LA Roadster Show

[Krylon32]

Went to Pomona last week for the LARS. Lots of old timey 28-34 cars. While there were some vacant spots in the swap meet there was the most 28-34 parts I'd seen in several years. Lots of tin and mechanical parts. Don't believe I'd ever seen so many high quality 33/34 grilles before. I couldn't help but spend a little money, bought another deuce grille shell, can't ever have to many. Also a really cool SW Hollywood gauge panel full of old SW gauges and installed in a 32 closed car dash with metal work by Dave Stucky. Also some small parts. Definitely worth the 3200 mile round trip.

[Tim Ayers]

Thanks for the first hand update. LARS is definitely on my retirement bucket list. Two more years to go!

[NealinCA]

Times are changing in our hobby. I agree that the 28-34 Ford parts at the swap were in good supply, but the general public buyers were not there. It felt like most sales were between fellow vendors.

10-15 years ago, you could not see across the main isles at 7am, there were so many people filing in. This year you could easily ride a bicycle around at any time of the day. We did sell some big items and I bought a few treasures, but it seemed like the sales of chassis and engine parts was pretty slim. I think the number of guys piecing together an early Ford from parts is fading, with the ability to now find a nice, complete car to start with. In my lifetime, I have not seen so many old restoration 32-40 Fords available as there are right now. The next 10 years will be interesting.

[Hitman]

I was there as well. My impression is slightly different, but along the same lines. I'd say the quantity of 32-41 parts was the most I've ever seen in one place, and of high quality. I think there were half a dozen aluminum 32 pans there among other items. I was worried I was going to run out of money based on the purchases I made in the first two rows on Friday morning.

[Krylon32]

I agree the buyers were scarcer than other years. Things seemed to be folding up around noon or a little later on Saturday. You need to understand when you come from midwest farm country and at many of the swap meets here the tin is fairly rough/ditch fill seeing the California tin makes your feel like a kid in a candy store. I did manage to bring a little money home. I'll be back next year if I'm able.

[Automotive Stud]

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This was the year I was going to go for the first time, but my wife got tied up with a work project. There's always next year. How big is the swap meet, compared to say Carlisle, Hershey, Auto Fair, ect?

[Krylon32]

Swap meet isn't as big but most of the parts being offer are dam good quality plus I see things being offered you don't anywhere else. For an early V8 guy you won't be disappointed. Just bring money and a way to haul it all home. I've been making the trip from Nebraska for about 30 years and will continue as long as I am healthy. I have started riding a scooter to get around the meet. Also don't forget a nice selection of hot rods to look at.

[TJ]

Krylon, just curious about prices. What was the price on the grille shells? I'm trying to help some young people out here who inherited some cars and parts and they may want to sell what they have at a swap meet. The last shell and basket I saw sell was $1500.

[Krylon32]

32 shells with inserts were all over the place. I saw some that needed work for around a $1000 up to a really nice one for $2500. 33/34 grilles were the same way although much higher for the really nice ones. 32 firewalls were priced according to quality as was the sheet metal. Price it to high or low and you'll know quickly.

[Newc]

Wonder if that large stash of bought '33 parts, from Santa Rosa?, showed up as a final sale. Newc

[Flathead Fever]

I went there every year with my dad as a kid and then with my family and have gone every year since. I have never missed one show except for the cancelled covid show. I have a theory if I don't keep up the tradition of going every year I'll die soon after. It motivates me to come home, get back out in the garage and work on my projects. If you have never been there and then you go it's great but compared to it what it was 20 years ago its disappointing. There used to be so many people walking the swap meet it was shoulder to shoulder and you would lose your family in the crowd in a second. So much talking, you couldn't hear your phone ring. If you brought enough money, you could just about find anything you were looking for. Lots of famous hot rod roadsters would show up and they no longer do. All the commercial venders were there and now it's only about a dozen. If you showed up in a roadster you got in for free, under new ownership that changed. The show never seemed to recover from charging the roadsters to get in, and then Covid happened. Once they started charging the roadsters to get in a lot of people stopped bringing them. There are other factors, a lot of people with hot rods have moved out of CA and the original hot rodders have died off, people like my dad and my next-door neighbor, a 1940s dry lakes racer. At this show lots of people were there from England, New Zealand and Australia. It's amazing how much interest in hot rods there are from those countries. Every third person had an accent. They come around the world to go to that swap meet and there I was complaining about the show, and I only had one-hour drive to get there. Several of those guys said, we don't have anything like this back home, this is great. My problem is I don't like change, I expect everything to stay like it was during its glory days and that's not happening. I also don't remember it hurting as bad to walk the show. My left hip was throbbing like I was shot which is always a possibility in Pomona. My lower back was seizing up, nerve pain down both my legs. I had my money in my left pocket look for parts and hydrocodone in my right to keep me moving. Since I didn't find the parts I wanted and I had a pile of cash that I didn't want to put back into the bank. I bought something I had to have. Two trophies from the fastest roadster of a 1939 SCTA meet for my hot rod roadster history collection. They were not cheap, but they make me happy. Anything hot rod and old Ford related makes me happy. Right now, my 5-year-old grandson and I are going to the garage to work on his Ford education, he loves hot rods. Maybe he will be at the roadster Show in a roadster with his kids someday.

