I owned a VW Beetle for five years and did all my own maintenance. The two wrenches I used were the 10 mm (not 8) and the 13 mm. Even today they still show more use than the others.
Carleton -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Martin Vlietstra Sent: Saturday, June 27, 2009 02:40 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:45274] RE: wrench sizes I have been told that when Dr Porsche designed the VW Beetle (c 1937), he made sure that only three sized spanners were needed for maintenance purposes - I believe that they were 8 mm, 13 mm and 22 mm. Maybe ant VW Beetle aficionados out there could confirm this. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bill Hooper Sent: 27 June 2009 03:04 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:45273] wrench sizes I was browsing in the auto shop while my car was being serviced the other day and came across something I always "knew" in the abstract but, about which, I did not know the specific details. Maybe you all knew this (or similar examples) but here it is in case you didn't. They were selling two almost identical sets of socket wrenches, one in Ye Olde English units, the other in metric: The sizes of the sockets in the Y.O.E. set were: 5/16, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 9/16, 5/8 and 3/4 inches. The sizes of the metric sockets were: 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 17 millimetres. The Olde English units were marked on the sockets with quotation marks to indicate inches (e.g. 5/16" for five-sixteenths of an inch) while the metric units were indicated by "MM" for millimetres (e.g. 9 MM for nine millimetres). The examples show so well how metric is simpler to understand and easier to use, that one can almost excuse the use of the wrong symbol for millimetres. Bill Hooper 72 kg body mass Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA
