What has been your best Swap Meet Purchase?

A set of 4 '57-'58 Ford hubcaps (bottle cap style) in excellent condition for $1 each at the annual swapmeet & show at St.Cloud, MN about 15 years ago. Now I just need the Ranchero or Custom 300 2-door to put them on!

 

Bought a NOS set of TRW Chevy 12 to 1 .030 over 302 pistons at the last Pate swap meet for $75. They are now in the engine I built for my midengine corvair.

 

Went to Pomona swap about 2-3 years ago Got there early on Sat.morning Just as the gates open, First space I went to had a pair of 33 Willys steel front fenders. Bought for $500. I asked the guy if he had anything else and he said that the rest of the car was in pieces in Arizona.[I am from Arizona] It was a very rough 36 willys sedan delievry.Some one had put the 33 fenders on the 36. Frame had been removed long before I got to it.Made my day!

 

I bought a used 12V Guide 7" headlight bulb at Long Beach --a factory sealed beam for a 55 Chevy for $1. Sold it on ebay for $125.

 

On 2 separate occasions i bought 16x10 magnesium halibrands for $100.00 a pair.
Also bought a pair of Hurst wheels for $70.00 at a old Firestone store the man took my money and said "i have the trim rings and caps for them,i'll go get them". He returns with them and also has the metal drum from hurst that they were shipped in.he says you might as well take this to. that was a find of a lifetime.

 

Traded a pair of Corvette finned valve covers (staggered that some dumbass drilled straight holes in them as well) for a set of 49-58 Oldsmobile Edmunds valve covers.

Full back seat for 49-51 Mercury.......................$10..............with useable red tuck & roll vinyl.

 

a real shelby steering wheel for a 65 mustang with the horn button that says CS for 40.00$ at the berryessa flea market in san jose ,,in 1992

 

Beer

 

I went to a small local swap meet about 8 years ago a man had a box full of used distributors 8 or 9. I asked how much he said 2.00 each or 15.00 for all. I gave him 15.00 got home checked out distributors. Top of the pile was a ford 302 that i needed for myself . The rest were ford & gm one of the gm distributors had 2 tack drives & and turned out to be for a 57 covette fulie.

 

4'' fiberglass cowl hood for my 1978 short bed lifted chevy truck. paid 200

 

- An intake manifold that the kid seller thought fit a Pontiac... was actually a near mint Buddy Bar Boss 302, $40
- 429SCJ rocker covers, no damage, $20
- Ernie Elliott style magnesium NASCAR oiler rocker covers Boss/351C -were on a dirt track late model. Told me "they were just ugly" - $25. Big dummy me didn't take the deep sump drag race Moroso oil pan that I probably coulda bought for an additional $15 :x

 

Last spring at Pomona I found a '65 442 shifter laying on the ground for 20 bucks. A kind older Latino fellow had it for sale, so I offered him $40 for it! He took it! Very hard to come by shifter.

 

Bought an intake manifold and gen and pulley assy for a M39 McCulloch supercharger 5$. 6 months later got the rest because it did not have a manifold or pulley assy for 500$ So for 505$ have a good Servicable blower now have to get off my butt and put it on my car.

 

I've never really had any good luck at swap meets, I usually get my stuff through word of mouth. Unfortunately, with the types of cars I have,Pontiac and Buick, the meets are pretty thin with prospects.

 

I found a 37 Plymouth tail lite housing at Iola in a pile of 'stuff'...the only part missing from my build!

Purchased a Offy SBC tri-power with carbs and linkage from a garage sale for $100.

Purchased a SBC tunnel ram with Holley 450 carbs for $150 at a flea market and sold it (untouched) for $450 (he got a deal, too).

 

at the last pomona, i picked up a rebuilt and never used '35 tranny, with '39 gears for 300. guy was asking 600. i think that was a good deal.

 

Mint 60's Olson Motors Dodge-Plymouth(Vancouver BC , Canada) Wilson wool coat. neat coat , dog hair no extra charge. $60.00, Found out the jacket belonged to the founder of Speedway Motors(VW dlrshp). mint Olds flipper cap for $25

 

My best score was a solid 32 Ford 5window coupe for $800 and a rotted out 28 Chevy sedan.Guy wanted to build a Chevy and I was willing to trade.
But that was back in the early 70s so that was a lot of dough,but still,my best score.Being a dumb ass, I sold it.

