@rum4mo not so much a weak spot as sore spot. 

 

I've cut & pasted your info for future reference thank you.

 

NGK Partfinder has the same info for plug. - https://www.ngkpartfinder.co.uk/catalogues/cars/search/spark-plugs/SKODA/FABIA+3+(14-->)/2015/8635/

 

I just had a quick look and none of the info on the plug sockets makes sense on the Halfords site so I'd have to take my Bacho made in Spain adjustable spanner and see if it comes out at 15 or 17mm. 

 

Euro Car Parts doesn't show brothers anymore (not to say they're not involved though, who knows). - https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02680212/officers

 

Plugs will probably not get looked for some time as I've yet to get around putting the coolant in that I bought about a month ago, three things need to coincide and they rarely do, getting the availability of the car, the right weather to do the job (outside) and me being bothered to do the work.

 

Cheers.

  

Edited 28 April28 Apr by nta16

Bacho spanner made in Spain! What is the world coming to, I always assumed that all Bacho stuff was made in Sweden,  talking about Bacho adjustables, I bought one of their chopped down or thin jaw versions, as a treat to myself - for holding onto the slim air vent body of the valve on our heated towel rails, they work a treat for that job, no more blinking complete valve unscrewing when I open the small vent screw - I had been looking for a reason to buy one of them as soon as I noticed them in Screwfix, we had lots of specially modified spanners at work, but normally they were just bog standard spanners, sockets etc that had been machined to suit, I bet that cost a lot more than buying the right tools!

2 hours ago, rum4mo said:

Bacho spanner made in Spain

Herramientas Eurotools S.A is the Spanish connection. Now all part of Snap on.

 

Thanks, AG Falco

A few tears back I used a neighbour's very old Bacho adjustable which was a lovely bit of kit and I recognised the brand logo IIRC from an old saw I used to have and remembered it being very good so when I saw the brand on a tool store at the NEC Classic Motor Show I was disappointed to find they were no longer made in Sweden.  I remember one year at the show I needed to look for a certain set of imperial spanners and I could not find them and most of the spanners were metric sets, at the classic car show!

 

I knew someone who a good few years back worked for Snap-On in the UK and he said their quality had dropped back then and IIRC they'd bought Blue Spot and dropped the quality.  Now I think Blue Spot are just low priced tools(?).

 

What I'd want to find is NOS or good s/h Holts, often Draper 'Expert' badged and sold, small tough plastic tool box, full opening with tote deeper tote tray and handle that fits on the base and inside lid when open, instead of the shallow tote trays of more modern. They were just the right size for me but now feel overloaded for my feeble arms, shoulders and wrists.

 

Metric tools only, at Classic Motor Show, bother, is that called progress?  I handed over all my and my father's  AF and Whitworth/BSW spanners to my mate when it looked like he was going all GB for his classics, unfortunately that only lasted one car, an A40,then he stuck with SAAB so these tools are collecting rust now. I still have my father's Bedford Tools Imperial socket set though, the case for that set was big enough to accept a full set of Britool metric sockets, with the odd Draper Expert thrown in.

 

Toolstation sell or used to sell Facom Expert very cheaply, I could not work out if this was just Facom getting into a cheaper section of the market, I bought a couple of 17mm Hex sockets for use with telescopic wheel wrenches in the boots of our cars, they seem well enough made, but very cheap!

 

My father also had a Crescent brand small adjustable spanner - but that seems to have disappeared over time!

 

Blue Spot, yes I heard about them, I bought a set of basic Draper spanners years ago, really just to have in the boot, they, I think, were made in India - the complete set consisted of one of each "size" of spanner, just that actual sizes had been swopped on a couple, so one size had big wall thickness and one had hardly any wall thickness!  I think that I took them to work and allowed them to be nicked, serves some thieving b****d right!

To be fair there were imperial tools at that show, but not the ones I wanted of course, it was just that I noticed the majority were metric which seemed strange.  Later years there seems to be many more types and sorts of imperial and metric tools available.  I notice most stalls have the same names of cheaper imported tools, Bergen (?) for a few years, USA-pro(?) more recently.

 

I thought I didn't have decent sockets and spanners until 10 years ago when I got a set of Halfords Advanced but then I discovered some of the spanners I'd previously given away were German made Geoge(?).  I've bought cheap tools just to do one job or get at one awkward fitting to find I couldn't so have given them away (I don't have space, time or patience to keep stuff I won't or don't want to use).  But this did remind me that cheap tools can be useful sometimes.  I've got no Whitworth stuff so have to borrow or bodge round so I might buy some and then Sod's Law never need them.

