Plenty of these are no longer with us. Gone are the stethoscopes once used to analyse a rattle in the engine, as are the electric vulcanizers once used to patch a tire. Even the repair manual itself has evolved. Early 20th–century mechanics consulted a five-volume reference book from the American Technical Society; today, of course, all you need is a PDF should you dare try to fix a current model car yourself. “It’s basically a computer on wheels,” Gilbert says, adding that the need for speciality tools, even for rarefied Ferraris and Porsches, is now close to nonexistent. Even owners of vintage cars, he adds, tend to prefer standardized equipment to eliminate what he calls “the hassle factor.”

That doesn’t mean some makes of tools aren’t more desirable than others. Take Snap-on, the Kenosha, Wisconsin–based tool company that remains the gold standard of the trade, renowned for its heritage and tradition of making tools that offer beauty and durability in equal measure. In 1920, the Milwaukee engineer Joseph Johnson created Snap-on with a quintet of spanners with interchangeable handles and sockets, and the promise that “five do the work of 50.” (In 1923, Snap-on patented the ratchet.)

Later tools added beeps or blinking lights to alert users that they had achieved the desired torque; today, the speed and precision of the Snap-on 3/8" air impact wrench reigns supreme. That said, even though they don’t look meaningfully different today than they did back then - if it’s from Snap-on, whose wares have been used everywhere from the Indy 500 race to the lunar surface (via NASA) - it will cost you a few hundred bucks more than the other options at your local hardware shop. (Or, if you’re so inclined, on eBay.)

William Medcalf, the founder and CEO of the British restorer Vintage Bentley, is one of those collectors who prizes vintage originality and authenticity. In his garage, the mechanics use either original tools or recreations made in-house, rather than what he calls “modern rubbish.”

“We hold all the tooling to make front axle beams, engine components, rear axles - some of it weighs tons,” he says. “And we use that to press parts and so on. Tooling can range from a small spanner to a three-ton block of steel where we’d make a front axle beam.”

If you happen to luck out and come into such a vehicle yourself, along with the tools made to go with it, Medcalf says that’s a rarity. “For 100 years, people have resold cars, but they retain the tools as some sort of trophy,” he says. “It’s a shame, but they get separated.”

Tools are cool, but it’s the places people keep them that pack a big aesthetic impact. You can spend a little - a trunk-style Trusco with a candy finish can be had for under a hundred dollars - or a lot: a newly issued, and Bauhaus-worthy, KRL EPIQ from Snap-on, with a roll cab, exquisite lacquer finishes, and a lifetime guarantee will set you back nearly $20,000. Hunting down the perfect vintage version likely won’t cost you as much (for example, a beautiful teal Masters Series box from the earlier “KR” era is listed for $3,695 on eBay; an Italian-made USAG chest snagged $13,250 on Bring a Trailer), but it will take time and effort, of course, particularly if you’re interested in the rarer colours outside Snap-on’s signature cherry red. And you might need to ship it one piece at a time, as the old Johnny Cash song goes.

Need inspiration? The gearheads at Vehicle Service Pros have been running their “Big-Time Boxes” series for decades. It features automotive technicians at their place of work, showing off their prized boxes, often customized and adorned with cool auto-world stickers. You can also check out CollectingSnapOn.com, a website replete with manuals going back a hundred years, detailed histories, and, crucially, an active forum where you can trade or acquire vintage pieces.

This particular site contains an admonition for budding collectors: Once you start, it can be hard to stop. The founder of CollectingSnapOn started in 2003 with an incomplete set of his father’s tools from the 1960s. He was jetlagged in Tokyo one day when he created the site at three in the morning. Twenty years later, it’s still growing - and so is his collection, which now spans three decades. If you’re not careful, tools meant to fix things can become their own fix.