What has been your best Swap Meet Purchase?

NOS fenders,doors,radiator support, and bumper parts for my 47 Olds(avitar). And that was in the 80s at Hershey.Will Never happen again I am sure.I buy anything I see for this car and it has dried up big time.

 

Hello,

We used to drive many miles to go surfing in my original 40 Ford Sedan Delivery from 1961-64. Being teenagers, surfers, and relatively care free, driving was fun as there were fewer cars than today. Our weekly trips were 16-20 miles round trips to the Long Beach Peninsula spot or the Seal Beach River Jetties. The farthest weekly trip during the year was the 50 mile round trip to Huntington Beach Pier.


In the summer, the longer trips to South San Clemente was a very long, 120 mile round trip to the best surf spot on the West Coast, with the fewest surfers. Trestles, on the Marine base. (then)

But, it was hard to stuff a 10 ft. long board (s) inside of the delivery and be comfortable driving. It was an impossible situation to put the boards on top with no drainage channel in the back area for rack supports. We did try to tie down those longboards on top using rope around the boards. In the front, we used the doors as a lock down. Also, the rear rope was looped around the boards/fins and stuffed into the closed rear door for a secure fit. The weight of these early boards was enough to hold them down for awhile, but eventually that played against us rounding corners and curves. (a body in motion..., etc.)

So, I learned to take out the rear, door glass and leave the rubber surround in place.
rear sedan delivery door window
photo thanks to HAMBer: WEASEL…super nice delivery
The opening was enough for one and two big boards with a towel or two wrapped around them. We stored the window glass in another towel until we got home. The smell from the exhaust was kept to a minimum with the towels stuffed around the boards. Now, it was totally secure and rounding curves in the highway did not move two 45 lbs. boards at all.

For the many times that we had done this and gone surfing, there was this one time that upon our return to the parked, sedan delivery, something was not right. Someone had reached into the window opening and somehow opened the rear door for access to the inside. They probably crawled in the rear window and opened the regular front doors. These idiots stole our clothes, money, towels and our valuable food bags. They also took the window glass just to be @%%h#$*s. (We had to leave everything in the cars, except for our trunks because of the skirmishes with the Marines on the beach...fast get-a-ways, etc.)

So, I searched high and low at the local car swap meets until I found a rear window glass for a 40 Ford Sedan Delivery. It was much less than the ones I found at the old Ford parts stores and it was in great condition. Now, I had a secure car until the next time we went on another surf adventure. I learned a lesson and this time when we went to the beach, I reinstalled the glass under the huge beach towel to make it look like a fully locked/inaccessible vehicle.

Jnaki
Since we lived near a few scrap yards (junk yards) close to Lions, we checked out what they had to offer. But, because the item(s) were unusual, the price was higher. (Supply and Demand)

 

25 bucks yesterday, Edelbrock hemi front plate

 

Narrowed 57 Pontiac rear end with axles and brakes. $10.00, Pomona Swap meet 1985. It in my LSR roadster, avatar picture.

 

Swade - That was almost criminal. Awesome score, but you know that!

 

I didn't even haggle on that price, couldn't bring myself to do it..lol
I don't own a hemi but it's a great Wall hanger, much better than a box store 25 dollar picture.

 

I'm a swap meet addict. A few highlights from the past few weeks.

 

I have an old '48 Austin gasser. The stock grill was cobbled together with old broken bars and sheet metal screws. I started searching and soon found they are pretty scarce and no one is currently reproducing them.
I went to the big swap at Sleep Train Arena in Sacto and found a nice speaker grill for my '56 Chevy for $10. While standing there waiting to pay the guy I looked down and saw some random grill pieces. Yep, '48 Austin. Six pieces, enough to repair my grill and leave me with a second complete grill - and the chrome was pretty good - no pitting.
I asked him how much. He says, "Don't know what they are for but you can have all six pieces for $60" I calmly forked over three 20s and walked away feeling like I was gonna explode from holding in the excitement/amazement.
Gotta love swap meets.........

