welders to do body work with,despite knowing they are kinda sucky..sometimes the arc welder just turns thin stuff into molten blobs too fast..
I had a nice Chamopin compressor years ago,a 2 stage monster with a giant 2 cylinder pump,but it had a 7.5 HP 3 phase motor I couldn't power up here,and my attempts to convert it to a gas engine was a bust--I sold it to a junkyard owner for 100 bucks,I paid 30 for it when a friend was going to scrap everything he took away from a closed up dealership back in 1997..its still sitting in the woods at the junkyard,6 years later,I just saw it there a week ago..
..someone did buy the motor though I guess..it would have been great for sandblasting,it put out 45 cfm at 750 rpm..
I have two engine cranes and probably will never pull another engine unless I had too-they are handy for many other uses though,like holding riding mowers up while you replace belts,lift heavy junk into your truck,etc..they pull bushes out pretty good too!..
The gantry crane I made from a old city park swingset made of scedule 40 3" pipe is looking pretty rough now,but its still very usefull for pulling beds off and a hundred other chores..
The "tools" I like most are the ones that let me move heavy things around easily alone..Winches,hand trucks,come-a-longs,engine cranes,dollies,and my garden tractor,without those things I'd never accomplish anything like pulling off a bed or move stuff around in the garage..
All good advise so far though. I'd love a plasma, but as has been said my torch setup has done me well. I've had it sive I was probably 16 or 17, I'm 45, so I've had it a loooong time. Has NEVER failed me, other then the dredded ran out of gas situation 
