Trash and Treasure

This was the weekend of the biggest local Swap Meet all year. It is put on by the Olympic Vintage Auto Club. Attended by thousands, it is a sight to be seen. such a broad range of people, all with a similar hobby, coming together to spend the weekend to swap parts, stories, or pedal their piles. this is definitely a "one man's junk/other man's treasure" situation. I didn't really go with specific items in mind, necessarily, but now that I have a pretty good idea of general add-ons, and custom touches I will do to the '71, I had a broad list in my head of what to keep my eye out for.

Amy came with me to the swap meet (I usually do these things alone) which made for a fun trip. she was genuinely interested in what was going on, so it was fun to answer her questions, and in general, have someone there to get excited with about weird things we saw. some of them were people. colorful crowd at these events. think state fair, without the ferris wheel, but still with all of the fried food, and fun people :)

the plethora (one of my favorite words) of parts, and people, and cars is spread out over most of the county fairgrounds, and takes place in three sizable buildings, and all of the grounds between the buildings. upon leaving one of the buildings, Amy locked in on something about 50 yards away. "We're going to get that!" she said, sounding pretty convincing, so we walked up the hill to what it was she saw from far away. she had spotted a SWEET wagon wheel, or was it? we didn't know what it was, but we were sure it was going on our newly remodeled fireplace wall. After confusing the 70+ yr. old gentleman about what it was we were using this thing for (home decoration??!), he explained to us that it is a wheel off of a "high rake" basically a mechanical rake used mostly at the turn of the century in hay, and wheat fields to collect crops.

The intention was not, of course to be shopping for home decor, but this was one of those items that just screamed at us, so Amy haggled the old man (who was loving having a cute young girl in his booth) down a bit, and we walked/rolled away with a 53" diameter, rusty steel, wheel.

and it looks incredible in our space! we love it.

I also picked up several random parts and pieces for the truck. some updated suspension parts, which will really make a difference in the overall handling of the truck, and an original dash pad in great shape.

overall, a great success. got to hang out with the wife, while digging through lots of car parts. WIN!