I've been going for years even when I didn't have a car to shop for parts. I still always seem to find something I need. I hope the armory lot is still open, I park there every time I go. Start at the high point and work your way down hill. I'll be there first light on Friday. Sneakers, snacks, water, cash for parts and change for potty breaks. ________ Vaporizer Information
I avoid Carlisle type events anymore. The amount of time spent getting there, the high priced entry fees/food, overpriced parts etc. I have concentrated on hitting the small swap meets 40-50 vendors type that are usually put on by the local car club along with the local volunter fire department and the wives selling Cokes and hot dogs for $1.00..you know the type. Very laid back and enjoyable. I have also found out these guys generally going to these shows do not buy or are not into vintage speed equipment so it leaves more to me LOL. Mostly local guys cleaning out their garages wanting some quick money. These are the local guys who dont travel to larger swap meets or car shows out of their area. Went to one last weekend. About 35 vendors. Picked up approx 300 old car mags (Hot Rod, CC PHR) from 70's and early 80's for $50, Early-mid 70's new Weiand air cleaner in box for $10, complete set of true NOS 60's Cal Custom wire looms for $6 and some mid 70's model kits for $10 each Last year at a small swap meet picked up a mint pair of NOS Thrush headers mufflers for $20.00 and sold them on the 'Bay for $600
Going to Carlisle thurs. looking for sbc Hilborn injector setup. Might have to take the rain gear along!
Never been to Carlisle, what's the walking like? Is it all on grass or paved like Hershey? Looks like rain till Friday.
Wear Good Hiking boots... lots of gravel and some paved areas. Your feet will be crying at the end of the day... but the head will be spinning from all the good stuff....
....and if you can walk up the steepest part of the hill pulling a wagon full of parts and not keel over, you won't need a cardiogram to tell you that your heart's all right.
All the walkways are now blacktop....a little rough, but a lot better than dirt/mud/stone....you can walk around all day and not buy anything and still go home happy....it is an adventure, and the fun is in the hunt....and you never know what you will find....I will be spaces G104-105....stop and say Hi!!!!....ps---always a little something for hambers....stan
And the neighbor's brother in law is sleeping on an old couch in the front yard, with a 30 pack of Pabst on his lap.
Carlisle sucks. The the whole thing is nothing but a giant police trap to make money. Maybe years ago it was good, but as of late, its nothing but a broken bottle and Chevelle sale. No thanks. I'll pass on ever going to that hole again. You would think that the town would appreciate the fact that if it were'nt for that stupid field of crap shows it would have nothing to generate revenue. Instead the cops just lay in wait for anything they can find to steal money from the outsiders. I'm not bitter though..or angry..just sayin.. LOL Spike
Well, I've been going to swap meets there for thirty years and the cops have yet to drag me into a back alley and beat money out of me with their nightsticks, so I guess I'm one lucky bastard.
I have never missed a spring or fall since 1984 stop by and say hello I am in car corral spaces CA 128 129 130 Bill Paden
I agree with Skid, and I've been going since 74 and never had a problem. Sure it was better in the past....What wasn't!! for all you crybabies.....Go and enjoy yourself and if you get board? go down the street under the turnpike to the "Cave" bar and restaurant...good food! then after that, you can look out for the cops.
I understand the Carlisle cops had a field day with the minitruck crowd and the ricers, and justifiably so because of the way they carried on. I saw some fellows unload non-street legal vehicles at the registration office outside the gate and drive up to the gate, thinking that was fairgrounds property and get busted because it's a city street. That was unnecessary, Carlisle events should be warning particpants, even if only by signage, and the cops could have been cooler about it, but what's a cops there gonna do if a rat rod S10 is dragging and making marks on the street or a monster truck is waiting in line while he's right there in front of it?
The cops have been busting people with stolen cars and parts for sale. A guy got arrested a few years ago next to my spot because he had a drive train out of a new Vet that the own of the car recognized the VIN on. They love to ticket assholes doing burnouts in traffic. The show has go to hell. Nobody buys and nobody sells things for what they're worth. I'm sick of that fits a GTO and I want $500.00 for a POS carburetor or a fender. Some guy who has nothing but Chevy parts saying to me that Mopar and it worth so much even though it a stock valve cover for a slant 6. Englishtown has some awesome deals but you have to dig through tons of lawn mowers and dirt bike parts to find it and compete with 100 other guys looking for the same deal. But I guess Carlisle the same. Tons of junk and a few cool parts or deals.
History...I was at the first Carlisle, looong ago...1974?? It was started as a reaction to a sort of crisis at Hershey: The AACA cracked down very hard on people selling suff that was too new, I think actually post-1939 at the time. The Carlisle guys rented the fairgrounds and put on a swapmeet for the refugees...it was rather small, just the oldest field, and there was enough space left that many visitors could park on the grounds. It rapidly evolved into not just a moneymaker (they bought the fairgrounds...) but as a separate independent event that became a supplemental extension of Hershey as well as the planned refuge for the late model folks.
I'm going on Saturday just to pick up some parts from a fellow HAMBer. Not happy about the day....he couldn't get off work and I couldn't, either. Gonna blow dealing with the unwashed masses, in the rain, parts picked over....I'm pissed, it will be my first time to go there and I've been looking forward to it for so long.. However, this time next year hopefully I'll be living back in CA.
Don't worry about it. There will be lots of stuff left, better deals on cars,better weather, lots of guys like you (unwashed?). I'm going Saturday because that's when the folks we carpool with can go. Just have fun.
Unwashed = tons of people packed in to an area too small, wet/sweaty from the rain, raisin the bar on the B.O.......as you can tell, me and crowded shoulder-to-shoulder spaces don't get along too well. I envision Disney World, during the heat of August....
Buy your sandwich, then wait to eat it until you're in a porta-potty. That way, you have a "reserved seat".
"Post War '74" was what they called Carlisle the first year. Now I did not start going until 1984 and enjoyed it for years, kind of sad that I can't make it this Spring. Never had a problem with the cops... and have had way to much of that fried food over the years! Spoke to Hot Rods Trucks last week and they said that they are exhibiting up on the hill... also talked to Butch's and they will be exhibiting in the infield. I think Hershey in the fall is the best swap out there, lots of great stuff and nice people. I have been going since I was a little kid and look foward to it every year!
I'll be there tomorrow and i think it will be busy since the weather's been crap all week. Fortunately, most of the things on my list I can get as stocked items from 2 vendors,then the rest is just fun looking for things I didn't know I "needed"
deals were few and far between[but there if you looked]---nice weather----not as many people as the last 2 years--prices were kinda high---im a yankee so i have no problem negotiating a ''fair price'' or walkin im gonna have to check out hershey---never been---- i just picked up a bunch of parts for one of my 55 chevys im doin----got the list checked off plus a few bonus pieces i ''had to have''
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