A good day at the swap.

Dr.Jass

Dr.Jass

Pastor of Muppets
Except that Stretch hates me now. 68R/T might, too. Did a little swap-meet diggin' today, and dragged this menagerie of LA goodness home with me:

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Obviously, the lower pair of heads are the desirable '68-'69 340 "X" castings. The rustier pair above it are 1970 "U" castings, which you don't see all that often. The plastic bags contain a set of adjustable LA shaft rockers, with the hard-to-find banana-groove rocker shafts. What's so special about the rusty "U" castings? Take a closer look:

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Why yes, those are the T/A-AAR 340 Six-Pack cylinder heads--check out the locations of the intake pushrod holes. All in all not a bad purchase. I paid $100 for each pair of cylinder heads, and he threw in the rocker arms and shafts (including an extra rocker arm and spacer) for $25 more. $225 total? Yes, I'll take 'em. Stretch and I are hangin' out in 68R/T's living room at the moment. We're lookin' forward to a beautiful swap-meet day tomorrow, but today was more like a swamp meet after torrential rains early this morning. My shoes, socks, and jeans are completely trashed. Despite the quagmire, people were able to keep their senses of humor about it...

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My luck continued throughout the weekend, Jester. Turnout wasn't great and people apparently weren't buying, about which several vendors openly complained to us, so screamin' deals weren't hard to make.

I picked up a complete spare grille for the Valiant, including the headlamp buckets and uncut wiring harness for $20:

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And a rust-free, lightly-damaged '71 Duster RH fender that will fit the same car for $60 after initially passing it over at $120:

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That's factory-original Sassy Grass Green paint! Check out that dogleg, and the back is just as pretty:

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'64 close-ratio long-tail A833, missing the trunion output flange. I'll use parts from a truck OD to convert it to a slip yoke. $125.

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$100 worth of '69-'74 Dodge "redline" dog-dish hubcaps...

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'60-'66 A-body V8 center drag link. I dropped $20 on this, thinking TitaniumTallywhacker still needed it. Turns out he doesn't, so it's probably eBay bound.

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And bringing up the rear are the small-bolt A-body Center Line wheels (real deal, not copies) with front runners and drag slicks. These are non-unilug, special-order-only forged wheels from a few decades back. Since the tires are on, I can only assume the sizes to be the common 15"x3.5" front, and either 15"x8" or 8.5" out back. The front tires are Merica 165SR15 radials in spectacular shape, while the rears are 29.5x10.5x15 Mickey Thompson E-T Drag slicks with decent rubber left but some weather-checking on the sidewalls. The backspacing on the rear looks about right for the A-body wheelwell, though with the slicks mini-tubbing would be a must. I'm not going to mention what I paid, because I bought them solely to resell. Suffice to say, considering the rarity of specific 4" bolt-pattern wheels in a 15" diameter, and these being genuine forged Center Lines, I freakin' stole 'em.

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That's not a bad area on the front wheel, it's adhesive residue from a duct-tape price tag.
 
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It's a good thing that I know what everything looks like because the pics aren't working out that well. :D
 
Pics seem OK to me... ?

I'm keeping the spare grille, 71. This is quite-literally "more whitetails than people" country and having repair parts for a deer-car interaction dramatically reduces the likelihood of it ever happening. :D
 
I need 2, one car didn't have one and the other is tweaked from that mashed right fender. So, if you come across any more keep me in mind.
 
The grille was literally the only specific '69 Valiant part I saw at the entire meet, and I went through it two and a half times. There wasn't even a Duster front bumper to be had, except one already redone by Bumper Boyz--and those guys should be avoided at all costs. It might not seem like it, but Mopar stuff was in short supply, at least specific stuff. There were a few body parts for my Challenger, but other than those, the grille, and the fender I bought, most of what was there was mechanical. I missed out on a pair of 340 blocks that sold within 15 minutes of being taken out of the trailer for $800 (pair), and I was at the meet an hour before it opened to the public on a vendor pass. There were also a number of 4-speeds, but one vendor in particular went through and bought up a bunch of 'em... he had seven of 'em lined up in front of his trailer under a tarp and wasn't selling. One was a B/E-body 18-spline. I bought the one I did simply because there's well over $125 worth of parts there. I did get a lead on a Challenger T/A hood, new in the box, for $500 asking. The guy paid $1,200 for it, then went with his OE hood. Ultimately I decided a T/A hood wouldn't look right on my '74 so I passed. I think I still have the guy's number; the hood is located in southern WI somewhere, not far from Jefferson.

The last real swap meet of the season is tomorrow in St. Paul MN. Wayne, with whom I rode to Jefferson, asked if I was interested in going and I said I was not. It's a 1-day meet almost six hours away, so we'd either have to leave at 1AM to get there for the 7AM gate opening, or get a hotel room. Plus, according to the people I know that have gone in the past, you can't get through it by the time vendors start packing up and clearing out... the place is empty by 3PM. 12 hours of driving plus a hotel room is just more than I'm willing to gamble on six hours at a meet. Besides, I'm still recovering from the 25+ miles I walked in three days on less than twelve hours sleep total. My bank account needs some sesrious recovery time as well. :D
 
Yeah I bet!

I'm concentrating on the Valiant's needs at the moment, and I'm second guessing my choice of going with the 440 in the street car. I think I'd be better off right now looking for a donor vehicle for a 318/360-auto trans, the $750 headers are killing me.

The Challenger parts are way, way off right now, I need just about everything sheetmetal wise and damned near everything else needs to be rebuilt. If I bought it to restore and sell it would put me so deep in the red I'd never see daylight. Probably start buying parts as I come across them on a deal, and when I get a pile of weld in parts I'll start on it.
 
You did good, Jass! Nice Duster fender. Reminds me, I have a Duster emblem or two kicking around in the garage if anyone can use 'em.
 
I will buy the center link from you Jass. Name your price I have cash.
 
Here's what I picked up at Jeffy this year. I didn't score as big as Jass but I did score!
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I just remembered about the Holley carb I found. I'll post up a pic later today.
 
I knew you were forgetting something, but I couldn't figure out what it was. You must've known it too, since you left a space for it in your picture. :D
 
It's just super nice. Not one pit.

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Not really a score from a price standpoint, but definitely from the "got 'em" standpoint:

A full set of factory T/A rockers to go with the heads I bought at the swap meet, as well as a complete set of ductile-iron W2 rockers, both on banana-groove shafts. Perhaps I paid a little too much for them, but the T/A rockers are nearly impossible to find, and the ductile-iron W2 arms are getting to be hen's teeth as well. I bought both sets from the same dude, located in Ontario.

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