I never finished my mechanical apprenticeship. My boss (who had been ripping me off for ages over some damage I did to the works van, to avoid claiming on his insurance) found out I had been skipping college for over a year (full of half-baked inbreds), so rather than have it out with him, I decided to call it quits and come back to London to make my way instead.

While I worked on the tools, I never had much interest in mechanic-ing, preferring instead to do the running about on breakdowns and the like (I was playing drums 5 nights a week so I was making my money elsewhere). But once I was doing something else for a day job, I started to buy tools of my own, doing projects here and there to keep myself busy.  

The boys in Limerick never had the full-height toolboxes, they had cantilever boxes that they took home every night to do their out of hours work. It wasn’t until I started working in dealerships like Renault London that I saw my first Snap-On tool cabinet, and it made quite an impression.

By the time I bought my first 911, I had some nice tools but no proper home for them, save a Blue Point cantilever box.  Istarted looking around and mentioned to my buddy Rob that I was after a Snap On top box and roll cab. He did me a deal on his KRA-63B race Box, and I bought a KRA-3207 to sit it on. Both boxes served me well for a few years, until I began to notice that some additional space would be useful. Looking around, I spotted an eBay ad for a Heritage Edition box and cab, both of which looked in excellent condition. I watched, then bid 3 seconds from the end and won it: a £2800 combination for £810.

The box turned out to be coming from the guys who run Ten Tenths, Nick Mason’s car agency for TV and film cars. I spoke to the seller who was on hols for a few days, and we arranged a time to finish our deal the following weekend. As luck would have it, he was coming up my way to look at a job, so he agreed to drop the box off in his Sprinter for a bit of cash towards the fuel bill.

Meanwhile I advertised my setup on IB and had no takers, so I stuck it on eBay. Sods law had it that, as soon as I had paid the eBay listing fees, an IBer popped up and asked to buy it at the lower IB price. I agreed and that was that - upgrade process complete.

The day the box was being delivered, Sarah and I were up in Rugby, dropping off some wheels I had just sold, when the phone went - Snap-On man was coming early. We shot back via the bacon sarnie shop and the Sprinter was reversed through our gates. Alex unfurled a superb ramp and rolled the besheeted box out of the back. When the sheet was pulled off, I couldn’t believe my eyes - this box was brand new.

Drawerlocks, cover, handbooks, keys, handle still in the wrapper;  all present and correct, with not a mark on the thing. It also came with a folding shelf - itself over £100 from Snap-On. Days later, I was still going out to the garage at 1am to see it. Only problem now is it makes my tools look old. Must be time to buy some new ones!