 

At the last Back to the 50's swap meet I picked up a pair of 55-56 dodge royal coronet tail lights. They have the nicest chrome and perfect lenses I have ever seen on a pair of these. They usually go for 300-400 a pair on evil bay but I got these for 40 bucks.

 

Monroe Washington Swap meet back in 2006. First year I took the 400 mile trip to check out the Monroe swap meet. I was looking for more accessories to add to my 1939 Chevy 2 door sedan. First thing I found was a 1939 Chevy Deluxe steering wheel. One year only wheel & hard to find, Paid $200 & was total excited to find it. Moments later I found a Peckett sun visor, Peckett's first visor, made of steel rod frame & covered with black leatherette. a very cool visor, I Paid $30. Now it's totally restored & hangs in my front room over the TV.
Than the same day I found (3) 15" Artillery wheels in great condition, paid $80 for all three, what a score. But the kicker was, while I was transporting the wheels back to my trailer in my little red wagon, a local car guy stopped me & said "hay, I got 3 wheels just like those at home", about 10 minuets away. So he ran home & got the wheels. Sure enough they were 15" Artillery's & I paid him $60 fore those 3 wheels. Get this!! so now I got 6 Artillery's for $140 total. At home I picked the best (5) wheels for my 39, than I took the last wheel, which was the worst one of the bunch, & I listed it on Ebay, giving lots of photos & pointing out every thing bad & it still sold for $132. So my 5 Artillery wheel on my 39 sedan cost me a total of $8. bucks. "yea & they are the wide wheels, vary hard to find"
But my "best buy of the day" was the (6) 16" Kelsey hays true spoke wire wheels. I paid $250. for six very nice, painted black ready to mount, Kelsey hays wire wheels...
That was a Swap meet I will never forget...

 

Best deals I've ever gotten is when neither me or the seller know what the part is. Saw a Chevy pattern floor shifted manual transmission that I had never seen and owner said it came with a load of scrap he bought. Agreed on $35 and i thought if nothing else it could join my collection of old speed equipment and some real oddities I have for conversation pieces. Pulled shift cover and it's like new inside so posted a picture on the H.A.M.B and it was immediately identified as an NV 3500 five speed overdrive transmission. Have no need for it so I soda blasted it to pretty it up and then put it with my "curiosity" junk as my best swap meet deal.

 

JUST bought a NEW OLD STOCK center for my olds bumper... 20 bucks!

 

zips water pump riser chromed for 40$. had my girlfriend break out her ever present cell phone and look up prices for new . i scored !!!!!!

 

$200 off Craigslist.

 

You stole it at that price for sure!!! Outstanding!

 

Just bought a pair of Max Wedge mopar heads at the Meltdown swap meet last weekend, was not expecting to find that !

 

All time "best ever" was my $5.00 radio flyer wagon( right after getting it ..same meet.. it hauled that welder & most of a"27" dodge touring car body back to the truck...in 1 trip ! We`ve been dragging it with to every swap since..going on near 20 years now) A HVLP turbine paint setup... the 2 stage Turbine,hose & a decent gun ..For $10.oo -seems to work just fine. Oh and.. a "new"wirefeed welder -$30.oo-the guy had solid core castiron wire in it- no wonder he couldn`t get a decent weld with it.

 

Bought years ago at the now defunct Arlington swap meet. This is after new paint and old school lettering. Learned a lot of what not to do with this car. Finally sold it, and it's in Oklahoma somewhere.

 

ben buying parts for years couple are . set E&J headlites $35, edlbrok slingshot mnfld. $30, 7 sets nos linc. zypher gears $57 set. actually these prices were not a real great bargin at the time..the E&J's are on my 34, set of lin. grs in my rdst pu, slngshot is in my 27-T, so i guess they were a good deal.