6/29/09

Holy crap, it was friggin’ hot this weekend. So here’s how the swap meet went, Saturday morning I get a call from Marty Smith asking if I was coming to the meet. It was about 0900 h so I rolled out of bed and dressed. I took Fifi to the shop and loaded up almost all of the V8 crap I had accumulated for Barbecue Bob. I did manage to forget the “Ram’s Horn” manifolds though. I just didn’t see them anywhere. I grabbed the Edelbrock Torker II intake, Edelbrock Torker cam & lifter set, new Edelbrock valve springs, Summit cam timing gear drive, the two four-barrel carburetors, the Clifford slant six four-barrel intake manifold, the Borg Warner T-5 transmission, the GM bell housing, that mystery cam & balancer, the Summit dual 2 ½” inlet/dual 3” outlet muffler, that G-Tech RR performance meter thingy, and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting, and loaded it all in the bed of the truck. Oh, I'd loaded a twelve pack of Dr. Pepper and several waters into an ice chest at home and stopped for ice along the way too. I finally got to the swap meet around 1030 h or so, I'm guessing. It was already hot. I spread out my junk and put prices on it all. We hung out for a while and a sold a few things. What didn’t sell was what surprised me. None of the Edelbrock stuff sold but the two very questionable carburetors and the totally unknown-quantity BW T-5 did! At some point during the day, some random dude was looking at Marty’s sign advertising Datsun stuff. He asked if we had any 210s. I said I had a B-210 and told him a little about it. He asked if it were for sale. I began thinking, “If I get enough money for Lil' Wiggly, I can go buy that Beretta CX-4 Storm at Blood Bath & Beyond!” I also thought about it inconveniencing John who wants to borrow Lil' Wiggly while his car is being painted, but knew I could lend him an air-conditioned Fifi and probably be ok. In my mind I kept saying, “A running and driving car is worth $1,000.00.” I said to the dude, “It is a running and driving car…” but left off the bit about the $1,000.00 for some reason. I made the mistake of looking at Pat who shrugged and suggested $500.00, out of dude’s earshot. I need much more than that for the car though so I said, “Seven fifty?” The dude said, “Wow! That’s cheap. When can I see it?” “Crap,” I thought, “I should have said a grand.” I told him I'd probably bring it back on Sunday. He gave me his number and asked me to call if I did. Pat and I eventually wandered most of the aisles but found nothing we couldn’t live without and headed back to the shade. I was left at the end of the day with the aforementioned Edelbrock stuff, the G-Tech RR, timing set, and muffler. I tried to pawn it all off on George but he wouldn’t gopher it. I closed up the tailgate of Fifi and headed to the shop. There, I loaded the stuff into Lil' Wiggly and installed the prismatic Datsun plate opposite the license then headed to the house. All the way there I was thinking, “I hope the dude flakes, I like this car a lot.” Sunday morning I hopped in Lil' Wiggly and headed back to LaGrave. I bought more ice and replenished the waters in the ice chest too. I got set up and called George and Marty to see if they were coming. George showed up and Marty stopped by for a bit. I had a very few nibbles on the Edelbrock stuff but no one was buying. A dude with a booth across from us was the most promising and I should have taken his offer when he made it. He offered $225.00 for the cam & lifter set, timing set, springs, and electric water pump, that being the other thing I forgot up above. I hemmed and hawed too long and he wound up calling his engine builder. The dude didn’t ‘splain that all the parts were a matched set and the builder called that (lack of) information into doubt. He decided to not buy it after all when I was finally ready to take his money. By the way, that whole non- transaction took over four hours. It wasn’t a “Gilmore Girls” rapid-fire conversation. By 1400 h, everyone was pretty much gone from the place so I had George open his trunk. I set everything but the muffler in there and said, “Just give me some money for this crap when and if you ever sell it. Say, $200.00?” He didn’t have it on him but I think I can trust him. If not, at least the crap is out of my shop. I may still put a V6 in a Datsun so I kept the dual in/dual out muffler. I headed back to the shop and the dude who wanted to see Lil' Wiggly called as I was headed down Old Granbury Road. I stopped in a parking lot and we talked. I probably should have told him “never mind” at that point, but I agreed to let him come to the shop next Saturday to have a look at it. I still think he’s going to balk once he sees the rust, at least I'm hoping he does. I know, it is my car and there is nothing in writing saying I have to sell it to him, but I like to feel I'm the kind of “stand up guy” who keeps a deal once an offer is made. Of course, John could always “make me a better offer” (wink, wink; nudge, nudge) for the car and I could back out that way. We’ll see. So, I came out of the swap meet experience almost $300.00 “richer” with a wee bit of a sunburn and less clutter in the shop. Could I have done better? Probably. Could I have done worse? Most likely. Do I want to do it again at the next meet? Aw, hells no! Then again, once I've had a little time to forget the heat, I might be persuaded to bring some stuff out. We’ll see. Oh, as for the Beretta, I'm going to go buy it tomorrow when I get paid. Yeah, I'm dumb.