Swap Meet Sunday!

Yesterday my brother and I had a difficult decision to make.  Should we go to Caffeine & Carburetors show, the Spring Swap Meet held by the Connecticut Street Rod Association or a VW/Audi specific car show? I personally was leaning towards Caffeine & Carburetors since my brother didn't attended the first event.  I also like the C&C event since it gives me an opportunity to photograph some interesting subjects. The VW show was appealing because it would give me a chance to do some research on parts (especially wheel/tire and suspension combinations) for my GTI.   However, we ended up going to the swap meet. 

Why the swap meet? As I mentioned, the swap meet wasn't my preferred choice. We always go and look around and end up complaining about the ridiculous asking prices on the project cars and parts. We end up buying something stupid in an effort to justify the admission fee. So why did we go? Maybe because it was the closest of all three events? But more realistically, I think we enjoy to possibility of  finding something. Car shows are spectator events.  Swap meets are a participatory event. So how did this event go?

 First and foremost the event was massive. We had to park in an overflow lot that was up on top of a huge sand pit. Here's a view from the truck:

As soon as we hopped out of the truck we were greeted with this spectacle in the parking lot:

Good omen?

The meet featured the same junk for sale.  If you were in the market for a chainsaw or snow blower you were int he right place. The project cars for sale were outrageously over priced or rusted beyond reasonable repair.  There was a cool AMC AMX and a rusty V8 4 speed Barracuda that were showed some promise. This patina-licous truck caught my eye but was already sold by time we reached it:

SOLD!

In the second the last row of the meet we found this:

Full Monte

A 1971 Chevy Monte Carlo that at first glance it looked like every other rough project here. However, upon further inspection we realized the following: 1) It was basically rust free! The body was straight and it already had new quarter panels installed (and done really well). 2) It had a complete small block Chevy drive drain. 3) And despite the multi-color and stripped appearance the car was fairly complete including a trunk full of trim and hardware.  My brother has always had a soft spot for '71 Monte Carlo's.  How does a person develop such a specific preference for a car, especially when the object of affection is somewhat atypical? It stems from the fact that his first car was an '83 Monte Carlo and his birth year is 1971. So he traded info with the owner and plans to complete a deal later in the day.....by yesterday evening the Monte was sitting in his driveway and he was taking inventory of all the parts in the trunk.

So stay tuned for developments with the Monte.

The Comet was Sold!!!!!

Here's a very brief update.  The 1962 Comet has been sold!  I almost traded it for a 1967 Pontiac LeMans convertible project car but decided to sell it outright to free up space in the shop (and some cash) so I can finally start digging into the 1969 Mustang!

Loaded up and ready to go....

On her way....

The Comet is for Sale!

So I spent the weekend cleaning out the Comet and finishing a couple odds and ends it needed to make it drive-able.  I photographed it and listed it on Craigslist, the H.A.M.B, Grassroots Motorsports and Comet Central. So here are the details....

For sale in a '62 Comet project car. Car could be used for parts, restoration or with a little work could be a neat rat rod cruiser (it has loads of patina).


This Comet is a 4 door and was originally equipped with a 170 cid six cylinder engine. The engine has been upgraded with a 200 cid from 1967. The car has an automatic transmission and starts and moves. Car needs some mechanical work to be a driver. Namely, the brake line to the rear of the car needs to be replaced and the exhaust manifold is cracked (and very noisy).

The body has rust issues in the lower portions of the body panels (see photos). The leading edge of the hood is also badly rusted. The radiator support has rust and there is blistering on the rear frame rails behind the rear leaf spring mount.

Car also has a set of American Racing Outlaw II's in it which are hard to come by in the correct 4 lug bolt pattern . Rims are in great shape except one has minor curb rash. Tires are very good. Buyer can also have the original 13 inch steel wheels that came with the car (tires bad) if you want the traditional look.

Bill of Sale only! Window sticker shows that car appears to have last been registered in New York in 2003. Asking price is $1400

Please email me questions or set up a time to come take a look.

If it doesn't sell locally I will list it on eBay in a week or two.

Pimps Everywhere Rejoice

Just saw this on eBay.....and I am baffled!

My car buddies and I have had many discussions about car designs in the 60's, 70's and early 80's when designers were limited to standard round  5 3/4" or 7" headlights or a basic set of rectangular sealed beam units.  We often discussed what we considered creative designs that tried to integrate the lighting units in new and interesting ways (which is probably why just about everything exotic in that era had flip up / recessed lights) .  However, whoever came up with this design wins by a landslide! 

This pimptastic whip is up on eBay right now!  As ridiculous as it is....it really is in immaculate condition.  The scary thing is as soon as I saw the auction listing I knew I saw one of these before. Then it hit me....the movie cover of Super Fly. I'm not sure if I'm proud or ashamed of the fact that I was able to recall this.

So happy bidding!

Hell on Two Wheels

I have owned a couple motorcycles over the the years. Bikes have always been a very unpopular topic with the family.  Everyone from my wife to my mother to even my father disapproved. That's right, this guy here didn't like the idea of me riding:

My first foray into bikes was through a group of guys at work. A bunch of guys from the office rode, the majority had Harley's or import cruisers.  At the time I was more interested in crotch rockets than cruisers but my good friend/co-worker sold his Ninja ZX11 and bought a Kawasaki Mean Streak. I didn't know much about the 'metric cruiser' scene. He picked up the bike and installed pipes, a intake system and had it re-programmed and the result was impressive. Shiny, kinda fast and very loud. The other performance metric cruisers at the time were the Yamaha Warrior and the massive Honda VTX 1800....so I started scheming.  That's when I came across the brand new Honda VTX 1300 Retro.  It was big (but not as uncontrollable as the 1800) and had very classic lines (unlike the Yamaha Warrior). It had floor boards with a floor shifter, full fenders and a single pin crank engine to give it a nice lumpy idle.

My only complaint about the Honda was that it was too maintenance free. Actually, the issue was probably more that it was such a new model that there was no aftermarket for it.....so the only thing I could do to it was put gas in it and ride it (sounds horrible doesn't it).  Eventually, I came to the point where I didn't ride it enough to warrant owning it.....so I sold it.

At this time the chopper building TV shows caught fire...so I decided I was going to build myself a chopper. I decided to go British twin even though I knew nothing about them because they seemed affordable (and yet cool).  I started with a old 67 Triumph Bonneville frame that I bought on eBay and showed up at my front door.  I found a sick girder front end, a 750 engine, twin carb head, and invader rear wheel.  Here it is at some point during the build:

My last bike was bought on a whim. I found a dirt cheap Yamaha XS 750 from the late 70's and figured I could do something in the cafe racer motif (way before the Cafe Racer TV show) to make it cool.   I took it home and got it running. I then slapped on some clubman bars and removed whatever other parts I could.  My next step was to modify seat  but then someone made me an offer I could refuse so I sold it.

So as of now I'm bikeless. Will I own another motorcycle at some point? I'm sure of it. I'm still interested in building a cafe racer style bike, I just think I would like to do it with a 60's European bike as by starting point.  Maybe something Italian like a vintage Ducati or Benelli.  I'm also getting into the board track racer replicas people are building and am getting interested in taking a crack at one of those. We'll just have to wait and see what crosses my path.