I think this one is definitely a thread that ought to show up with the price of 308s soaring, but unfortunately not until now. I'm no expert in tool kits compared with others like Big Tex and nerofer. They have talked about publishing the 308 tool kit book for a while , so for the time being while we are still waiting, I'll throw in some data/info gathered about tool kits over the years. To make it easier for me as I'm using mobile mostly, I'll use separate posts. All information are empirically collected and unofficial. Credits goes to Big Tex the pioneer, nerofer and many others contributed to the various tool kit threads here.
#1 Screwdrivers There are 4 screwdrivers in each and every tool kit, 2 Philips head/crossed head and 2 Flathead/blade. There are generally 3 different handle types, 2 being orange translucent and 1 dark red/brown translucent: Image Unavailable, Please Login The round ended 4-fluted orange translucent usual appears in carb cars as they are those carried over from the 246 era. Some of them may be carrying the V10.000 or V12.000 marking, but it's rare: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login The flat ended 6-fluted orange translucent appear from 70s to about 1982, i.e. For carb, 2V and early QVs. They have no marking except the "chrom vanadium" on the blade. These markings are difficult to see or read and do vary sometimes. I guess the manufacturers can't spell properly: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login The 6-fluted dark red/brown translucent has no marking on the handle and size variations are the same as the other two types: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login The big Philips are almost always 225mm in length: Image Unavailable, Please Login The small Philips, the big flathead and small flathead are mainly 230mm, 207mm or 185mm in length: Image Unavailable, Please Login You will expect a set to have all the same type of handle, but it seems this may not be the case for the earlier kits with orange translucent handle. You will find round ended mixed with flat ended:
#2 Wrenches/Spanners There are 8 wrenches in each and every tool kit. The wrench sizes are 22/20mm, 19/18mm, 17/16mm, 15/14mm or 14/14mm, 13/12mm, 11/10mm, 9/8mm and 7/6mm: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login There are mainly 5 different brand/type: Everest No.22/Made in India (up to 1980), Polytools Italy/Chrom Vanadium (1979-1983), Chrum Vanadium Kravm/Ferrari (1983-85), Ferrari only (very late QVs) and Utema No.1000 or No.1200 (Randomly appears but mainly in QVs): Everest are pretty straight forward. As they are found in the carb kits with Tommy bar handled spark plug wrench, there is no 14/14 combination wrench usually. See first pic attached. Make sure you have "Made in India" as pictured: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Polytools has 3 types. 1 without the parallelogram and 2 with. Those with parallelograms are separated into 2 types, a thicker entirely matt finish and a thinner one with the heads slightly brushed finish: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login And the Polytools 14/14 combination wrench has 2 types, a general one and a "CV Special", note that the shapes are different as well. Both types appear randomly with the CV Special more frequently found: Image Unavailable, Please Login Kravm has 2 types, matt finish is more common and the chrome finish like the F40 tools were also found: Image Unavailable, Please Login "Ferrari" only is subject to debate as there are not many spotted until just recently: Image Unavailable, Please Login Utema can be found as a complete set including the 14/14mm combination wrench or as individual wrench appearing in a kit, although this is subject to debate it has been seen a few times already and you would think if people are going to "fill the hole" why not the same type as others? Image Unavailable, Please Login
Wrong attachment of the Polytools CV Special... Image Unavailable, Please Login I will continue tomorrow...
Great job Steven, thank you. I agree with everything you have said. What I will add is sometimes the change from one brand or style of tool was not as smooth as described. For example my 1982 308 GTSi came with a spark socket with a tommy bar and silver pliers and some the injected cars had black pliers and no tommy bar (closer to QV). I think Ferrari used all of one run of tools before they started another run and the shift wasn't just by model.
Before continuing, a few more pictures to elaborate on the screwdrivers and wrenches. The following shows the "chrom vanadium" marking on orange translucent screwdrivers previously described. More difficult to see if it's rusted so I didn't bother to picture those: Image Unavailable, Please Login Another set with mixed orange translucent handles: Image Unavailable, Please Login This picture shows the thickness differences between the matt finish Polytools wrenches of the same size: Image Unavailable, Please Login This one is the chrom finish Kravm wrench: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login This one is the matt finish Kravm wrench: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login This is the other side of the "Ferrari" only wrench previously shown: Image Unavailable, Please Login And I couldn't find the picture of the Utema N.1200... Anyone has it?
