Had to wait until The Govna announced his latest Executive Order regarding the Corona Virus, before sending this out.
We’re still within the State of Georgia’s requirements to do the swap meet! (there’s a long story there about how I was able to do the show in May when Gatherings of 10 or more in an Area were prohibited… I don’t want to spike the football, but let’s just say Brad Being an Argumentative SOB Who Always Thinks He’s Right paid off, and several state and local government agencies finally said “… you’re right. Do it. And don’t call us again.”)
Priority Vendor Set-up is 6-7am, and is $30 for all the space you want.
Vendor General Admission is 7am, and is $20 for all the space you want.
Spectator entry is just $6.
Cruise-in cars are encouraged, and are just $6 per person—no additional cost to park your ride inside.
Vendors get one helper in with them, because lifting engine blocks alone sucks.
Kids 12 and under are free.
Expecting a GREAT turn-out!
As I said earlier, I’m trying not to spike the football here—I’m not blasting all over the internet for weeks ahead of the show, and I’m sending this news letter out late in the game, because I’m trying not to draw too much attention to the show from people who’s attention I very much do not want. I won my argument with the county and state government, but I’d rather not have them move the goal posts on me—governors in other states HAVE specifically targeted race tracks and swap meets in just the last couple weeks, and shut them down or severely throttled their allowed attendance; Ace Speedway in North Carolina was shut down by their governor, and Carlisle Events in Pennsylvania was sued by their governor and had to greatly limit their attendance. Other events in other states have also been canceled. This is why I’ve also refrained from posting pics of the last two shows on FB and my website.
That said, in the last couple days I’ve gotten calls from people coming from Nashville, Florida, Alabama, Tri-Cities TN, Virginia and the Carolinas. That’s not only vendors, but also spectators. We’ve had a LOT of first-time vendors and spectators, too—a surprising number of them have told me they’ve heard about the show for years and just never got here before, while others just heard about us and came out. Everyone is impressed, and the last two shows have been awesome—I’m not only expecting this one to be too (especially with so many cities, counties and even surrounding states canceling 4th of July celebrations), but I’m expecting these big shows to be the regular occurrence.
So by all means, tell your friends about the show—word of mouth is knocking it out of the park for us! But try to walk that line between talking it up, and drawing attention from The Politician Class… more “red light in the window,” less flashing neon “GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!” on the front of the building, if ya know what I mean.
Shop Organization Stuff From David Greenwood!
Whenever possible, I try to buy from my vendors rather than ebay, local stores, or the internet.
One of the vendors who has been consistently here since the VERY beginning, is David Greenwood. You’ve seen him—he’s got the trailer with the nut and bolt bins, organizer drawers and cabinets, etc., and the big banner on the side of the trailer that says “David Greenwood and Friends, Solving the World’s Problems.”
He used to be a Lawson supplier, and I’d buy cut-off wheels and such from him. He’s now a Winzer supplier. I’m back in my house in Jefferson, and setting up my shop, and decided I needed to get my hardware organized, so I ordered two 4-drawer organizers from him for small fasteners, interior panel clips, e-clips, etc. etc. etc., and several additional inserts for the drawers, that I’m putting in a big 9-drawer cabinet I got at the swap meet over a year ago. The big cabinet with David’s inserts now has a drawer with all my different sized pop rivets and their washers organized, all the different dzus fastners and mounting plates organized, another drawer with all my brass fittings and A/N fittings organized, another drawer with all my taps and dies organized… it’s been awesome! I’ve already gone right to the drawers for a couple things, and it’s sooooo nice to just get something you need and work with it, rather than hunt for 15 minutes… and then end up running to the hardware store to buy it.
Having shot magazine stories in professional shops for over 20 years, I’ve always aspired to have organization like this. Now I’ve got it.
I’m ordering some more organizer inserts from him for the rest of the drawers in my swap meet cabinet, and then I’m going to splurge and order a full assortment of nuts and bolts for my nut/bolt storage cabinet—I’m tired of going to the hardware store for nuts and bolts I should have on-hand.
David also regularly sells used organizers—I’ve gotten a few from him over the years (including one with e-clips last year, that I’ve gone into several times, most recently for the brake light switch on my ’96 dually… having the assortment on-hand saved me from running into town and going to three hardward stores trying to find the right one). Swing by and see him. I’m finding being organized in my shop is worth EVERY penny.
COVID Guidelines:
Despite being a few months into it, this is NOT “The New Normal”… but we’re gonna do what we need to until the people losing their minds over it calm down.
Everyone has done an excellent job of Social Distancing—not only have I noticed and appreciated it, I have had an amazing amount of calls and emails from people commenting on the same thing. Everyone’s doing what they’re supposed to, without being nagged, and not only do I appreciate it, it’s clear from conversations that everyone does.
The governor of Georgia has NOT mandated that everyone wear face masks in public, in-doors or outdoors. We understand some people want to wear them, and we whole-heartedly support their decision. The last two shows have shown me very clearly that everyone at our event respects each other, and their decisions on whether or not to wear a face mask. I have heard zero negative comments one way or the other from anybody on the matter. In fact, I have heard exactly the opposite—support and encouragement for people and their decisions. I not only expect that mutual respect to continue, I require it. If I hear anybody “mask shaming” or talking smack about someone behind their back (for or against wearing), you will be ejected from the show.
