356 tool kits

Every 356 left the factory with a roll of tools: canvas at first, vinyl from the middle of 1953, closed with a leather strap. By 1963 it closed with a tie string, and the C cars got clasps. The contents changed almost as often. Hazet wrenches gave way to ones stamped PORSCHE, then to plain DIN 895. The tire gauge disappeared for one model year and came back. The early kits had a hammer; the later ones did not.

Registry members have worked this out piece by piece for fifty years. Jim Perrin wrote eight articles on it. A.C. Roda took the B kits apart. Eric Cherneff spent two decades documenting these kits and has given the Registry his research and his photographs.

This project brings that work into one place, kit by kit, with every source named so you can check it. Joe Owen leads the effort. He oversees the content, decides how to present evidence that is thin or in conflict, and coordinates what members send in. Content reviewers and advisors include Pete Bartelli and Jim Wayman.

The canvas kit, 1950 to mid 1953The earliest kits, and the only ones in a canvas bag.The 1952 America Roadster is the anchor: the earliest complete kit on record, and its long screwdriver is not the Jorg that follows it.MembersThe gray vinyl kit, mid 1953 to late 1955The only kit the factory itemized, and the last one with a hammer.The January 1955 parts catalog lists it line by line, the screw jack gives way to the ratchet in May, and the bag drops a pocket before the year is out.MembersEarly A, late 1955 to 1956The shortest-lived kit, and the one that starts inside the year before it.Both tire gauges turn up here, which is what old stock does at a changeover, and the spark plug socket still carries its late Pre-A markings.MembersLate A, 1957-59The Phillips arrives and the jack gets its own handle.1958 is a transition year in three separate places, so a 1957 kit and a 1959 kit are both correct and do not match.MembersT5 B, 1960-61A blue bag, and a screwdriver that grew a second job.Typewritten contents sheets from the delivery packet circulate for this kit, and the parts book lists wrench sizes the kits never carried.MembersT6 B, 1962The only wrench Porsche ever had made for itself.PORSCHE is cast into all four wrenches. They were fitted to some 1962 cars and not others, and no Driver's Manual illustrates this kit.MembersT6 B, 1963The tie-string kit, and the year the most changed at once.The bag loses its belt, the handles turn blonde, the tire gauge disappears, and a hubcap puller arrives because the lug wrench stopped providing one.Read it →C and SC, 1964-65The only kit designed from scratch, and the only one with clips.Klein red plastic handles replace wood, the tire gauge returns in a maroon Bakelite body, and the wrenches are marked DROP FORGED STEEL.Members

Contents by yearEvery tool against every year, on one chart.What each kit carried, what it did not, and where the answer is still open.MembersFour-cam and CarreraThe Carrera kits, early A to Carrera 2.Six surviving kits are shown, from a 1956 early A kit to a 1964 Carrera 2, most of them photographed by Pete Bartelli.MembersTravel kitsSold separately, and spare parts rather than tools.Two factory contents lists survive, from 1956 and 1958. Red, blue and gray bags correspond broadly to A, B and C cars, with documented exceptions.MembersHazet round kitsAn accessory, and never factory equipment.Hazet made them for VW and owners bought them from a local dealer, but they turn up in many 356s.MembersReproductionsWhat is reproduced and how to tell a copy from an original.Reproduction shank markings have been correct since 1992, so a correct marking does not prove a tool original.MembersCleaning a tool bagWashing, rust, vinyl, stitching and belts.Built from Benjamin Abraham's step by step work on the forum, with Eric Cherneff's 2007 article, Pete Bartelli's belt care and Jerry Manna's method.Members

ScrewdriversThree at most, and never the same three twice.One screwdriver is in every kit from 1950 to 1966. Its shape, its name, its length and the second job it is expected to do all change, and not always at a model year.MembersWrenchesThe only tool Porsche ever had made for itself, for one year.Four in every kit, specified by a German standard rather than a part number. What changes is the maker, the finish, and in 1962 the name cast into the side.MembersBags and rollsThe closure dates a kit faster than anything inside it.The closure changed three times in sixteen years, and the change shows from across a table. What is inside can be swapped. The bag usually cannot.MembersTire gaugesIn the kit, out for a year, back in a different body.A Messko in almost every kit: a metal body for thirteen years, then Bakelite. The face marking changes three times, and for one model year there is no gauge at all.MembersLug wrenches and pullersOne tool doing three jobs, until it stopped.For thirteen years one tool turned the lug nuts, cranked the jack and pulled the hubcaps. When Porsche bought a cheaper one, the kit needed a second tool to cover the hubcaps.MembersSpark plug socketsHazet 763 for thirteen years, then Klein.A 20.8 mm hex with a rubber insert to hold the plug and holes for a tommy bar. For most of its life the only thing that changes is the writing on it.MembersPliers, jack, hammer and beltThe four that change least, together.The pliers change shape twice, the jack four times and the fan belt maker once. The hammer leaves after 1954 and never comes back.Members