THE MAINLY CHEVROLET STORY

I purchased my first classic Chevy in November 1985. I was looking for a Corvette but they were too expensive so I settled on a 1956 Chevrolet Convertible. I thought it was a nice restoration until the paint started to come off after only owning the car for six months. The restoration took only 13 months start to finish. I purchased mostly NOS parts for the restoration; reproduction parts just didn’t fit quite right. When the car was completed I had a lot of nice used parts and the reproduction parts left over. I had made several trips to the Pomona California swap meet looking for NOS parts so I decided to take my leftover parts there to see if I could recoup some of my money. I pitched a pop up tent on the black top and spent Saturday night waiting for the sun to come up. Much to my surprise I sold almost all of the parts and came home with a pocket full of money. I told my wife of 25 years, "you should come along next time, this is great fun". She said "I don’t do tents any more", you enjoy.

The very next week I purchased my first parts car, a 1956 Chevrolet, 4-door station wagon. I spent the next week stripping every nut and bolt off the car. I had most of the chrome parts and cad parts plated by Lemon Grove Plating. I had the rusty parts blasted and I restored them to original condition. The next Pomona I set my restored parts out on a blanket and again almost everything sold. When I got home I told my wife I think we have a business here.

I was parting out cars at the rate of one to two a month, so I had a steady supply of parts to sell. I purchased a small travel trailer in 1987 and the wife started to attend the swap meets with me. We limited the meets to southern California because I was still in the US Navy. In 1989 we purchased our first Motor Home a 1972 20 foot Commander and went to Reno’s Hot August Nights. That was our biggest swap meet to date. I retired from the Navy in September 1991 and we started to travel all over the country to attend swap meets. In 1992 we purchased a new 32-foot Southwind Motor home, and a trailer to haul parts. The wife would not allow me to pack the parts into the new motor home. We attended 46 swap meets that year and traveled 30,000 miles. The Southwind was completely wore out after only 60,000 miles so we purchased a 37 foot diesel pusher in 1995 and have been using it ever since. We have slowed down some, doing 40 swap meets and travailing 23,000 miles a year.

We love the travel, making new friends, meeting new people every meet and seeing new sights every trip. We usually stop at about 20 different casinos during our travels throughout the year. This life style is not for everyone, but someone has to do it and I’m glad it’s Carol and I.

Please check our swap meet itinerary. We hope to see you at one of the swap meets.

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