Spitfire Toolkit

It's amazing what some people carry in the boot...

A casual enquiry on the Spitfire mailing list regarding the tools one ought to carry in a Spitfire 1500 got a little out of hand. Two things became clear: firstly, no-one can agree on what are the basic items appropriate to being carried in the boot, and secondly, different people are paranoid about different things! :-)

Here is a comprehensive summary of the advice received from the mailing list. I seriously doubt whether anyone will get it all in, but it might be fun trying.

My thanks, of course, go to all those who responded.

WHEELS AND TYRES
Most people were quite sensible about this, although the number who admitted to carrying jacks and wheel-braces, but not to carrying a spare wheel, is disturbing.

• Spare wheel and tyre
• Jack
• Wheel-brace
• Wheel chock
• 1 can of tyre inflator

ENGINE OIL AND FUEL
Again, nice sensible replies for the most part, but why on earth an empty petrol can?

• Bottle of 20W50 oil
• 6 litre empty gas can
• Gallon can of petrol
• Funnel
• Siphon hose

COOLING SYSTEM
At least no-one is carrying a spare radiator...

• Spare water for the radiator
• Collapsible water bottle
• Fan belt
• 2-3/4" hose clamps/pipe clamps/jubilee clips (I'm fairly sure these are all the same)
• One-size-fits-all radiator hose, cut as needed
• Roll of radiator repair tape

HAND TOOLS
It would appear that bits tend to fall off Spitfires quite frequently, if the range and number of recommendations for hand tools is anything to go by. Generic recommendations ("a Philips Screwdriver") have been ignored if specific recommendations ("One medium length shaft Phillips with a smallish bit") have been made. I have given up trying to catalogue the various recommendations for spanners - suffice it to say that you should carry every single angled spanner, straight open-ended spanner, box-spanner, adjustable spanner/monkey-wrench, combination wrench, ratchet spanner, socket set and speed wrench you can find.

• Very long straight-blade screwdriver
• Short straight-blade screwdriver
• One medium length shaft Phillips with a smallish bit
• Reversible screwdriver with 4 different tips
• 4-1 lighted screwdriver
• Pair of bull-nosed pliers
• Needle nose pliers with wire cutter
• Arc joint pliers for leverage/Slip joint pliers (Am I right in thinking these are the same?)
• Locking pliers - Vise-Grips
• 1/16" Allen Key
• Cheapo break-away razor knife/box cutter
• One foot length of metal pipe, when there's a need for more torque

SPARES DEPARTMENT
I suspect that many of the spare parts we carry in our Spitfires tend to reflect failures we have had in the past, perhaps with other cars, as well as failures we know are about to happen, but haven't yet managed to get around to preventing...

• Bulbs
• Points
• Fuses
• Spark plugs
• Spark plug cable
• Distributor cap and rotor (Very many people seem to carry these. Be warned.)
• Alternator belt
• Assortment of ring terminals and spades.
• Assortment of screws, washers, nuts and bolts rolling around on the shelves under the dashboard.
• Square foot gasket material
• Pair of carburettor rebuild kits
• Accelerator cable
• Universal joint
• Head Gasket
• 2 D batteries (for that torch that you are going to need badly at 2.00 a.m., one snowy February day...)

ELECTRICAL FIRST AID SUPPLIES
Aside from the arguments about whether a digital or analogue meter is better (why not take both, to be on the safe side?), and some odd abbreviations I didn't recognise (What on earth are 12 Ga and 14 ga? I think these must refer to some sort of American Wire Gauge for which I have no conversion table. Can anyone define equivalents in SWG, or diameter?), most of this section is straightforward.

• 1 roll electrical tape
• 6 Nylon cable ties
• A few feet of 12 Ga insulated wire
• Roll of 14 ga. Wire
• Wire cutter/stripper
• Wire with alligator clips attached (sneaky - I like it!)
• Emergency trickle charger
• 1 set of booster cables/Jumper cables (I suspect these are Jump Leads by another name...)
• Specialized fitting crimpers (Crimp Tool in English)
• Test lamp
• Small electrical continuity tester or volt-ohm meter
• Cheap analogue meter
• Digital meter

RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE
Whilst many respondents neglected the spiritual side of driving British cars, two did not, and suggested the following:

• Sacrificial effigy of Lucas
• Incense
• Other magical offerings to appease the car gods...
• Bible in the boot, just in case!

