GARAGE: S20 Valve cover / Kobe Mag wheels / Datsun Sign

It’s the time of the year when people clean out their basements – and that means shopping time for me.
The first thing I found was a huge Datsun Dealer sign in very good condition. It’s a Double-sided FL-tube sign which the previous owners got in the barn when they bought their house. And it has since then been there, until they decided to sell it, recently.

It’s in very good condition but got a bit of dirt inside. Time for a little side-project:

Dismantled it all:

Cleaned everything without getting rid of the patina:

And got rid of the old electronics, which were in a very questionable and unsafe state. And very energy-consuming, by today’s standards. I’ve ordered everything for an inverterless LED Tube retrofit, similar to my last signs. Once the material is here, I’ll complete it and update you again, here.

I’ve recently become a bit obsessed with Kobe Steel. I’ve known them for long as the company who made the Mag wheels for the Nissan Rally cars, but recently I dug a bit deeper in their history (More about that, soon).
When suddenly this set Of Kobe Magnesium wheels popped up for a fair price, I couldn’t resist. Note: These wheels have nothing to do with the S30, but I still had to have them 🙂
According to a previous owner, they actually made them in both colors, or changed the color during the production period. That’s why they’re mismatched:

Those are proper magnesium wheels. Super light and cool design.

And the best part is that they’re all complete with the beautiful center caps, valves, etc.

And last but not least, an S20 Valve cover. Sort of. This is actually a Japanese-made FRP replica. I always wanted to have an S20 valve cover for wall decoration, but they’re quite expensive and somehow too rare to “steal” them from the S20 owners community. I prefer to see them in real cars. But when this one was for sale for a nice price, I had to get it. Looks quite good, if you ask me. The seller said it’s the last one he made, so I was very lucky. I think the white areas can use a little touch-up, as the paint was not sanded down very nicely or the masking tape not applied properly, but this is an easy fix.

This is the back side:

I remember seeing some very similar ones on the Wall during our Visit at Protec Japan, But it might be something else.

Anyway, I couldn’t wait and immediately had to put it on my “wall of fame” – and I think it looks lovely! Also bought a few wheel-stands to display the Mag wheel on the bottom:

That’s not it, yet. I stepped into a gold-mine of cool documents recently, which I hope will arrive here in the coming 1–2 weeks. I’ll keep you updated.