I have accumulated most of the gloves mentioned in the thread except chef's gloves, which sound promising in several applications. I purchased a cheap pair of gloves with "amara" synthetic leather fingers and palms, the Red Cross rep had some unbranded Atlas blue type gloves for me to try, and I already have chemical gloves for hazmat purposes. I still need to pick up some kevlar chef's gloves.
I haven't had the amara palm diving gloves in the water yet but they fit nice and snug with the neoprene back. The Atlas blue style behaved about the same in the water as on land with slight rotation of the rubber away from the palm side of my fingers while handling stuff. I'd like to try a slightly smaller size to see if I can stop the finger rotation but I have a feeling the fingers will be too short. I'll hit a hardware store soon to try some different brands and sizes.
I'm tempted to take some thinner neoprene gloves and spray plasti-dip on them to see if I can get the best of both worlds. Neoprene will be form fitting and the plasti-dip will help with cuts on sharp car parts. The plasti-dip solvent may ruin the neoprene, though. I may try it on my old damaged gloves. I'll try it with the chef's gloves too.