First Thing We Did With Our Chris Craft Tools. Build A Chris Craft Tool Kit!
Bag, wrenches, crank, screw driver, pliers, plug wrench, and bag.
It’s taken a bit of time, but thanks to Jim Staib of Fine Wood Boats and your comments we were able to put together a Chris Craft tool set. I had a bag made of a canvas type material, that I suspected it would have been made of. Thanks to Laura at Tiffany Yachts in Burgass Virginia. She has fun figuring out this stuff. OK, at least she pretends to have fun.
It all fit into a nice 5×15 bag! I was shocked! Not an inch to spare, But makes sense, You don’t want stuff banging around.
The biggest thing I know is they are all MADE IN USA, which is step one. Step two?
Bad news, Battery is dead, Good news you have a crank, bad news you just had a heart attack using it.
Screw Driver
Wrench set
Not sure what the 40 means?
The crank is the crank, as is the screw driver. The plug wrench is new, and the wrenches are vintage and a best guess at the original manufacturer, which I have no idea who that is. Bottom line though, is we now have a complete set of prerestoric tools in a soon to be aged bag. By the way, white canvas is simple to age. Just touch it!
I found this smaller bag, NOT A TOOL BAG, and wonder if the tool bag had FROM CHRIS-CRAFT on it? I can not image these things were not just cranked out in all sorts of sizes?
Its all coming together for the big Lake Dora event in JUST 75 DAYS! Yikes! It’s almost summer. Wow! Time flies when you get older. I wonder if that means my boat gets faster when it gets older? Well, regardless I now have a tool kit! Later we talk about the fog horn, and making a gas stick.
Nice Kit!
By the looks of the crank it must engage on the flywheel. Do you have room to crank the W in WECATHUM? That would be an interesting experience.
Cranking a “W”?? lol, go for it. You’re going to need the whole alphabet and some special characters ((#@%!) to roll that big boy over. I wonder if anyone actually started even a “B” with one of those. Hell, I get “cranky” just trying to get my weed wacker started. Would they have been used for just setting timing and not actually expected to be used to start?
Does anyone actually have a hull card that included the crank? I always figured that CC had no reason to swap out the standard flywheel that came with the engines.
No duct tape or paper clips?
I have no idea on the crank. I do have room, You remove the seat. I think. Its something I would never do. And on the hull card the crank is not checked. So maybe 25 sportsman didnt come with cranks? And Duck tape, paper clips, little peices of wood, random screws, electrical tape are part of the unoficial kit that gets used ALOT! HA.
And the unofficial kit goes in an old coffee can.
The Monkey Wrench was likely from Coes Wrench Co., of Worcester, Massachusetts, a manufacturer located about a mile from the Reed & Prince factory. Apex Tool was an early source of the wooden handle Frearson screwdrivers.
The screw drivers are genuine Reed & Pince.
Yes, R&P made them in later years as well. But Apex was the early supplier to R&P, and might be a good source for finding / making Frearson hand drivers (and correct fitting Bits) today.
Don’t forget the official woody boater bucket!
The crank is not checked on my 17 Sportsman either. With the limited space and throw it looks like a great way to lose some fingers. Nice collection of tools though and I like the bag.
With an engine the size of a W, I would worry about a shattered arm or worse. You just don’t have enough room on a boat to use one safely.
Nice job!
That would make for a nice Brass Bell story…
Nice set of tools….neat bag.
When I recently cleaned out my old cruiser, sending her to her new owner, I found about 100 pounds of tools, spares, junk, duct tape, wood, inner tubes, cans of mystery lubes, 5200, etc etc. Likely cost her a knot of two!
John in Va.
Very cool. Nice re-creating!
Have a rubber stamp made to match the writing on the small bag and stamp the new big bag. In a few months it will look seventy years old.
Matt, you are correct about age and speed. As Prof. Einstein said, “everything is relative my boy.” See, as we get older, we tend to slow down. This, in turn, makes everything else seem to go faster. So, yes, your boat WILL go faster as you age!
Hey, didn’t your old Ford tractor have a crank? My Ferguson had one and it didn’t really take much effort to start ‘er up. A Triumph TR-3 of mine also needed cranking until I got the starter fixed. Good times!
Small bag is what Chris Craft would send small parts in. Mainly engine parts. The ones I have are like the picture but have a paper label stitched to the bottom. Chris Craft would put small parts in the tie a knot in the draw string put your address on the label and send them to you .
Original tools from a 1939 19′ barrelback.
close up
Matt, I have more close ups if you want them.
Nice, will have to work on one of those.
Speaking of a fuel gauge, will make you one for a tool bag. 😉
🙂
Cool.
Now, you need to find a way to start having repro tool kits and bags made for the rest of us.
Would be nice to know what tools which model/types of boats actually came with. Seems with everything Chris Craft there were many variations …
Jeff
Well if you are going to replace the battery that is dead, you might as well replace it with an authentic Willard battery at $300+ a pop. A small price to pay Mr. authentic zipper guy!
Those old tools date from before chrome plated handtools were the norm and when they are left in the bilge toolbox are sure to rust quickly. In addition to oiling or waxing the tools, an old-time mechanic’s trick that has worked well in my boats, and anywhere else with high humidity is to keep a few mothballs in the bag and make sure the drawstring is tightly closed. As the mothballs evaporate they emit a naptha vapor which – as a petroleum product – will coat the tools with a light protective coating.
It also helps keep small critters out of a covered boat during winter storage.
Thanks Ed, I recal all my fathers and grandfathers tools being rather oily. I had never thought of wax though. Like a car wax?