I will add this: It’s summer, it’s hot and I know some people have issues with the heat; I get sick from it regularly, and at least twice a year I have a breakfast re-run on the side of the road on the way home from the show. So take that into consideration if you choose to wear a mask Saturday; stay hydrated! And do what you can to keep cool. (more on that below)
- Our staff that’s directly interacting with spectators and vendors will have rubber gloves.
2. We have switched from paper tear-off tickets to wrist bands specifically so we don’t have to use hand-stamps to let people re-enter the show. Please make sure to put them on, not just in your pocket or on your dashboard. We’ll hand you the wrist band, but we won’t put it on you—we’ll need you to do that, and you’ll need to do it before entering through the spectator gate.
We’ll also need you to catch as much wrist-hair in the adhesive as you can, as though we were putting it on you. Your co-operation on the wrist-hair is greatly appreciated.
- In order to minimize back-and-forth contact points, we’re asking that everybody please make a special effort to have exact change for your entries; this will eliminate someone handing us money, and then us handing it back out to other people. $30 for Priority Vendor, $20 for Vendor General Admission, $6 for each spectator. Vendors get one helper in for free. Anybody else in the car is $6 each.
- If you opt to wear a mask, and we can all still see your nostrils, you’re doing it wrong. If you’ve read these before, you know I’ve pointed it out in the last two news letters. I’m pointing it out again because I keep seeing it. Daily.
- Sneezing While Wearing a Mask
After four months, I still don’t know how this works. You’re on your own.
- Bathroom Attendant: We’ll have a bathroom attendant policing the bathrooms throughout the entire event, just as we’ve done the last two shows. He will be spraying down the counters and fixtures with the CDC-recommended bleach solution. For privacy concerns, he’ll shut the gate/doors of the bathroom he’s cleaning, so just use the other buildings while he’s giving that one the Ten Second Tidy. Yeah, it’s a pain, but a lot of this whole thing is… at least we live in a state that’s not trying to arrest me for putting on the event!
- The phrases “An abundance of Caution” and “We’re All In This Together” are STILL expressly forbidden anywhere on the property throughout the duration of the event. Anybody heard uttering these phrases is liable to be hit in the mouth with a cylinder head.
- Everyone knows the 6 Foot Rule… our walking aisles are two cars wide, and our vendors get as much space as they want, so we don’t have to worry about them being stacked on top of one another like they are at other shows. Everyone has done a great job of this at the last two events, I expect this Saturday to be no different. We will have two windows open at the Spectator ticket booth to keep people from bunching up.
- Sunlight is said to knock out the virus. Saturday’s weather is supposed to be sunny so keep it in mind! (I’d say “come to the swap meet for your health!” but people believe Trump told them to drink fish tank cleaner and swallow Lysol to beat the virus, and I’d rather not open myself up to litigation from the people who require directions on shampoo bottles, so I won’t say it.)
- Licking Parts: I’d hoped everything would be back to normal by now, but as we all know, it isn’t. So we are still enforcing the “No Parts Licking Prior To Purchase” rule we instituted back in May. I apologize for the inconvenience—I know how important this is for some of you, so hopefully we’ll be able to lick ‘em again by the August show.
STAY HYDRATED!!!! No joke.
It’s July, it’s Georgia, and we’re doing an event on blacktop. (well, gray-top).
Dress appropriately, and stay hydrated!
Last year, we had a guy juuuust about drop over on the way back to his car in the spectator parking… he was sitting in the grass when I saw him; gave him a couple bottles of cold water, a ride in my air-conditioned truck out to his car, and got him in it with his AC running, where he sat for a while until he felt more like himself.
Two years ago, we had another guy start to get overheated, he got into his car and got the AC running, then decided to move the car into the shade of one the bathroom buildings… and passed out after “Park,” getting as far as “Reverse” on the gearshift, and that’s what he did—across the parking lot and into the side of another vendor’s pickup truck.
Heat and heat exhaustion is no joke. You should ALWAYS have a bottle of water in your hand, from about 9:30am on. When I start walking around the show, I have one in each hand, and one in each rear pocket. I typically drink over a dozen bottles of water at the swap meet, plus one or two bottles of Gatorade.
Wear a hat—the lighter colored the better. I wear that white cowboy hat because I look freakin’ AWESOME in it, but it also keeps the sun from cooking my dome, so it’s a win-win.
Wear white or light gray t-shirts. The two guys who had the problems I mentioned, were both wearing black t-shirts; one had a black ball cap, the other had no hat. I know when I go junkyarding with my buddies, forget and idiotically wear a black or dark shirt, it just about kills me. I throw on a plain white T-shirt when we’re loading the trailer at the end of the day—loading the trailer is what ALWAYS kills me, and it’s what got the guy who passed out in Reverse, too. A white t-shirt helps a ton.
It’s Georgia; wear shorts! If you’re worried about your snow-white legs blinding anybody, they’ll pull their COVID face-mask up to shield their eyes until getting past you, so don’t worry about it.
