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Sunday March 16, 2014: We fly out of Seattle and land in Oklahoma City at about 1pm. On this trip is Sandy and Richard Olson, along with Tom Pennington. We jumped in the rental car and headed straight for Lawrence, Kansas where we planned to take a look at Tom Underwood’s (Parts of the Past) non-IHC gaskets. Made Lawrence by 7:30, met up with Underwood for a nice steak dinner. Back to the hotel for a dip in the hot tub then bed.
Monday March 17, 2014: Out at Tom’s storage unit by 8 am. Look over Tom’s Inventory for several hours and make a deal. How do you get 3000 some head gaskets into a rental car? Have to figure out how to get all this stuff back home. Lunch at a local Pub. Underwood lets us know about a possible inventory in Tulsa. Back to the hotel and arrange to meet at a warehouse in Tulsa to look at another inventory.
Looking over Parts of the Past Inventory
Tuesday March 18, 2014: Lawrence – Tulsa – Chickasha. Spent most of the day driving. Made the warehouse in Tulsa by 1pm. Had about an hour to kill so had lunch at a little burger stand called Ted’s. Back at the warehouse we spent about two hours “mining” and came up with some good Mack, Reo, and Caterpillar head gaskets. About 200 gaskets in all and these did go in back of the rental car. It was a bit of a squeeze with our luggage, but Pennington was relieved that he wasn’t left behind at the warehouse.
Gasket Mining
Wednesday March 19, 2014: Breakfast by 7am then out to the fairgrounds in Chickasha. Move in doesn’t happen till 4pm but everyone lines up outside the fence and begins swapping. At 10am the open the gate to the fairgrounds so everyone can get off the street and wait in the holding area. Swapping continues in the holding area. It’s really exciting when a there’s a new arrival. The vendor can’t even get the motor shut off on his rig before swappers are swarming over his haul or opening up his trailer to see what’s inside! Then at 4pm everyone gets to move in and swapping can officially begin. Around 6pm we pack up for the night, and go out for Mexican dinner with Paul Terhorst (Interesting Parts) and friends.
Pre-line up and Swapping before the gate opened
Line up and Swapping after the Fairgrounds gate opened
Riley head for sale at Chickasha. 8 Spark plugs for a 4 cylinder engine.
A new arrival. Everyone swarms to get the first look!
An Essex on display at Chickasha
Thursday March 20, 2014: A full day of swapping. Chickasha is a “Pre War” swap meet which basically means anything 1942 and older. As a result I’d say it’s approximately 50-65% Model T and Model A Ford. The remainder is Packard, Pierce Arrow, Auburn, Willys-Overland, Studebaker, Chevy, Buick, Chyrsler, Dodge, Plymouth, etc. A nice touch to this swap meet is that several of the local collectors open up their collections in the evenings for viewing. We closed up around 4pm, grabbed dinner at Mama Carol’s, dropped Pennington off at the hotel and then headed up to Oklahoma City to take in 2 collections. The first collection was Don Boulton’s (Frantic Motors) and the second was Ted Davis’ (Packard Twin Six). Both collections were outstanding. Boulton’s was all early brass era cars, while Davis’ was a mixture of brass era and Packards. Also Davis has an impression fabrication shop.
The sole remaining Tincher. Don Boulton’s Collection
Miller Racer built from scratch in Ted Davis’ shop
Friday March 21, 2014: By Friday the swap meet has pretty much wound down. By noon our building was empty of customers and vendors were packing up. We packed up our booth by 1:30pm and by 3pm we were eating at Cracker Barrel in OKC (I do like their sweet iced tea). Got some gifts for the kids in the gift shop. Airport. Home at 1am Saturday March 22.