Early 911 Tools

[MAPC]

Thanks for the reply, but I am not a 'stupidly expensive' person.

If I was, I would take Eric up on the offer he sent me for a concours quality complete kit...at a STEEP price (but probably what market is willing to pay).

[larry47us]

Henry:

That looks like the concours quality kit that Rowdy was selling on Ebay for umpteen years. It's a beaut!! Costly, but a fine example.

Mike:

Either you want one or you don't. I didn't, and then finally realized that if I didn't plunk down the expensive money now, it would be unreasonably expensive in a couple of years, then outrageously expensive, and then outlandishly-crazy expensive. So, I bit the bullet, found a decent quality set on Ebay that I bought for $400, and found the missing wrench. OK, it's not concours, but I've got one. Toolkits are nearly a religion to Eric. Talk to him long enough, you become a believer!!!!

larry

[911s911rs]

Mike, to me 'steep' is basically the same as 'stupid'.

Tim

[hdavis]

That looks like the concours quality kit that Rowdy was selling on Ebay for umpteen years. It's a beaut!! Costly, but a fine example

Thanks, it is a nice example, but I sourced it from someone else, not the one on Ebay.

Mike:

For some of us it might not be stupid, but just part of trying to have a complete original car, depends how you look at it.

[911s911rs]

Henry and Mike, I hope I didn't call anyone stupid!

As far as good toolkits go, I am a believer. My 1969 kit is complete including jack and there is no way I would sell it - for any money. If the right person comes along one day to buy my 1969 S the toolkit will go with the car.

Would you believe the box full of toolkits and steering wheels lives under my bed?

Complete toolkit and 380mm wheel

[hdavis]

Henry and Mike, I hope I didn't call anyone stupid!

Not me, I agree: steep is the same as stupid, but a complete tool kit makes some of us go "stupid".


BTW: My toolkit and my 380mm wheel lives in my car (which might also be stupid).

Nice wheel!!

[larry47us]

Guys:

Admit it. Stupid is in the eyes of the beholder.

What do you call a person that buys a car for $20 - $40K, says goodnight to it every night, dusts it or washes it everytime it goes outside to play, spends $1,000 annually maintaining it, drives it less than 5K annually, goes to tears every time he sees a stone chip in the paint, and buys accessories like the "right" wheels, steering wheel, seats, mirrors, toolkits - you name it, even though the one in the car is perfectly usable!!

Is that stupid? Nope, not in my eyes!!! But I'll bet that my neighbors have a different opinion!!

And do I care??? Not a whit! But, they are all standing in line to take a ride in Kermit!! YEEEEEHAAAAAAH

larry

[pwd72s]

Bottom line? EVERY item in the factory tool kit can be bought in the aftermarket, as far as function goes. Even going all, or mostly (Stoddard sells a better than original fan belt wrench, for one example.) snap-on with a custom made leather case would cost you less than the original kit would, and the tools would be better quality. So, I suppose it all depends on whatever turns your crank, or the cranks of PCA Concours snoots? I gave up caring about what these folks cared about my car back during the 1978 parade, when one of them took great delight in telling me what was "improper" about my car. I responded that I thought my car was "proper", because it was MY effing car, and it was exactly as I wanted it. Oh...I got 3rd in class...and I DROVE it from Orygun to Colorado, then entered the concours. To try to please everybody in the Porsche world is an exercise in futility. My suggestion? Please yourself first...

[MAPC]

Given how we all choose to spend our time and money (witness our cars and the time we spent on this board), stupid CLEARLY is in the eyes of the beholder (example: I bought my 280SL, listed below, because it matched my favorite Matchbox car from my youth- which, incidentally, I still have).

[Soterik]

Well,

I guess that if anybody is stupid, it must be me.....and Scott Emsley (rowdy205 on Ebay).