 

On a neighbour's 16 year old van we found a 'security' Torex headed screw but it wasn't T25 or T27 so I guess must be a factory only size(?) and we couldn't get a flat blade to turn it and couldn't try too hard as there are two in a bit of 16 year old plastic deteriorated from the engine bay environment so we worked around it.  So many different types and sizes of fittings now that the average DIYer can't keep up with them all.

 

Edited 7 July, 20214 yr by nta16

Oooh, nostalgia trip..

 

When I were a lad I bought an "Elora lczn*" socket set, sometime late '70's. Just the thing for Morris 1000, and 1100 come to that, with its mixture of standards.

 

It was a considerable outlay, but the only things that suffered in the 40 odd years since then were the disintegrating blue plastic shaped tray that located everything, and the commonly used metric sizes got to the stage they were too worn to undo something really tight without fear of rounding the head off the nut.

 

So I got some new "hex" metric sockets, but I found they just sheared bolts instead... and that's more or less when I stopped getting my hands really dirty: changing the battery is about my limit these days.

 

@rum4mo Good tip with Toolstation and the Facom Expert

 

 

Regards

 

JohnH

 

* lczn according to memory - Full mix of Whitworth, AF, and metric.

I've heard of Elora but only in the last decade I think, I can't remember seeing any in the dim distance past but I wouldn't have looked for any.

 

By iczn do you mean the sockets with pins in them to take the required shape?

 

When some of us, it sounds like, were out buying our first proper car tools, it seemed that all the quality brands only sold bi-hex sockets, unless I'm mistaken, now everyone sells hex sockets as they might be slightly less convenient when in poor access areas, but they trade that in for better grip on fasteners and the later designs even more than just plain hex.

Edited 7 July, 20214 yr by rum4mo

You got far too technical for me with bi-hex I had to look it up, it's just 12 point to me instead of 6 (I still confuse hex as 8!).

 

I think I've always managed a choice of 6 or 12 but of course the 6 or 12 will be the wrong length or square end fitting so adapter and to the wrong length handle, Sod's Law you never have the right tool no matter how many you or the guy across the road or your mate have adding to the misery of usually farting about on  a car.

 

I always start with the correct size spanner or socket but sometimes find the incorrect is a better fit for the job, I don't often find adjustable are best but sometimes have to use them, and obviously their handles or jaws then get in the way slowing the job.  Perhaps I start with totally the wrong attitude, I'm much more relaxed working on someone else's car, not that I do often, but I seem then to have more patience and no swearing.  Most people that know me know if I'm doing anything with our cars not to approach.  

 

Edited 7 July, 20214 yr by nta16
speeling and stuff

15 hours ago, nta16 said:

By iczn do you mean the sockets with pins in them to take the required shape?

 

No, it's what I remember that particular set to be called... and it is: see attached. As @rum4mo rightly says they were all bi-hex.

 

It's all looking a bit sad - the replacement "hex" sockets are up with son-in-law, as is the other complete Elora set which was my father-in-laws.

 

I'm tempted by the Facom set for £12 from toolstation, just to fill it up.

 

 

Regards,

 

John H

Regarding the disintegrating socket set plastic liners, 40 years ago a younger friend of mine used to turn them upside down and fill the void with mortar, after that they were indestructible but rather heavy.

 

I have recently followed his inspiration but with expanding foam, a denser expanding PU foam adhesive applied from a Pro Gun (very good for controlled slow application of tiny beads of foam) to be precise.

 

A lot of the cheap tools I buy now on the internet come in blister display packs, most are only strong enough to survive the transport in a jiffy bag but when reinforced by the expanding foam become very strong, I also save food packaging boxes as some here are as strong and good as Tupperware (it helps them sell their product) I will cut the tool blister backing to fit inside the margarine tub then foam it in place, it makes a very secure storage container for the tool, a recent example was a brake caliper wind back tool.

John, now I see (literally).

 

I love the speed brace, 25/32", 14 and 18mm sockets and complete with a couple of spare nuts and a fuse. 

 

I mislaid an adapter for months under the broken plastic tray with my Kinzo (made in Taiwan)  3/8" drive "15 pc. socket wrench set".  Most of the sockets and the ratchet have long gone but I still have the 8" swivel head handle, its crossbar, and extensions and use the metal box to house a couple of spare sockets and drive adapters. IIRC it cost me  £11.25 around 1979 but it was from a dearer shop.

 

All our yesterdays. 

 

ETA: great idea J.R.

Edited 8 July, 20214 yr by nta16
ETA:

When I was 13, 14 maximum all I wanted as a birthday present were tools for working on cars and bikes, I was already working weekends at a garage for nothing and often cycling 10 miles each way to get there such was my passion and desire for experience. For money I had a paper round & a business restoring and selling push bikes.

