Since I started with British cars, and on a budget, my first kit was
a Craftsman 20-piece or so HSS kit with UNC and UNF. It has the common
sizes and fits in one of the small drawers at the top of my tool cabinet.
It performes adequately for 90% of the jobs I need; learn to use a good
cutting oil every time you cut metal.
Over time, I've augmented it with additional specialized pieces (BSW/BSF,
left handed, plug, spiral) bought as I've needed them for jobs.
When I got my first Italian car, I needed metric, so I bought a similar
Craftsman set - more pieces, but the metric stuff gets stored elsewhere
anyway.
I have since bought a couple of different tap wrenches, a much better
die wrench that is fairly good at centering and starting, and recently
as I started building up a machine shop rather than a mechanic's bench,
a wider-range US set ("Ace Super Set" or some such).
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