photos by: the author
Timeless Muscle Visits Dave & Ed’s Super Events Auto Swap Meet
The Midwest is known for a long of things; unpredictable weather, precipitations, rust and of course, swap meets. Being smack-dab in the middle of American’s Heartland, you tend to need components such as sheet metal, chrome and even full frames a bit more than you would out West or even in the Southern States.
Our own ’70 Chevelle SS project would be a testament to that…
As a result, you tend to become a mainstay at just about every swap meet in a 100-mile radius. Luckily for us however, shows such as Dave & Ed’s Super Events are right here in our neck of the woods, roughly 20-minutes from our AutoCentric Media offices to be exact. With a cordial invite from the Dave & Ed’s staff, we were ecstatic that we had a legitimate excuse to break free from the office (and shop) for the day to rub shoulders with other like-minded individuals!
Car Corral
The Car Corral was jam-packed with some very interesting iron; we’ve browsed through just about everythignfrom early Model-A Fords to late-model Camaro, and everything in between. There were close to two-hundred complete, running driving vehicles on display and up for grabs throughout the show, but the Car Corral held some of the nicest examples.
The current market reflected some of the prices too, whereas examples like the Fury III featured below could be had for a few grand, other cars like a late-arrival, nearly-mint ’86 Buick Grand National was commanding nearly $30,000. We had our eyes on a ’69 Road Runner and a ’70 442 W-30, but ultimately, we couldn’t come to a deal on either car.
There was something of interest to just about every car builder or car collector out there, and the Car Corral at Dave and Ed’s didn’t disappoint on this particular outing.
Swap Meet
Whether you were looking for those hard to find factory wheels for you AMC Rebel Machine or a shifter for a ’46 DeSoto, it seemed that it could have been located somewhere in the venue. You could have genuinely assembled multiple vehicles, many times over, using components found in the Dave and Ed’s swap meet.
The looming clouds overhead ultimately convinced some vendors to pack up early or to, at least, cover up cherished and vulnerable items like carburetors, under plastic. But we really didn’t see anyone running for cover, as the rain wouldn’t show up until much later in the evening. There was so much to see at the swap meet, that we didn’t leave until we were sure we viewed everything twice!
Collectible Alley
Along with various cars for sale, vendors, and new and used parts there’s actually two enclosed buildings filled with collectible die-casts, model kits, car movies, artwork — you name it! Naturally, there’s plenty vendors selling collectible merchandise throughout the show but quite a few vendors elected to host their stands indoors.
If you’re an autoabilia collector, this was a great show to attend – even we picked up a couple of little knick-knacks for ourselves!
Rick Seitz is the owner and founder of AutoCentric Media, the parent company to Timeless Muscle Magazine, and has a true love and passion for all vehicles. When he isn’t tuning, testing, or competing with the magazine’s current crop of project vehicles, he’s busy tinkering and planning the next round modifications for his own cars.