• The $150.00 prepaid "tow it anywhere" maintenance insurance package
• AAA membership (This can't possibly mean the same thing in the US as it does here - Amateur Athletic Association - so I presume it is what those on the left-hand-side of the pond call their equivalent of the AA/RAC)
• Credit card
• Defeatist's cell-phone - with a tow company number programmed into it
• I-refuse-to-admit-defeatist's cell phone - to call the wife to come with more tools/parts
• Thermal Blanket
• 12-hour light sticks (The person who recommended these carries two. I can only assume that they must live North of the Arctic Circle, and are really determined not to let a little thing like a broken crankshaft prevent them from driving their Spitfire home...)
• Warning triangle
• Emergency flag
• Blanket
• Hat
• Warm gloves
• Waterproof, thermal-lined coat
• Dayglo-orange roadworker's vest
• Four-seasons sleeping bag
• Packet of cigarettes
• Cigarette lighter/matches
• Flares (!)
• Cookies
• Tow Rope

THERE'S NOWT SO QUEER AS FOLK
This section covers all those items that are, shall we say, unique to individual Spitfire owners. Any attempt to submit the following list to psychoanalysis is strictly prohibited.

• An old cavalry man's tool that belonged to my grandfather. This is a combo hammer and horseshoe nail puller. I've never used it, but my grandfather carried it for years as a young man when he drove a horse-drawn wagon, and kept it when he moved on to be an engineer for the Southern Railroad. Marked "Tredegar, Richmond" I suspect it's fairly old as the Yankees burned Tredegar Iron Works in 1865. It's a nice reminder that sometimes the best plan is to slow down and think things through.
• Hand cleaner
• Small bottle of aspirin
• 10 adhesive bandages
• 2 alcohol prep wipes
• 2 Antibiotic Ointment packets
• 2 moist towelettes
• 1 Accident information guide
• 1 poncho
• Bottle opener
• Corkscrew
• Half-bottle of champagne
• Umbrella
• Washbag

GENERAL
This is where I've put everything else that was recommended. Most of it seems to make some sort of sense...

• Can of De-icer
• Rubber gloves
• Spool of soft "baling wire"/roll of mechanic's wire
• Trouble light that plugs into your car's lighter outlet
• Tube of blue gasket adhesive
• Tube of anti-seize - good for putting on everything but a scone
• Tube of high-temperature silicone sealer.
• Bottle of screenwash
• Set of Feeler Gauges
• Rags
• Fire extinguisher
• Workshop manuals
• Something to lie on the muddy ground (an old plastic sheet works fine)
• Torch (flashlight) or lantern
• Car cover
• Carpenter's punch awl (good for lining up bolt holes)
• Roll of duct tape (Frost King brand - accept no substitutes)
• 2 bottles of hydraulic fluid - one silicone for the clutch and the other non-silicone for the brake.
• BIG sponge to dry out those foot-wells after the thunderstorm.
• Two 20-dollar bills, rolled up inside spare distributor cap
• Compression gauge

• Lug wrench = Wheel brace (Americans apparently refer to wheel nuts as "lug nuts").
• Container of LMA fluid = Brake Fluid (Castrol "Low Moisture Absorbtion" Brand).
• Tire iron - see Lug wrench
• Hemostats in various sizes and lengths. The best "third hand" I've yet encountered. Most highway patrol troopers think they are used for smoking pot, though.
  These turn out to be surgical clamps! I've never seen one outside an operating theatre. Perhaps this is because the British method of rolling a joint results in something you could use to club an elephant to death, whereas the American method gives you a much thinner result. As Jimi Hendrix once said, "You can pick your teeth with a New York joint!"
• Shop Towels. Ah, the decadence of the Capitalist Military-Industrial Complex! These turn out to be what Americans use instead of old rags. They actually buy specially-made cloths for use when working on cars, whereas we Brits, still suffering from the "make do and mend" mentality of World War II, tend to use worn-out underpants, and no-longer-fashionable flowery curtains.
• 1 bungee cord = one-legged octopus.
  Actually, I just made that up. In my family, the elasticated luggage straps that held things on the roof rack were always called octopuses (despite the fact that some of them didn't have eight "legs"). I've never heard a word for a single strap with a hook at each end, but "one-legged octopus" sounds much more interesting than "bungee cord" so I'm going to use it!

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