Snap-on..............................Mexico

[J.A.F.E.]

A treasure a member form a different site I'm was sent to me by member Strik9 - two Snap-on Mexico pieces. Strik9 lives in Mexico. These are hecho en Mexico and as will be shown in the pix have a different part number than their cousins made north of the border. Certainly made in Mexico is something new to me. I was aware Snap-on had a presence in Mexico but was not aware they actually made tools there.

A ZN100 breaker bar (3/8 drive) and a ZE20 2" extension.

[snapmom]

Thanks for showing them. Not to many examples of these show up. Wonder why the odd model numbers. The Canada stamped tools have the same US model numbers.

[J.A.F.E.]

I wonder if they were made by a third party?

[skipskip]

I wonder if they were made by a third party?

Proto mex? Urrea , perhaps?

Skip

[J.A.F.E.]

Urrea would be my guess.

[snapy64]

if you look inside the front cover of the 1975 catalog you will see that Snap-on opened their own factory in Mexico so by the style of your tools that is where the tools were made not by some outside source. pryer to that they had sales offices in Mexico for many years.

[krusty the clown]

if you look inside the front cover of the 1975 catalog you will see that Snap-on opened their own factory in Mexico so by the style of your tools that is where the tools were made not by some outside source. pryer to that they had sales offices in Mexico for many years.

in the 1965 catalog they "claim" that they have a factory in mexico city. i have heard many claims by snap on over the years that wasn't true. at this point there isn't enough evidence to support either theory. i WAN'T to believe snap on had thier own plant but they could have supplied urrea (or anyone for that matter) with tooling to produce tools identical to US production. and from a business stand point makes more sense.

[J.A.F.E.]

Like krusty I want to believe they had their own factory. The different part number is a bit suspicious though.

SO Mexico tools seem to be in short supply where did they go? Strik9 lives in Mexico and he reports these are the only two Snap-on Mexico he has seen. If they had their own factory that would imply a brisk market so they should turn up. Unless production was geared towards industry and then it makes sense they are scarce and it could explain the part number since the warranty would be different.

[ToolMike]

Snap-on did indeed make tools in Mexico, in the 60's through the 80's.
It was a nice little operation with some very ingenious managers and very talented workers.
They didn't have all the manufacturing equipment that Snap-on stateside had, so they had to improvise
with less capable machines.
They imported their raw forgings and alloy steel from the U.S., which wasn't always easy
with money hungry Mexican customs.

[J.A.F.E.]

ToolMike that gives a date range on these and they are not date coded. Thank you for sharing that information I find it very interesting - do you have more?