I didn't find the parts I needed. I needed a late model 8BA cam core so I can have it ground into a Clay Smith 272, I have core engines I can pull one out of, I just figured I could get a core at the swap meet and there were none. I wanted an original Edelbrock 3-carb 8BA intake to replace the 2-carb on my dad's '32 roadster. I didn't find one that I liked. Most of all, I needed Auburn gauges for an Auburn panel that is missing from the Mitchell Muffler Pickup I own. A few years ago, I bought an Auburn Panel after years of looking for one with its original inserts, but I need those gauges. There were always several guys with Auburn panels and gauges at the LARS but they have not been there the last few swaps meets. And I have to realize I'm looking for parts that before long will be over 100 years old and eventually the supply is just going to run out if it hasn't already.

My favorite picks from the show were this '34 truck even though it had been contaminated with a Chebby engine and this barn find '36 3-window. It's perfect just the way it is. Lots of flatheads there.

[petehoovie]

Originally Posted by Flathead Fever

My favorite picks from the show were this '34 truck even though it had been contaminated with a Chebby engine and this barn find '36 3-window. It's perfect just the way it is. Lots of flatheads there.

[Krylon32]

Flathead Fever. Over the years at the LARS I've found 2 complete 32 Lincoln dashes, 2 complete 31 Cad dashes and one oval insert but never managed to score an Auburn. The Auburn dash and insert I have in my deuce 3 window I scored in the early 80's in Denver complete with the gauges for the ridiculous price of $300. Unfortunately I had a weak moment and traded the gauges to Jack Chisenhall for one of his first sure fit complete systems for a deuce. The Auburn dash and insert I have in my roadster I scored with an ad on the HAMB within 15 minutes of running it but that cost a couple grand. I dream every year at the show of finding another but I must have had my quota?

[Flathead Fever]

Originally Posted by Krylon32

Flathead Fever. Over the years at the LARS I've found 2 complete 32 Lincoln dashes, 2 complete 31 Cad dashes and one oval insert but never managed to score an Auburn. The Auburn dash and insert I have in my deuce 3 window I scored in the early 80's in Denver complete with the gauges for the ridiculous price of $300. Unfortunately, I had a weak moment and traded the gauges to Jack Chisenhall for one of his first sure fit complete systems for a deuce. The Auburn dash and insert I have in my roadster I scored with an ad on the HAMB within 15 minutes of running it but that cost a couple grand. I dream every year at the show of finding another but I must have had my quota?

I own the Mitchell Muffler Pickup, it was used by Wally Parks and the editor of Motor Trend for the first ever road test of a hot rod in Hot Rod Magazine. A giant picture of Wally driving it used to hang in the NHRA Museum. It won the Pasadena Reliability Run and tied for best appearing car. It took second the following year. It took second in the pickup division at the first Oakland Roadster Show in 1950. It was in a lot of magazines in the early 1950s. It was used in an article on how to make front cycle fenders when the fender law came out. It was built by Dave Mitchell the first guy to build glasspack mufflers in the USA and it sat out in front of the Muffler shop on Route 66 in Pasadena from 1946 to 1953 to draw in the hot rod customers. There are few hot rods that have as much history as this one does. It's not particularly a beautiful car but its history is neat. My dad wanted to build one just like it when he was a kid and every time, we saw a roadster pickup he would talk about the Mitchell Muffler Pickup. I found the real one at the LA Roadster Show, that was probably25-years ago. I got it going and I got to take dad as my navigator in the pickup when the Pasadena Roadster Club started having the reliability runs again. Just that one day with dad in his favorite hot rod was worth buying the car even f I almost ended up divorced over it. Here is some advice, if you are getting married do not do it in June when the LA Roadster Show is. Do not tell your wife we do not have money for your 10-year wedding anniversary and then a week later you find the Mitchell Muffler Pickup and take the money out of your IRA to buy it. She might get the impression the hot rod is more important than she is. Then you might have to take out another $5000.00 to take her on a cruise to smooth things over. Look at the yearly car events before picking a wedding date. I bought a chopped '32 3-window on Mother's Day at the Long Beach Swap Meet. I didn't see a problem with buying it. I made the 90 miles back home in time for Mother's Day brunch with her family. That did not go over well because we didn't have a lot of money. She got a Mother's Day card and I got a 3-window for Mother's day