I’ve also noticed swapping my boots and socks for a pair of Jerusalem Cruisers (sandals) instantly cools me off.
The snack shack is selling bottles of water CHEAP for our swap meet, too—you can spend just a few bucks there now and have multiple bottles of water, so please—spend a few bucks there and carry multiple bottles of water at all times once the heat gets up. With the snack shack working so well with us on pricing now, there’s literally ZERO reason not to have more than one bottle of water on you at all times. (and when you buy some water from them, thank them for working with us!)
I keep a cooler full of iced water bottles in the car so I’ve always got water on-hand. (In fact, I store the cooler on my shelf in the garage, with bottles of water in it at all times, so I can just grab it and go and never worry about forgetting to buy water before pulling into a show… that lesson took more than a couple “damn… forgot to stop at the gas station”s over the years. Drain the ice and water out of it, leave it open for a day or three for the rest of the moisture to evaporate out, re-fill it with fresh bottles, and throw it on the shelf for the next outing.)
Lamar Walden Automotive…
Rob was so busy this month, he had a hard time remembering it all! Besides getting his engine back online in his Gasser and getting the times back where they were at the end of last season.
Things he remembered—They did brakes, headers and a tune on a ’79 Corvette; a 530ci big block race engine is going together for one racer, a 409 got freshened for another, and a Duramax race motor got built for a pull truck; they finished an engine build, disc brake swap, header install and a bunch of miscellaneous stuff for a ’65 Pontiac GTO (the engine is a factory 3×2 with a 400 under it, but was dressed to look like the original 389 tri-power).
They also restored and reskinned a couple aluminum intake manifolds, a BMW block and head, CNC ported a few Chevy heads, and a set of -690 aluminum 409 heads.
Personally, I’m going to have a couple manifolds cleaned in the coming month, and will make some headway on the small block for my ’62 K10.
If you need anything done, or have been planning a build or upgrades, now is the time to do it!
2020 begins the next 50 years as one of the top engine builders in the South Lamar Walden Automotive is in Doraville, Georgia; (770) 449-0315, lwarob@gmail.com, lamarwaldenautomotive.com
JPs Muscle CarParts—Project Build Emporium!
JP’s MuscleCars has been busy the last month—the 1960 Biscayne is coming along with the NuRelics power windows installed, the Dakota
Digital VHX instrument cluster is done, and the Classic Auto Air is blowing cold (oh-so-important in Georgia July). They’re waiting on back glass, and then will start the GTO-bucket-seat based interior.
The ‘83 K10 4×4 is out of the paint booth and getting new glass, trim, Classic Auto Air and a Concept One front runner kit.
Johnny’s 69 Camaro LS-powered resto-mod is getting the TMI interior kit and stereo installed, along with a custom trunk kit.
The ‘70 Trans Am restoration is making good progress with the motor and trans installed, dash and wiring is done, power windows are in and working. (I’m not a big Poncho guy, but a ’70 T/A is the one I REALLY appreciate, and wouldn’t mind dropping by their shop just to look at it! I’ve gotta believe the Buzz Windows are a rare option for these, too)
Johnny also wanted me to include this: “Thanks to all our customers for your business, and patience over the past months; getting parts has and still is a slow process.” This echoes what I’ve heard from several other shops in our hobby… well, lots of businesses, for that matter. It’s not just toilet paper and hand sanitizer that’s hard to come by!
JP’s Muscle Cars is at 113 Hammond Drive in Monroe, GA: Call (770) 207-9570 or visit their website at www.jpmusclecars.com, or stop by and see them at the swap meet.
Bud’s Garage—the only Car Guy Radio on the radio!
The radio in my shop is horrible. And that’s a problem because I can’t tune in to WDUN while I’m out there on Saturday from Noon-to-1pm.
BUT, I figured out a fix: I bring the laptop out, and live-stream it on their website. It’s great! And I’ve been doing that for the last several weeks. If there’s a problem, it’s this: The show only lasts an hour. I could go for two or three. And having sat in on the show pretty regularly, I know for a fact they have the material to support a three hour show every week. There’s a LOT of good material in their notes that gets scrapped due to time constraints. Whatever Powers That Be need to find Bud and Tim another hour, at least.
Coming up, they’ll be talking about ways to not only keep your engine cool, but also your trans fluid and engine oil temps lower as well (both timely topics, given the month and locale). Henry Slack of Slack Auto Parts will be dropping by to talk about the state of the parts industry, and Bud and Tim will be giving us some tips on buying a vehicle in the Covid Climate.
One of the most interesting topics they’ll be covering is Pennzoil’s new synthetic oil, made from natural gas. That’s got to be a far-reaching, industry-changing development, and I can’t wait to hear about it.
Tune in for Informative Automotive Buffoonery Every Saturday at Noon!!
The Fastest Car-Guy Talk on the Radio! Saturdays, noon-1pm, AM 550/FM 102.9
2020 Schedule
Below is the 2020 Schedule. There are a couple dates that are the Second Saturday—make a note of it!
August 1
September 5
October 10—Vintage Bike Feature!
November 7
December 5 |
