No restoration project is truly complete without a set of the factory-issued tools that originally came with the car. Through the years, the tools are usually the first item that gets misplaced and lost, along with the jack and the owner’s handbook. But with a full set of the original tools displayed alongside your car, it makes its restoration that much more absolute, and authentic.

Last Christmas, my brother David generously gave me a tool kit for my 1955 Triumph TR2. He found it in Australia, and although not complete, it’s only missing one or two tools. The vinyl-covered burlap is an authentic reproduction, but the tools that came with it are all Triumph originals.

Harken back to a time when tools of the DIY trade came with the vehicle.