Owner: Anthony Stankiewicz
Shop: Blazin’ Blue Automotive
Location: Pueblo, Colorado
Anthony Stankiewicz, owner of Blazin’ Blue Automotive in Pueblo, Colorado, has not one, not two, but three Snap-on toolboxes as part of his tool storage solution. Over the years, this technician-turned-shop owner has accumulated quite the setup to house his ever-growing tool collection.
Stankiewicz began his career in the automotive industry when he was 19 years old as a service porter. The dealership he was working for did a lot of promoting from within, so Stankiewicz worked hard to move up from service porter to lube technician and eventually trained technician. He went to school to get his associate’s degree, and after completing his first year, was placed with the shop foreman for training while he finished his second and last year of school.
Fast forward ten years to 2009 and the collapse of the automotive industry. Shops were closing left and right, including the shop Stankiewicz was working at. Stankiewicz had a choice to make.
“I couldn’t find a job, and all the shops were going out of business,” he says. “So I bought a shop that [had gone] out business and I started my own shop. [It] panned out pretty well.”
After 10 years in business, Blazin’ Blue Automotive now consists of Stankiewicz, his wife, and four other technicians. At his shop, Stankiewicz and his technicians do everything from oil changes to engine and transmission replacement.
“We’re bumper to bumper, so we can pretty much do anything,” the shop owner explains.
Although Stankiewicz owns his own shop now, he still carries one thing with him from his first job as a technician – his love for Snap-on tools. His preference began when he was being trained with his shop foreman.
“[The shop foreman would] buy some of my tools and he wouldn't buy anything other than Snap-on, so all my tools … had to be Snap-on tools,” Stankiewicz explains.
This leads to Stankiewicz’s toolbox setup. As he puts it, “a Snap-on with many, many additions to it.” His big-time box consists of two lockers, two toolboxes stacked on top of each other, and a third toolbox with a hutch on top of it. All from Snap-on, of course.
“It's all matching, all the trim and the color,” Stankiewicz says. “I had it painted and put together the way I wanted it – even the drawer configurations. Normally, it might come with one long drawer, but I have three long drawers.”
The toolbox also features stainless steel tops and lights in both lockers.
It’s taken Stankiewicz a good couple of years to piece this 18’ long and 6’ high toolbox together, but he’s putting it to good use.
“It's not the size of the toolbox, it's what in the toolbox,” Stankiewicz says. “I have mine loaded. I [didn’t] buy it because it's a big toolbox, I [bought] it because I have a lot of tools to put into it. Some people have a Taco Bell sauce drawer and napkin drawer. Mine is loaded with tools. Full to the brim already.”
The hutch of Stankiewicz’s toolbox is his favorite part. That’s where he keeps his computer and where he can write. It’s kind of like his desk, he says; it’s the most-used part of his toolbox. As for his favorite tool, he says he reaches for his power or air tools the most because they make the job go much faster.
Organization in Stankiewicz’s toolbox is pretty standard – everything that has to do with drills goes in the drill drawer, sockets with sockets, impacts with impacts. It’s set up according to tool type, so the shop owner always knows where to find each of his tools.
In the future, Stankiewicz would like to add some cabinets across the top, but he says that will be the last addition to his toolbox.
