240Z / GARAGE: Datsun Tool wall & Workshop clothes

A while ago i finally saw something for sale which i’ve been searching for years. And even in Photo form i have only ever seen two of those. The only problem – it is a 6 hour drive away. Well today i spent more or less the whole day driving to middle of germany and back to pick this up:

The thing i bought was the Datsun workshop tools from the mid 70ties.

It’s quite an interesting setup. It’s basically a printed foil by a company called “Genku” on a Perforated sheet metal plate. It seems that you could probably buy the foil with the tools as a kit, but you had to put it somewhere yourself, because the foil and the sheet metal don’t align 100%.
The tools are diveded in 4 sections (from left to right): Motor, Front axle, Rear Axle and Drivetrain.
Anyway it was mostly complete with a few bits missing. and then plenty of nice extra tools (Valve spring tool?!) which i didn’t have yet and will come in handy. The tools are not all exclusively for the Z but some are.

It came from this little former 70ies Datsun Workshop, but the other (the dad of the seller)  decided to switch to motorcycle and bicycle repairs in the early 80ies, because he couldn’t fulfil the showroom demands from the car companies. Since then the tool wall hung mostly untouched on the same wall.

The tools however are labelled with “Kent-Moore” but have the original Datsun part numbers on it. Every tool also has such a kind of sticker on it from the original purchase  (Similar to datsun / Nissan spare parts back then):

Funny enough i got a “Kent-moore” Datgsun special service tools book / Catalogue a while ago, and i also own the original Datsun / Nissan tool catalogue. so i will definitly do a bit of page-flipping to find out exactly which cars and work each tool is intended for.

To my surpries the seller also found a pair of very cool, (child sized) datsun workshop jackets in an old workshop locker, which he gifted to me. These are so rare and almost unused condition, of course i gave him some extra money for those. My guess is That the Owner got those for his kids to “help” him in the workshop. That used to be a pretty common practice, before parents got overprotective and started to keep kids away from all the fun (and danger) of a workshop.

At the end he also pulled out a box of random Castrol 70ies / 80ies PR-stuff like stickers and oil-change tags. so if course i grabbed a few.

The seller was a bit sad to see his childhood and his dads (who passed a way a while ago) life being sold, but i promised to give it a good home, take care nicely and send him some updates when it’s all at it’s new place in my garage.
That seemed to make him happy and me too. I will definitely try to find the perfect spot for it in my garage or workshop in the coming weeks.
I love to meet these kind of people, the stories behind the stuff they have and why they sell it. it makes a 6 hour car drive to pick up some tools worth it even more.
Stay tuned. I have plans to pick up another bunch of parts tomorrow after work 🙂