The cardinal rule of air-cooled VW ownership is that you adjust your own valves and to do that you need a feeler gauge. To adjust valves you probably only really need the 0.005", 0.006", and 0.007" blades (too see if you got 'em too tight, too loose, or just right; at least that's how I do it) but a few of the others come in handy too, like the 0.026" or 0.027" feelers to gap your spark plugs.
The set above is a Craftsman, which I got in 1997. It's a funny story, and by "funny", I mean "indicative of my occasional carelessness". After adjusting Freida's valves curbside at 1202 F Street in Lincoln with my previous set, I congratulated myself on a job well done (no skinned knuckles) and went upstairs for a beer or a nap or to get ready for work or whatever. Months later when adjustment time came around again I crawled underneath to pop off the valve cover and what do you think was sitting there on the heat exchanger, firmly wedged between it and the head? Right. I'm no metallurgist, but I suspect that repeatedly being heated might've destroyed the accuracy of the blades. Maybe not. It was all discolored and warped so it went in the trash anyway.
As a replacement I got this new set with the angled blades, for some reason thinking the offsetedness would make them better but I was wrong. After a few needlessly contorted valve adjustments I bent them all straight, like the old set.
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