Cutting Edge Automotive Solutions announced SP Tools USA will be the official tool brand of ToyMakerz TV and the ToyMakerz shop. ToyMakerz is a custom vehicle fabrication shop in Reidsville, NC that brings to life the designs of David Ankin, CEO of ToyMakerz Inc. The show began airing Season 3 episodes on History and FYI in March of this year. Episodes feature a variety of custom-built vehicles, from monster trucks, to tanks, racecars, drones, fully custom never-before-seen exhibition cars, and appearances by American icons Richard Petty and Dean Cain. Ankin is a former stunt driver and racer turned extreme vehicle fabricator.
President and CEO of Cutting Edge Automotive Solutions, Lee Locklear, started Cutting Edge Automotive Solutions, based in Foley, Alabama, in 2009. The company is now the exclusive importer and registered agent for SP Tools in the U.S.
In addition to constantly reimagining and adding new product to its line, Locklear says part of his focus with SP Tools USA going forward will be to help inspire and bring up new technicians. He shares this vision with Ankin and the ToyMakerz crew.
“David is all about getting kids interested in the business, because that’s what SEMA and so many organizations focus on. Your [more traditional] “car guys” like me are going away; as an industry we’ve got to replace that generation with someone … so we have to find a way to get them engaged.”
The company’s partnership with the show means SP Tools can help get Ankin and crew supplied with custom tools for even their most custom jobs.
ToyMakerz David Ankin says, “For us, it’s about equipping a shop with all your needs. Although they’re sort of new here in the country, [SP Tools USA is] not a new tool company. And then, to be able to align myself with a tool company that can think outside-of-the-box [is a huge benefit]. There are a lot of times when we build stuff in the shop, especially one-off stuff; sometimes you need a specific tool that [companies] don’t even make. I can now turn to SP Tools … they’ll duplicate that tool and actually manufacture the tool.
“I really want to grow into a brand where we can do a toolset and co-brand it with SP and ToyMakerz, and start getting the kids of today involved in mechanics and body work and fabrication,” says Ankin. “Working with Locklear and SP Tools, they give me that opportunity to really go out and chase how I want to grow the industry.”
The original SP Tools USA brand launched as the air tool company SP Air Corporation in 1973 in Nagano, Japan. In 2005 Australian company Austech Industries and a Japanese company, SP Air Corporation, agreed to start the SP Tools Company to address a need for a quality automotive tools in the Asian and Oceania regions.
The company’s Gear Drive series of ratchet wrenches was launched in 2007, and the Quad drive open end wrench was developed and launched in 2010 with an update available in 2018.
