Every year at the end of February, a HUGE swap is held at the home of the
San Diego Padres baseball team, Jack Murphy stadium. While most SoCal car
swaps are oriented toward rods and customs, this one has a fair ratio of
prewar car parts and that is why I have always gone in the past. Since I now
have an AD pickup, I look at this swap with new eyes and thought I would
share a few notes about this year's event.
My truck is missing it's factory horn, and this swap seemed like a good
opportunity to pick one up. Sure enough, there were several gazillion AD
style horns available, the problem being that they were not all alike. Other
GM cars must have used similar horns, but with maddening minor variations.
Which is correct? Every vendor had a different opinion. I went home with no
horn.
As in previous years, Grumpy's Truck Parts was there and I tried to buy
the striker plate for the passenger door that Golden State had been unable to
supply for so long. Mrs. Grumpy declined the sale, saying they were sold in ma
tching pairs only. Grumpy's had virtually an entire warehouse laid out on
tables, and seemed to be doing a good business.
There was sheet metal aplenty for sale this year, and most of it was
straight and rust free enough to make our Eastern brothers and sisters cry.
One fellow had a hood, a pair of front fenders, slat grill and other bits and
pieces spread out on a trailer. He wanted a couple of hundred bucks for the
lot.
Another fellow had a pair of rust free '52/'53 3 window cabs on a
trailer. One was stock, the other had about a 4" chop job on the cab and
doors. The asking price was $300 ea or $500 for the pair.
One of the more interesting items was a newly majored '53 235 resplendent
in blue gray paint. The motor was on a test stand, and run periodically for
demonstration. A little sign detailed an impressive list of work done and
parts used. The fellow wanted $2300, and it came with a bellhousing and 3
speed.
I have been looking for a T-5 5 speed for a year or so now, so I kept a
weather eye out for these gearboxes. I did see several this past weekend, all
but one with the rear mounted shifter, useless for an oletruck conversion.
That single front shift trannie had me pretty excited for a while. It had the
right speedo drive and shifter location, but the owner said it was a four
speed -- not the five speed. He had bought it for his Model A and found out
the bad news only when he finished the conversion and could not get it into
5th gear! According to our hapless Model A guy, the boxes look identical from
the outside. Now he was attempting to flog it off but was honest enough to
warn potential customers.
Probably the most interesting oletruck at the swap was a partially
completed chopped and stretched AD Suburban. The truck had the length of a 1
ton van, but was windowed like a Suburban. It had a V-8, independent front
suspension, enormous wide "meats" on the back and those silly motorcycle
sized front tires mounted on a spun AL rims. This machine was obviously made
for strip action, or at best stoplight-to-stoplight work. The asking price?
Something in the $2000 to $3000 range.
I have often thought of the TF series trucks as being mere beauty queens,
sitting around rodded or sometimes restored, preened by their owners and
posing for pictures while the ADs are largely still out there soldering on,
working for their living as they have since they were built. Working TFs I
haven't often seen until this swap made me reconsider. At Jack Murphy, the
ADs seemed to be the queens while the TFs worked. There was even an '57 8000
series flatbed with dual rear tires loaded with lots of automotive treasure.
This is the best swap I know off, with the best mixture of stuff for
sale. Every year it gets bigger, and this year I am told they sold out of
swap spaces Friday. I think I'm gonna hafta look in to this cloning business
for next year. It's gonna take two or three of me to give this swap a good
look-see.
Paul O'Neil, Hudson29@aol.com
1951 Chevrolet 3600 Pickup Project, See it at:
The Poor Man's Advanced Design Tech Tips Page
http://home.earthlink.net/~conntest47/
Fullerton, California USA
AEROMARK - Need Rubber Stamps or Signs? See:
http://www.aeromark.net
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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