Skip to main content

Replies sorted oldest to newest

I was looking on SAMBA the other day at the old black plastic handled screw drivers that came with the VW Bug tool kit.  The ones where one end was phillips and you slid it the other way and it was a straight screw drive.  They now sell for $60 - the older wood handled ones were listed for $100!  Makes SnapON look right reasonable!  Hazet wood for $140!

Photo

Helping a friend last week clean out old lady's shed for scrapping iron.  I found a mint 1930 Ford Model A jack and a Black Hawk corn sheller.  Same Jack on ebay for $199 and the shucker for $140.  He was going to scrap for 7 cents a pound - so maybe $2.  Now what do I do with them (old profession pitching horseshoes found too). 

I’d rather have a replica Hazet that fits in your spare tire.
~$300 everywhere.

We had the one from our ‘60 Kombi kicking around forever, but since we were all kids, they got scattered to the wind. After I did some digging, I found the pliers (just like the ones in the BaT auction) in one of my tool boxes. I’ve been interrogating my brothers about the location of the 21-36 box end wrench because as the only air-cooled owner, by rights it should be mine.

No luck so far. But I know one of them has it, and I’m pretty sure who and I’d take a WAG that it’s sitting in the bottom of a tool box he hasn’t seen in years. (Packrat)

Attachments

Images (1)
  • mceclip0
@WOLFGANG posted:

I was looking on SAMBA the other day at the old black plastic handled screw drivers that came with the VW Bug tool kit.  The ones where one end was phillips and you slid it the other way and it was a straight screw drive.  They now sell for $60 - the older wood handled ones were listed for $100!  Makes SnapON look right reasonable!  Hazet wood for $140  

BMW motorcycles had those, too. I’ve got 2-3 of them. They suck. Any $10 4-way is an infinitely better tool. I have two Stanley’s: A regular 4 way and a pen sized 4 way miniature.

.

@dlearl476 posted:
.

...BMW motorcycles had those, too. I’ve got 2-3 of them. They suck...

BMW must have been putting the same junk tools in their cars at the time, too.

All three of mine ('68, '71, '74) had them along with a slip-joint pliers, a few nondescript open-end wrenches and one tool that, while crude, was indispensable - a long spark plug wrench that fit down into the deeply countersunk head.

The non-business end had two holes into which the screw driver fit to apply leverage.

Junk tools maybe, but it's comforting remembering a time when cars were simple and sturdy enough that the ham-fisted could muck around under the hood without doing serious damage.

.

Last edited by Sacto Mitch
@Sacto Mitch posted:

.Junk tools maybe, but it's comforting remembering a time when cars were simple and sturdy enough that the ham-fisted could muck around under the hood without doing serious damage.

.

Like the meme says “Owners manuals used to tell you how to adjust the valves, set the timing, gap the plugs and points. Now they tell you not to drink the coolant and touch the hot exhaust pipe.”

There wasn’t a lot of stuff you couldn’t do to a VW with those tools.

Last edited by dlearl476

@Sacto Mitch wrote: "one tool that, while crude, was indispensable - a long spark plug wrench"

Hot Rod Jimmy has a "Hazet" tool kit in his original '58 Speedster.  He found the tools piece meal over the years and his brother stitched up the roll-up tool caddie and it looks every much the part of a real Hazet for one helluva lot less.  He had it out at a recent Cars and Coffee and was grumping that you could loosen the spark plug with the long plug tool, but that the plug often fell off onto the heat shields  and hid for you to find.  I convinced him to come home with me and I could magnetize the thing for him.  He was skeptical until I zapped it and now he wants a mag/demagger for his shop, too.  

I still have a pair of the pliers that came with my Dad's '63 Bug. They are durable as heck.

I also have a stamped steel spark plug wrench for 13/16" plugs. It is not German, I think it might be from an old Ariens lawnmower or snowblower. It was my Grandfather's. Anyway, it got Kelly Frazer's plugs out and back in one year at Carlisle with no issues. It resides in my tune-up box for all youse guys: compression gauge, assorted feeler gauges, point file, tach/dwell and timing light.

@DannyP wrote: "It resides in my tune-up box for all youse guys: compression gauge, assorted feeler gauges, point file, tach/dwell and timing light."

"Point File"??  

Man, you're OLD!   🤣

I'd imagine I'm 10-15 years to the good side of whatever age you are, Gordon!

Some of that tune-up stuff was my Dad's, and a few tools were my Grandad's. I did have to retire(throw away) the Craftsman inductive timing light when it crapped out. I bought a cheapie replacement at Advance/Zone/Pep/O'Reilly.

With EFI, you only need a timing light once. You need to dial in the degrees of offset to get 0 degrees in the ECU to match physically to exactly 0. After that, it's a couple mouse clicks.

"My mother used a timing light on me once. Just once": let's see who gets that one!

Post Content
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×