1956 Hazet 450 wrench question

[Hugo Sheers]

Can anyone tell me when the change from 'dark satin chrome / L underlined logo' to 'satin chrome / straight underlined logo' occured?

I appreciate that nothing was set in stone in 50s Stuttgart but I would value the views of those with original tool kits. My car was completed in April '56.

Looking at Eric Cherneff's excellent web-site the suggestion on this page:

http://356tools.com/wrenches/hazet%20a%20set.JPG

is that the early A '56 cars came with satin chrome / straight underlined logo.

This page however suggests the L underlining continued through '56:

http://356tools.com/wrenches/Hazet%20comparison.htm

Thanks in advance
Hugo

[James Davies]

I don't have an answer to your question. I too am curious. Two comments/questions:

1) Vendors such as Hazet didn't make changes to their products to coincide with model year changes at Porsche, especially on things where the spec from Porsche didn't change. The underline on the wrenches is a great example of something Hazet did that was independent of anything going on at Porsche.

2) Did tool kits come in each car from Porsche? Or did Porsche send along tool kits (and owner's manuals) to the distributor or importer, and then the importer matched them up with cars when sold? I ask this, as I've seen an instance where the owner's manual a car originally came with was dated later than the Kardex date from Porsche by several months and coincided more with the sale date of the car from the distributor (Hoffman in this case).

[Rick Albro]

I don't believe the change occurred abruptly as I have several chrome satin under line "L" wrenches. If you are piecing together a set of wrenches there are many variations that don't seem to have documentation as to when the changes occurred. Given the variety of wrench observed there is a high probability that wrenches were used until a given supply ran out then a switch for that given variety occurred. The 1952 Hazet catalog gives the progression of steps to make a wrench...

[Alain Buchert]

Manufacturing of wrenches was made on several machine and probably on differante factory, I think for the same year, it was differante wrenches HAZET produced in factories.
see old catalog here:
http://www.hazet.de/de/home/my-hazet/ha ... -historie/

there were several finishes, indicated in the catalog.
Gesenkgeschmiedet Verchromt; oder verchromt, Köpfe Hochglatz
“Drop-forged chrome ; or chrome-plated, heads polished”

[James Davies]

Thanks for the link to the old catalogs Alain. Fascinating.

[Hugo Sheers]

Thanks all for your responses.

Looks like there is no definitive answer to this which may actually help in putting a set of wrenches together.

KTF
Hugo

[Etienne Kerkhoffs]

Talking about Hazet 450 wrenches, who can tell me during which years this 10 / 14 wrench was used? Both sides are the same except that one side does not has 'germany' on it.

Thanks!

[Alan Hall]

I don't think this wrench was ever used in the 356 era. The 10/14 wrenches from the 356 era all had the stamped size numbers rather than the cast in numbers. I believe this is a much newer version of the 10/14.

[Brad Ripley]

Later Hazet wrenches had

(1) numbers forged into the part as mentioned by Alan. For strength issues, wrenches are forgings. Early Hazet wrenches were formed in universal sizes, then the individual sizes were machined out and the sizes stamped in before heat treat. In later years, quantity runs were much more to justify forgings to exact sizes with the size designations forged in.

(2) The Hazet logo is in all capital letters.

[Etienne Kerkhoffs]

OK, thanks. In that case, I will just use it.