PORTLAND SWAP A CAR LOVER’S HEAVEN
The prospect of attending the Portland Swap with some car friends was a great opportunity for some road trip camaraderie and a couple of days of immersing myself in classic cars and parts for sale.
This swap meet is the largest event of its type on the West Coast and has been going since 1964, when the Portland Exposition Center was the Portland Fairgrounds with old cow barns supporting the annual agricultural fair. It’s a lot different now with a row of modern buildings filled with cars and parts for sale surrounded by sellers occupying outside stalls. For the past decade, the adjacent Portland International Raceway has also been ringed with outside stalls.
My travel buddies included Brown Brothers Ford service manager Chris Sharmon, retired leasing manager Mark Korst and retired CP locomotive engineer Ralph Schwabe. Our conveyance was a new fully loaded Ford F-150 Super Cab pickup — good for carrying us and stuff home.
I love meeting new people and old friends at swap meets. You can buy collectibles on the Internet, but you don’t have the human experience that is so important to sustaining the hobby. You also don’t get to look and feel the things you need or may want, or discuss the product or services face-to-face with the vendor.
Haggling is much of the fun to be had at automobile swap meets. Enthusiasts share war stories following the day’s events about the “steal of the day,” or the discovery of that elusive part needed to complete a restoration that was sitting on a vendor’s table just waiting for them.
Old car literature — shop and owner’s manuals, dealer brochures, salesman’s handbooks, paint charts, advertising and service bulletins — are a trip into automotive history.
Parts for vintage vehicles, restoration supplies and services and memorabilia are the primary motivators for people attending classic car swap meets. The chance to look at hundreds of collector vehicles offered for sale provides great entertainment. But for me, it’s the combination of the items being bought and sold along with the people selling them that are the most interesting.
A true barn find was the 1953 Ford Sunliner convertible being offered by Boise, Idaho restorer Jim Ball. And it came with an interesting story. The owner was reportedly shot to death in Las Vegas in 1965.
His mother stored his convertible in the barn on the family farm in Parma, Idaho for more than half a century with its 1965 Idaho licence plates still attached.
The rust-free running and driving example is a good candidate for a complete restoration and was being offered to a new owner for US$12,500.
Not helping that sale was a nice “driver quality” red and white 1955 Ford Sunliner convertible that a new owner could buy and enjoy being offered nearby for $23,500 or best offer.
Also from Boise was a seldomseen 1949 Hudson offered for sale by custom pickup truck builder Jay Young. He had been asking $19,500 but, as his lateSaturday afternoon departure time was closing in, said that he would take an offer of US$13,000 and deliver the car to the border if a Canadian buyer wanted to follow through with the purchase.
“I’m selling it for my father who is 83 and needs to downsize. At one time, he had 100 old cars and has had to pare down his collection,” he says. By 5 p.m., that Canadian buyer hadn’t returned to consummate the deal.
Local Portland classic car vendor Gary Blodgett always brings great cars to the meet. Rain showers throughout the event necessitated the constant towelling of an immaculate 1950 Mercury coupe and a modified 1950 Ford Custom convertible that had drawn a lot of interest but no buyers by the end of Saturday. “I know I’ll sell at least one of them in the next couple of weeks. I could have sold them both, but everyone wants to trade,” he says.
On the lower end of the cost scale was a well-used 1962 Studebaker pickup truck with a V-8 engine coupled to a fourspeed transmission. It was being offered for sale by Jeff Taverniti from La Pine, Ore., for $4,000. He had room to move on the price since he had paid only $800 for the truck.
A hot-rodded red 1937 Pontiac three-window coupe powered by mechanics from a 1990 Corvette was offered for $37,500.
A small percentage of collector vehicles sell at swap meets. One of those was a rare all-black 1964 Ford Galaxie XL hardtop powered by a 330-horsepower, 390-cubic-inch V-8 engine mated to a four-speed transmission. The early muscle car had been brought to the swap meet by Ken Strong of Aberdeen, Wash., for the lady owner whose parents had bought it for her new. The beautifully preserved car sold for $22,500.
You never know what will turn up for sale at a swap meet. The most unusual vehicle was a Canadian-built Bombardier NEV (Neighborhood Electric Vehicle), introduced in Arizona and California, where they were street legal in 1998. Motor Trend wrote that the NEV has a composite unibody with front and rear steel subframes, four-wheel independent suspension, hydraulic drum brakes, rack-and-pinion steering, seatbelts, and automotive lighting. It is capable of 40 km/h, but can be driven off the highway onto the golf course by using the “low speed” mode. The price of $2,500 hadn’t been met by end of day Saturday.
Two-wheeled vehicles are popular at swap meets too, with dozens of vintage bicycles and motorcycles on sale. Battle Ground, Wash., demolition contractor Vern Balkowich can no longer ride his spectacular 1992 Harley-Davidson FLSTC Heritage Limited motorcycle.
“There were 250 of these firstyear Heritage Limited motorcycles built and only 50 of them were blue,” he says, and was surprised that the $8,000 asking price didn’t create more interest.
A pair of rare mechanic’s New Thompson Repair Manuals for cars of the 1940s were purchased from Vancouver, Wash., college instructor Richard Britschgi for $20. They were owned by his father Joe, who worked as an auto mechanic until he was 83.
I’m now looking forward to the 48th annual Coastal Swap Meet — the largest event of its type in British Columbia. It runs May 26 and 27 at the Tradex adjacent to the Abbotsford International Airport. For more information go to coastalswapmeet.com