Owner:
William Michael Tichenor
AAA Care Car Center
Matthews, NC
Box:
Some technicians are pragmatists. Their box does not need to be pretty, just big enough to hold and lock away what they need. And, there are other technicians that view their toolbox as an extension of themselves. William Tichenor is one of those technicians.
Tichenor's bold blue and orange Matco 6328RX toolbox with the 6328HC half chest top and 6028SL side lockers is 5-1/2' tall and 10' 10" long. But, it gets even bigger. Coupled with the box are two JSC500 service carts with slide top and all draw add-ons.
Being this is not an ordinary toolbox, Tichenor had to special order it from his Matco dealer Mark Bienkievitz in February 2012. As a matter of policy, Matco has the option of having the 6 series two-tone boxes custom-colored. However, this service is not offered for smaller items, such as service carts. Tichenor kept the color scheme going simply by ordering two solid colored service carts in Gators blue and orange and simply swapping the cabinets between the boxes.
Matco also does not make custom sports logos for toolboxes, so Tichenor simply added a few that his mother found at a Bradenton, FL-Red Barn flea market. The classic mascot is found on the side lockers while the workspace sports the modern incarnation of the team's insignia.
"The best thing about the box is that I designed it and they built it the way I wanted," Tichenor says. "They were the only company so far to do so. Thank you, Matco."
This Florida-themed box also has a lot of Sunshine-state real estate available on the inside. He presently only fills the box with about $30,000 of tools, but estimates that by the time he retires it will hold somewhere in the hundreds of thousands of dollars when inflation is taken into account. "Everyone tells me I have my own 'condo' now when I retire," says Tichenor.
With the tools he has presently, the ones that he finds the most helpful are his Matco cordless series impact tools. Tichenor's Power Probe III has also got him out of quite a few jams, and he has the "most fun" with it compared to any other tool he owns.
Apparently, fun trumps practicality in Tichenor's world. He recently added a 22" led flat screen, Play Station 3, Bose surround sound and LED lighting in the lockers. When asked for a final comment on the box, Tichenor simply cheered, "GO GATORS GO!"