 

I found two decent 57 fenders at the Bellville IL swap meet a couple weeks ago for $10.

 

Looking for something unique to use as a third brake light when I came upon this trim piece for 10 dollars. Re-chromed it for 35 dollars, installed a bed roll light and mounted it on the cab of my HRT



turns out it's a rare trim piece for a Canadian 1954 dodge Mayfair.

 

Several years ago at the Turlock swapmeet I stumbled upon a fellow selling Model A body parts and some VW engine racing crankshafts,I first saw a pair of solid fairly straight stripped to the bare metal 1929 Model A roadster doors and he said $10.00 for the pair so I bought them,and when I talked VW he said he had a stroker crank for a 36HP VW engine on the ground,I immediately looked down and there was an OKRASA 8 dowelled 36HP VW 69mm stroker crankshaft with a set of 4 clearanced connecting rods attached for only $25.00 (I sold one just like it several months before for $800.00),that was one decent stop!

Not a Swapmeet find,but several years ago on Craigslist I found a very rare 1947 Roadmaster Whizzer advertised in North Bend Washington for $1200.00 that nobody ever bothered to look at,offered $800.00 and loaded it up,it had a 1947 Washington state motorcycle license plate on it that sold for $350.00,and had a tandem rear seat that I Ebayed off for $225.00,I installed a VW condenser on it and it now runs well to this day,it is the blue colored Whizzer in front of my workshop in my avatar..............

 

today long beach swap meet 1958 impala continental kit n.o.s 300.00

 

Thank You All For Your Business Purchases!

 

A brand new 12ft Christmas tree stand for 25 cents

 

A few favorites...
'63 427 Ford SPEC standard bore block- $75
'68 427 Ford side oiler standard bore block with its original domed pistons- $400
Pro Stock Engineering 427 Ford intake adapter plate, complete with a Weiand 2x4 tunnel ram and linkage to complete it- $150
427 MR 2x4 intake, cherry- $100
1" drive Snap-on set, ratchet and breaker heads w/ handle, 2 extensions, and 16 sockets- $100- if you want a real case of sticker shock, price out that set

And my favorite- I was helping a buddy put a 390GT engine in a '47 Studebaker pickup, and he wanted to go to a 9" rearend- so he tells me his brother-in-law has an old Galaxie parked in his partner's wrecking yard, and my bud can have the rearend if he wants it. So I go with him to look at it, we come around the end of the row, and I see black, Americans with the drums painted gold.. get closer and see the 406 emblems I tell him I'll give him a rearend and put it in for him, I want to buy the whole car. So we go see his BIL, he used to street race it, yeah, wants to sell it to finish his '64 Sting Ray, and get the rest of the parts out of his shop- rest of the parts We load up and head over, there's another full set of Americans, an extra T-10, standard 427 steel crank, 2 new cams/lifters, 3 SW tachs w/ senders, and a couple more boxes. How much sez I? Not taking less than $300
John Wayne never drew his gun as fast as I grabbed my wallet..

This one- Galaxie 500XL, 406-6V, original paint

 

1930 Model A Coupe body for $400 1930 Model A Coupe body $750

 

N.O.S 56 Chevy 210 2 dr driver side 1/4 panel trim still in original brown paper GM bag at Indy Good Guys a few years back for only $65. Its still in the bag waiting for me to get off my arse to build that car

 

i bought my sbc tunnle ram intake, 2 holley 450cfm 4 barrel carburators for 400 dollars

 

Back again, not a swap meet buy, but when I was back in school after quitting the RR in the summer of '68, I couldn't find a summer job two years later so I worked at my two friends that were brothers Boneyard scrapping engines that they had gathered up for years and years for metal.

Anyway one Sat morning a guy drops off on two skids a '57 392" Hemi and it's (I think) 727 auto tranny.

I bought the Hemi for $25 but couldn't afford the $15 more for the matching tranny.

Later sold it to a guy I went to school for $40 and boy did I need that $40 bucks!!

pdq67

PS., the guy said that it was out of one of MO's finest SHP Intercepters and so I figure that it probably had a mild Isky cam in it.

 

I picked up Jamco lowering uprights for my'50 Ford at Monroe Wa. last fall for his asking of $25 (didn't try to haggle). They're just shy of $500 on their website!