#3 Window crank Typically it's not really a tool kit piece as it's not included in the tool kit page of the owner manual. But there is a convenient pocket in the pouch between the wrenches and the pliers pockets. There are only 2 distinctive types, the early Z-shaped that was carried over from the 246 era (up to early QVs) and the later T-shaped (QVs only): Image Unavailable, Please Login The early Z-shaped has a plastic handle that can rotate freely to facilitate cranking action: Image Unavailable, Please Login The later T-shaped has a handle with one wedge-end for you to remove the covering piece of cranking hole: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login They are almost always black, but some could become a bit silverfish possibly caused by excessive cleaning: Image Unavailable, Please Login
#4 Pliers There are mainly 4 different types, the early black one without plastic sheath (mostly carb cars but also found in some 2V cars), the plated one with orange/red sheath (from late carb cars to QVs), the red moulding handled one with white Ferrari lettering on both sides (later QVs) and the red moulding handled one with black Ferrari lettering on one side and black Kravm on the other side (very late QVs). The black one has varied etched handle and usually 190mm in length, some are 160mm in length: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login The orange/red (more orange than red) sheath one is the most abundant, which is plated and always 190mm in length: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login The red moulding with white lettering one is also plated mostly. Some are black headed, but seems to be more appropriate for the 328 kit: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login The black lettered red moulding ones are typically black headed: Image Unavailable, Please Login The last one is highly debatable, the other coloured-handle ones. There were claims of blue ones and yellow ones, but not of significant amount to substantiate the originality claim. This blue handled one is of more credibility, but still possibly from the later generic replacement kits: Image Unavailable, Please Login
#5 Spark Plug Wrench Mainly 2 types, the early Tommy bar type (up to 1980) and later one to be used with the 14/14mm combination wrench (starting from 1979 till the end of 308 production). Tommy bar type are composed of two pieces, the bar and the wrench main body. It is similar to the design of those for 246 but having a much shorter "neck". A rubber catch shall be inside the socket. There should be a click so the bar can stay in the middle position but this mechanism can seize if the bar was not removed from the main wrench body for an extended period: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login The later 14mm plug wrenches have a few variants. They all have a 21mm inner socket bore measurement and there should be a rubber catch inside usually in orange or black colour. Some have the middle neck in black and some with a hump in the crown piece: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
#6 Carb Tool It's for carb cars obviously but some 2V kits have them as well: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
#7 Tool Kit Pouch - the end Mainly 2 variants, the mainstream 4 screwdrivers+8 wrenches+1 window crank+2 pliers+1 spark plug wrench=16 pockets type (for all 308s) and the 4 screwdrivers+8 wrenches+1 window crank+1 pliers+1 spark plug wrench=15 pockets type (for very late QVs). They are all made of black synthetic leather with two snaps. Those without the pocket for spark plug wrench is not for 308s. The mainstream type has some variations as well. The very early ones may have different fabric for the flap instead of black fabrics. Such as robertgarven's red patterned one and this grey fabric one: Image Unavailable, Please Login Normal ones look like this: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Material of the pouch are normally rather thick and just look like leather but there are some having a softer material with a regular pattern that is not very visible unless you look closely: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Snaps mostly have the inscription of "Fiocchi * italy *" on the back of the male stud and visible on the inside near the 16/17mm wrench pocket: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login The later type looks like this, note the single big pocket for the pliers: Image Unavailable, Please Login Well, I think I have covered everything about the 308 tool kits that I know of. Feel free to comment. One thing is certain that all original tool kits have variations to a certain degree and not as precise as the modern era kits. So, don't be surprised by anything that differs from what I have described here. I believe if you are aiming at concourse shows, anything period correct will do just fine. Unless you want definitely the exact correct tool in the pouch, it won't be too difficult to assemble your own. One last word about repro items as you may wonder. Yeah there are repros for almost everything except the wrenches I guess as there are abundant out there. I know the orange/red translucent screwdrivers, window cranks, old black pliers, carb tool and pouch (ask Alberto aka Albert-LP ) have high quality repros. Others may be, but unsure. It's "Unofficial" and just a sharing of knowledge. Flame suit on anyway...
You are definitely correct about the Ferrari practice in the old days, Barry. Some more detailed information I chose to ignore such as the very late brown screwdrivers that appear mostly in the 328 kit with white lettering and the placement of window cranks etc... Anyway, too much to just think about.
Great work researching, Steven. And interesting. I have rarely seen such creepy tools like those early ones. I find it incredible, that Ferrari supplied such POS with the cars. Best Regards Martin
Great job Steven!! Thanks for sharing all that information. It's also amazes me that Ferrari used to provide all the production cars with all these tools. Those days are over.
Thank you Steven for this nice reference. Are you sure 160mm pliers were available in the 308 tool kits? I have never seen a 308 kit with other than 190mm pliers. I believe the 246 Dino's all had 190mm pliers also.
Thanks Steven for collating a lot of tool kit information into this one thread. My 85 Aussie delivered QV has a tool kit enroute via FedEx so I will re-read your thread with much interest and compare my tools to your pictures once the tools are in front of me.
Some early kits had this plaid another fchater has the jack bag with this also. There is also another socket in the parts book which I have but not sure what it is? It is #9 in diagram. Note: On some t bar handle spark plug tools the head is cylindrical as in the diagram, not rounded and some have a groove in the t bar also (as pictured also). Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Interesting Robert! Never seen that #9 thing. Cross referencing the owner manual and simple online translate, it may translate into "Removing spanner for spark plugs extension" or something like that. Attached the copy of the Italian version of 76 spare parts catalogue for GT4 here see if Alberto can help? Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
A small addition to steven's illustrations: Variations in 1980's screwdrivers: Note on the picture (all three screwdrivers are the small philipps for convenience) the difference in color and material of the handles: From top to bottom, first picture: Translucent red, without the white "Ferrari script": 1983 to 1986 Deep brown, only very slightly translucent (you have to put it in front of a light to see it), with "Ferrari" script, but later font: 1986 - 1989 Red-brown translucent, with the "Ferrari" script: 1984 to 1988. Second picture is to illustrate closer, notably the difference in the style of the script's letters. Not that one is read "top to bottom", (the "F" is attop the handle) the other one bottom to top... Again, NO 3x8 tool roll should have solid Black handle screwdrivers: these came later, during the 1990 Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