 

No t'internet then and I didn't have the money for car magazines so the advertising I saw was in the Sunday papers, what gave me wet dreams was a 42 piece 1/2" drive A/F, Whitworth and MM socket set from Sillhill Products for £13.99 which my parents eventually bought for me although I had to repay them, it was a loan and not a present, they did buy me a pair of waterpump pliers and a pop rivet gun though.

 

I still have the socket set although the case & inlay were eventually discarded as the contents now repose in my roll cab top toolbox.

 

The speedbrace is something that we have not seen for years yet they were a real labour saver, with enough long extensions you could remove BLMC driveshaft donut U bolts from the wheelarch, todays equivalent is the battery impact wrench, the first and only time I used one of them was as pit crew for the works Mini Cooper team at the 2003 (I think) 24 hour Nurburgring race, they blew me away. I have never had my hands on one since until last week, close to 2 decades later when I bought a Bosch one from Ali-Express cheaply but nowhere near as cheap as the clones.

I indulged myself in one of these a couple of years back because I was always in another country from my proper toolkit when I needed to do repairs, it lives in the back of the car and I now turn to it first even when I am in my UK workshop, its rare that I need anything else or better.

 

https://www.bahco.com/gb_en/1-4--3-8--and-1-2--square-drive-socket-set-with-combination-wrenches-screwdriver-bits-pb_s138_.html

 

It was about £130 at the time and the tools are really good quality especially the case.

J.R., good parents that taught you to stand on your own two feet and paying back a loan.  The use of "pushbike" I think suggests were at least of a certain age, I'm chronologically 60 but feel nearer 85 sometimes. 

 

Sounds like your speed brace was used on Triumphs, 15 years back I had a GT6 (Mk3), a very bad mistake but they do look lovely.

 

The battery impact wrench worries me in the wrong hands, I've lost at two different times Midget wheel studs as the nuts only torque to 45lbs (well 44-46lbs in the good book, Driver's Handbook) and the tyre place compressor rattle gun and torque wrench must have been way above, the torque wrench can be a joke after the rattle gun, I feel like telling some of these gorillas they could just use their finger strength on the wheel nuts. 

 

Only yesterday I was telling someone about I remember (but not the year) when the BMW MINI first came out I think there were just the two models, the MINI One and MINI Cooper, the One was IIRC about £10k but a friend-of-a-friend was turning up at the time in a Cooper, with the extras he had on it was getting towards £20k at the time.

 

Yeah that Bacho kit looks classy and useful.  It reminds me that I bought a cheap set of imperial crowsfeet to try get at a nut to save a lot of work, not only would they not reach it wouldn't have matter if they did, so I gave them away to a mate as I'd never use them and he might on vary rare occasions I'd guess so absolute fit and robustness probably wouldn't matter.

 

I'll have to put up a photo of the Holt (Draper Expert) small plastic toolbox with sensible sized tote tray and see if you seen any s/h or NOS anywhere in your travels as I'd love a few more to lighten the load on my wrists.

 

I bought a Bacho tool box (still silly modern very shallow tote tray) without even knowing it a few years back it was just the size I needed and a good price in a local (part-time) shop - BTW I'm not mechanical or technical above the very basic level or any inclination, very often I'm to the incompetent side, I only do a bit on the cars because we can no longer afford to pay others to do what I can b*gger up for myself.

 

Edited 8 July, 20214 yr by nta16
speeling and stuff

Start a thread on your favorite Unobtanium toolbox and I will post some pictures of mine that I have used on site and my build for close to 30 years now, it was made for carpenters and is perfect for my needs but the bottom will surely drop out of it one day.

 

I have never ever seen another one even after Google searching, it was in B&Q alone and was not recognised by the tills, the manager said it was probably a sample left  by a rep and it was mine for a fiver, little did I know how attached I would become to it.

 

It has lasted a silly long time considering that its plastic, I have had to hand make new latches etc but it cant last forever, it will be a very sad day when I have to cram all the stuff that it contains into something else that wont have the drill bits, driver bits, router bits, jigsaw blades, sockets, punches, screwdrivers etc all presented where I can find them easily.

Yes I could do later as it means assembling my old digital camera and wiring to the PC and I'm just in from doing a wick job 3 hours ago and still waiting for my tea/dinner.  Which forum would be best?

 

A quick simple job and 5 toolbox out, luckily my glamourous assistant arrived just in time to lend a 6th and 7th hand, luckily I'd already found three spring clamps of the right size, but then like an idiot I let my glamorous assistant go and struggled and then started working to the wrong markings in a sauna of a shed.  oh the joys. 

 

I think I need feeding as I've been fighting with folding a duvet cover (I loathe the things, it's off to the charity shop) - but it beat me.  Need food!