Spring means many things to many people, but for gearheads it often means swap meet season has begun.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a short season, so there\u2019s not a lot of time to score that bargain set of aluminum heads or near perfect used pair of \u201957 Ford fenders. They do exist, don\u2019t they?<\/p>\n
While manning the CHRC booth at the recent Coastal Swap Meet in Abbotsford, a sage gearhead summed up perfectly the insanity that often grips a gearhead as he hunts through tables of crap and piles of rusted garbage to find the rare swap meet gem. More often than not we come home with something we don\u2019t need or shouldn\u2019t have bought. The thirst for bargains often clouds a gearhead\u2019s judgment<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the swap meet fever, boy,\u201d he said. OK,maybe he didn\u2019t say boy, but it sounds better in my head when I write it that way.<\/p>\n
Case in point, a pair of 15×8 Cragar uni-lugs I recently dragged home from the Portland Swap Meet. Think<\/p>\n
of Homer Simpson drooling like he does when talking about donuts and you\u2019ll get a pretty good idea of how I say Portland Swap Meet when I\u2019m talk among friends. It\u2019s a three-day bargain orgy and though I\u2019ve been told more and more junk ends up at the Portland Expo Centre and neighbouring PIR racetrack, it didn\u2019t<\/p>\n
appear that way to three newbies as they walked their feet raw while constantly finding cool stuff and wishing<\/p>\n
they had more money with which to purchase it.<\/p>\n
Anyway, Day 1 at the Portland Swap Meet. Things are going well. I scored a swanky engine leveller for<\/p>\n
$15 and feel pretty good about myself. After an hour or so of carrying it around, I feel pretty tired and wish a swanky engine leveller weighed less. Instead, my buddy Kevin spies a wagon and for $10 it\u2019s mine. Of course, it\u2019s looking pretty empty as I drag it around and I\u2019m beginning to feel my decision to buy it was a bit hasty. What if I don\u2019t find
\nanything bigger than an engine leveller?<\/p>\n
Maybe that\u2019s what attracted me to the set of 15×8 Cragar uni-lugs pictured at right. I wasn\u2019t really looking<\/p>\n
for wheels. I promised myself the Budget Rambler wagon would roll on swap meet wheels and I already had<\/p>\n
a very nice pair of 14-inch Cragars and a less-than nice pair of similar sized Appliance wheels sitting at<\/p>\n
home. (A discussion of how out of touch I am concerning wheel size trends is for another column.)<\/p>\n
But these Cragars were 15×8 and, I rationalized, the wider and slightly taller wheel would look far better<\/p>\n
tucked up inside the Rambler\u2019s rear fenders. Without really looking the wheels over, I agreed to the $30 asking<\/p>\n
price. For good measure I coughed up another $20 when the vendor disclosed he had two more 15×7 Cragars under the table.<\/p>\n
Now my wagon was full and I was basking in my swap meet prowess.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou didn\u2019t even barter on the price,\u201d said my annoyed swap meet brethren. \u201cSeemed like a good deal,\u201d<\/p>\n
I answered, already wishing I had offered $20 for the first pair and passed on the second. Swap meet<\/p>\n
fever strikes again.<\/p>\n
Anyway, the rest of the weekend went well. I passed on a used pair of $600 fully dressed Edelbrock aluminum<\/p>\n
heads for a 302 \u2014 I was still thinking of putting a 302 in the Rambler at the time, though I\u2019ve since decided to go the SBC route \u2014 and a motorless\/trannyless $800 \u201973 Nova with a 9-inch and drag slicks worth waaaaay more than the asking price. (Next year, we\u2019re bringing a trailer). A 1957 vintage, \u201957 Ford toy had me reaching for my wallet until I<\/p>\n
realized how silly it was to spend $50 on a 1\/64 hunk of diecast. I did score a really solid set of \u201957 Ford fenders<\/p>\n
for $90. My buddy Kevin\u2019s swap meet fever was so intense, we had to rent a U-haul trailer to carry home the $250
\n\u201941 International truck cab that was just too good a deal to pass up.<\/p>\n
Somehow our buddy Dan was immune to the fever and came home empty handed. I think my wife is trying<\/p>\n
to get a sample of his blood so she can create an antidote for me.<\/p>\n
When I got home and unloaded the Suburban, I noticed that one of the 15×8 rims had quite a warp in it. The<\/p>\n
other seemed OK, but a little roll on the pavement before purchase would have saved me some dough.<\/p>\n
Oh well, the swap meet fever strikes again.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t miss the next issue. Not only will it feature the first installment of the magazine\u2019s first project car,
\nBudget Rambler, but there will be something else very special about the issue. Ask for it at your local newstand or subscribe for the swap meet fever price of $26.50 for one year or $45 for two<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spring means many things to many people, but for gearheads it often means swap meet season has begun. It\u2019s a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n