Missing tools

One of the things that's always bugged me is that my car was missing the spare tire, owner's manual, tool roll and jack kit. I'm glad that the rest of the car was as complete as it was, but these are the little details that just make things complete. When I got my new wheels and tires, I was able to use one of the old ones as a spare so I'm good there. I'd like to find a set of original tools, but I've seen these things sell for as much as $1500--used! The pouch itself goes for $300! Yeow! The wrenches and screwdrivers that came in them are pretty cheesy and the original pouch was vinyl. Rather than break the bank to get a set of original tools, I figured I'd just make do with something that looks somewhat original.

The early 308 tool roll is supposed to contain a set of metric open end wrenches, a few screwdrivers, a spark plug wrench, a pair of pliers and something known as a "carb tool." I've done a lot of searching, but no one seems to know what this mysterious carb tool is. It's a small tool that can fit in the palm of your hand. It's shaped like a cross and it has hex ends on either end. There's been a lot of talk on F-chat about this tool but no one seems to know what it's used for. I brought up the subject again and finally we figured it out. It's an 8mm hex wrench for loosening the nuts that hold the carb air horns on. That's the only thing that makes sense since there are no other 8mm hex fasteners on the carbs. I looked at pictures of the original tool again and something dawned on me. I've seen a tool like that before. In fact, I OWN a tool like that. I ran out to the shop and started digging around in my old random bicycle stuff and there it was.



I've had this wrench for at least 25 years. It came with my first pair of clipless pedals. The wrench was used to tighten the cleat onto the bottoms of my shoes. I measured the hex and sure enough, it is 8mm. I opened the 308's bonnet, removed the air cleaner cover and voila! The wrench is a perfect fit. The shaft is even a small enough diameter to fit perfectly in the cutout at the top of the air horn.



Most people use either a deep socket (I do) or a nut driver to remove the air horns. I don't know that I'd ever use my new-found tool for this job, but it's certainly a good start to assembling my own nearly-original tool roll. A few months ago, a co-worker made me a tool pouch from black leather and it looks like the real deal. Now I need to find some wrenches and screwdrivers that are reasonable facsimiles. I'll probably end up buying an original spark plug tool though. That's a piece that's exactly the right size and length with a u-joint in just the right spot to reach down into the spark plug holes.

That's just the tool roll...then onto the jack kit, which is also missing...

New year's resolution to clean

A few days ago, a '78 308 GTS popped up on eBay. Starting bid was $30K with a buy it now price of $35K. The seller had a nice walk-through video showing how clean the car was. Of course, someone posted it on F-Chat and there was lots of discussion on the good and bad and pricing. Anyhow, I showed the video to TK and asked how my car compared. She said that it was no comparison. The eBay car was WAY better than mine and that the difference was "day and night." She even said that it was "embarrassing to be in a nice car that was filthy." What? Ok, I agree that the eBay car was very very clean. Up to this point, I've not done all that much for the looks of the car other than a session with the polisher and some spot cleaning here and there. There're a lot of places that need to be cleaned and freshened up with paint. Still, night and day?

Now that the car has been mostly sorted out, I'm going to spend time this year to really clean and detail. I do have some mechanical stuff to tend to (suspension bushings), but my resolution for 2011 will be to detail and to drive more. Of course driving more means more dirt, which will mean more cleaning. What a cycle!

And now for something completely different

In case you were wondering, YES I did end up going for a drive on New Year's Day. It was a short drive to meet some motorcycle buddies at a Bigbucks 10 miles from home. We talked about motorcycle trips for 2011 over a cup of overpriced and underflavored coffee. The weather has been about the same for the past few days. Clear, sunny and cold cold cold. I'm getting tired of looking at the compact snow and ice in my yard. It's supposed to rain before the week is out so hopefully, it'll wash all the ice away.

Ok, on to something different today. On my way home today, I thought about (of all things) Fair Scones. Huh? You know, those tasty jam filled baked goodies from the fair? I thought about the $10 box of Fair Scone mix I saw once at a store and figured there's got to be a recipe somewhere. When I got home, I consulted the Oracle (my Droid2) and sure enough, the recipe is a well-known secret. This recipe was printed back in a 1930's Fisher Cookbook and the folks at the fair pump about about 80,000 per day.

It's a pretty simple recipe:

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons shortening
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup raisins (if you are omitting the raisins, add another 2 Tablespoons of milk)

Check out this site for the complete text on putting it all together.



Not too bad for a first attempt. I even got the TK nod of approval!