I guess to go out and accumulate tools individually, or as part of toolkits that we buy, and eventually put together a whole toolkit, and then sell it for less than the value of our time and the $$ spent on the individual tools and ratty toolkits....well, then I think that's the epitomy of stupidity....

Let's see exactly what happens:

I find a partial toolkit on Ebay or at a swapmeet,.....the bag is decent, but not great, and there's a good looking screwdriver in it...so I pay $125 to $150 for it. I take it home, and spend a couple of hours cleaning up the bag....using various chemicals trying to get it clean, and also burnish up the clasps. My wife then spends an hour or so stitching up some of the loose or missing stitches on it.....so now it's presentable.

I take the screwdriver out and polish up the handle, being careful not to ruin the 10,000 volt markings on it, or the "KLEIN" paint.

I then go look in my box of wrenches, trying to find the correct set of 5 "drop forged steel", or "selected special steel" wrenches that would be correct for the particular year of the toolkit we are trying to put together. Did I mention that I got the wrenches by buying individual wrenches on Ebay, or in other toolkits that I also spent a fair amount of money on? Oh, by the way...I have to match up all the finishes on each wrench so that they match.

Hopefully I've got a matching screwdriver to make a pair of drivers for the toolkit,and that the finished match (all finishes on screwdrivers aren't the same....). Did you know that you can spend up to $100 on a 10,000 volt driver in perfect condition? just to complete a toolkit????

Got to find a pair of pliers....hmmm 3 different kinds between 65 and 73, got to find the right one....and the finish has to match the rest of wrenches as well.... Dang, don't have one....go out on Pelican or EarlySRegistry, and beg for someone to sell me one....spend $50 to $75 for the right one in perfect shape.

Spark plug wrench.....well for 69 to 73, not too tough to find....but half of them have been used so much that they are of no use. The rare ones are the 65 to early 68 wrenches...not many left around. Can't seem to find the right one...go out to one of my cars and steal a perfect one from my own toolkit. Spend a half an hour cleaning up the thing, cause it has to look as good as all the other tools...some junk in both ends of the wrench. ($30 to 75 depending upon the year you need).

Let's see....Lug wrench....hard to find a decent one....most of them get used and banged up...once again, out to Ebay, Pelican, or Registry, or my own car to find a good one.....$50+ for a good one. Spend another 15 minutes or so, cleaning it up and getting the junk out of the open end.

NOS fan belt! still have a couple laying around....they say Porsche Phoenix on them, need a nice one without too much of the printing worn off of it. Can't find one....back out to the usual sources....$35 to $50

Are you guys getting the picture yet??????

Do you know how much time both Scott and I have spent going swap meets trying to find tools? How much time we've spent researching each year of bags? Taking pictures of toolkits at car shows trying to verify differences between the years...or at least trying to find commonality on a particular change?

So, we finally get done.....god knows how much time and effort (and $$) went into creating this toolkit.

So we price them at what the market seems to pay....regardless of what we might have into them. I don't sell toolkits on Ebay anymore....I only offer them to someone who might need them or on referral, as I'm sick and tired of a lot of the above comments.

What's the payoff? Seeing someone like Richard Price winning his class or division at a Zone PCA, or having someone come to me because they have a 1964 production 911, and need the correct toolkit (I knew hanging onto that special bag was worth it! And doing the research to make sure it was right!).
Knowing that someone like Nate Cantwell has done the rest of the car, and you're a part of someone's pride and joy.

Oh well, I guess you just wouldn't understand.......but it's a passion (or maybe you guy's are passionate about Porsche's too???, just maybe?)

So...if anybody here thinks that Scott and I are making a killing, or even breaking even on these kit's (considering time invested) you're sorely mistaken....but we do provide a service for some in the community....just because we like to I guess.....and occaisionally, we might make a couple of bucks on a toolkit, as we found one pretty complete, and we didn't have to do much to make it just right.....but that's wrong I guess?

Climbing back down off the soap box...sorry,

Eric