The Mitchell Pickupo had an Auburn dash, the entire Auburn dash not just the panel. Somewhere along the way they left the dash in, removed the gauge panel and installed 50 cents worth of wood paneling over the dash and put gauges in. I could have killed that guy! Years ago I passed up buying a couple of panels for between $3500.00 and $4500.00 with gauges before I realized how rare they were. I decided the next good one was coming home. Every year I took $5000.00 with me to the roadster swap meet in case I found one and they all seemed have vanished. I knew a guy that sold the one out of his roadster for $7500.00, somebody offered him that much and he could not resist taking it out and selling it. A SoCal restoration shop told me a guy spent over $10,000.00 buying the panel, gauges separately and having them restored. They were the ultimate hot rod dash in the 1930s, they had a 100-mph speedo and four big gauges. I imagine Auburns were not that common in junkyards even back then. It took me years to find a panel that was not butchered and had the right amount of patina to look like it has always been in the car. It's not even that great, it has some rust pits but it has those riveted on inserts which are usually missing. I think I paid $2500.00 for just the panel. The gauges can go for $400.00 to $700.00 or more each and then they will probably need to have the bezels chromed and the faces silkscreened. That's if you can find any to have restored.

Here is a couple articles that show the dash in the Mitchell Pickup and a real Auburn boat tailed speedster with one of those dashes. All the Auburns for that year have that gauge panel not just the speedsters. Here's the panel I have. The outer gauges are slightly smaller than the ones next to them and the rear mounting studs are angled opposite on each side. You cannot mix up the gauges, they will only go in one spot. There are so many rear mount gauges from that era that look similar but will not fit and I see panels with the wrong gauges crudely mounted from the rear. You realy need to do your homework on these if you want one. I took photos and my vernier with me ready to measure gauges and stud spacing but here were none to measure. I'm probably going to need to post a wanted ad on The Auburn site. I also need some 2 5/8" Stewart Warner, winged, smooth bezel gauges for a 1940s roadster project. Those are getting just as hard to find as the Auburns. The fuel gauge is the hardest to find and the ammeter the easiest.

I almost bought a '32 frame at the swap meet for $3500.00. It was an early frame without the rear reinforcements. It had two slight bulges in the frame rail kickups like all the early frames have but these were a lot smaller than most of them. It had a bolted in uncut '32 front crossmember. Nice K-member, no extra holes in the frame, straight side rails, perfect frame horns front and back and an 18- serial number. Heavy surface rust but no pits. It would have cleaned up nicely I looked at it on Friday and I was surprised to still see it on Saturday. I didn't really need it but they are getting so hard to find decent ones. I decided to buy it and stash it away and while I was staring at it sold which was okay because I need to stop buying stuff I don't need and buy the stuff I do to finish my projects.

[petehoovie]

Originally Posted by Flathead Fever

Auburn boat tailed speedter with one of those dashes. All the Auburns for that year have that gauge panel not just the speedsters.

[Flathead Fever]

I looked at this '36 Humpback that was for sale. It was a neat survivor. It had a heater blower setup that didn't require any electrical knowledge to operate. I was wondering if you wanted it to blow on high do you downshift to second to raise the fan rpm or just drive faster in third.

[petehoovie]

Originally Posted by Flathead Fever

I looked at this '36 Humpback that was for sale. It was a neat survivor. It had a heater blower setup that didn't require any electrical knowledge to operate. I was wondering if you wanted it to blow on high do you downshift to second to raise the fan rpm or just drive faster in third.

[Flathead Fever]

I don't recall seeing this model in the brochure.

[Flathead Fever]

Some more cars from the show. Not very many original cars there like these, its mostly hot rods.

[petehoovie]

Originally Posted by Flathead Fever

Some more cars from the show. Not very many original cars there like these, its mostly hot rods.