Repaired cabs shuttled east of the missisippi. Where to take em?

[s_nova69]

I have been wanting to get into restoring cans for these awesome trucks to help perpetuate their existence and of course make a little money.

In my neighborhood cabs that aren't completely toast are fairly available.

If a guy was to rebuild sand blast and bring 5 or 6 east at a time what swap meet would be the best to hit?? And where is the need greatest (kinda a captain obvious question)?

I have a pretty good grasp on values but wonder if a trip a year or so would be worth the run??

Let me know your thoughts.

[special-K]

Carlisle events: Spring, Trucks, Fall. Mostly Spring and Trucks. There aren't any good big shows in the N/E and those guys come to Carlisle. You can leave any unsold cabs with me to store and continue the selling process.

[biketopia]

Im in the market...and go to the Carlisle events.

[custom10nut]

I would think that if you post in the For Sale section on here, that you'd be able to get buyers lined up and then deliver at the events talked about.
Growing up in Michigan, I know there's no such thing as a rust free cab anywhere unless it's brought from "down south"

[67ChevyRedneck]

I agree with Carlisle. It's one of the few large swap meets left that still has vendors come with a decent amount of original sheet metal. And you get guys from all over the northeast coming.

It's also a good idea to just sell them on here and have people come to you, or be willing to travel with one for a fee?

[Spullar]

Iola Wisconsin is technically east of the Mississippi and has a great swap meet. Ok, so that probably isn't what you're looking for. My next thought would be Hershey Pa. I haven't been there...yet, but someday hopefully.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I'd also like to add a few guys have tried it on here as well and from what I remember seeing, by the time you add in all the costs of the cabs and patch panels, stripping it, primer, etc you need to sell the cabs for $1,200-1,500 to even make it worth your time and it took a long time for a lot of those cabs to sell. Everyone has the mentality that they can do it themselves and the panels are only a couple hundred bucks for everything.

My biggest concern with buying a cab someone else fixed would be did they do everything to make sure the doors, etc would fit? If you don't sell the doors with the cabs, I'd use a near perfect set to mock up each cab and take pics with the doors on the cabs to show how well the doors/rocker/cab corner all line up.

[B. W.]

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

.....
My biggest concern with buying a cab someone else fixed would be did they do everything to make sure the doors, etc would fit? If you don't sell the doors with the cabs, I'd use a near perfect set to mock up each cab and take pics with the doors on the cabs to show how well the doors/rocker/cab corner all line up.

Excellent point. My concern also.

[s_nova69]

All good comments.

I agree about showing doors fitted.

I think that cost is easily in the ball park if someone needing a cab especially one that has all the work done.

Make sure to document with pictures and such the work on each one would be a plus.

Arranging with others on this site would be the no brainer as it would probably be tough to sell 5-6 in a weekend without some pre sold.

Keep em coming. Just trying to get some ideas hashed out as I have more space and the tools needed now for this type of work.

Now if I can just find the time

[bulky]

Not sure how far east you were thinking about, but Carlisle would be about as far as I would recommend. There are some other ones up in Connecticut but they get worse every year. Mostly because of Craigslist and Ebay, but also because the venues are becoming more and more strict.

Rhinebeck, NY is supposed to be good as well from what I have heard.

Here is a link to a local club that has maintained a pretty good list of shows and meets. Hope this helps.

http://clubs.hemmings.com/maynardaac/events.html

[LockDoc]

-
Some good thoughts on here. A couple of other things:

No one has mentioned transport costs and that has to be added to the total. Gas, food, and lodging aren't exactly cheap any more.....

Pre selling (with a deposit) would not only be good as far as knowing what kind of income you would be looking at but there may be people who would want one, but didn't expect to see any there, so wouldn't bring a trailer to the meet with them. I would also put an ad on a couple of Craigslists in the area where you will be going, a week or so ahead of time, with what you have and a swap meet space location.....

LockDoc

[Seanext]

Charlotte NC has two big swap meets one in the fall and one in the spring at the Charlotte Motor Speedway called the Food Lion Auto Fair. Both shows are good and have a lot of vendors for our trucks as well as a big flea market section. It takes a good two days to look at all the stuff.

[RenoKeene]

A bit of advice.. sell rebuilt cabs with reworked doors mounted, that is the way I'd want to buy it and would pay more $$$.

[un4gvn!]

Pittsburg Parts Arama is on Fathers Day week-end every year. I've been going every year since buying my truck. The last few years, the Chevy truck parts are getting scarce. I'm one who refuse to support China. I like oem. I've seen guys buy just the cabs for $3,000 to $5,000. I went with a guy to buy a cab which came from California and he forked out $5,000. I told him he could have bought a whole truck for that much. He wanted a cherry cab. Yes, that cab was super nice. But it was just the cab with nothing else. I mean just a cab. He did build a really nice truck. You bring nice cabs and other nice sheet metal here, you will sell them. No problem.

[atog]

I may be interested in you bringing the load straight to me. That's about a 3500 mile turnaround

[special-K]

Yeah, I left it for someone else to suggest Charlotte. That's a good one, too, and just two weeks apart from Carlisle Spring and Fall.

Hershey is still more antiquey than these trucks. It is the week after Carlisle. It's actually pretty light on the 60s-up stuff, at least the trucks.

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by RenoKeene

A bit of advice.. sell rebuilt cabs with reworked doors mounted, that is the way I'd want to buy it and would pay more $$$.

He could actually have doors on them and sell them with or without.

LockDoc

[s_nova69]

Well as we all know doors are much harder to find that are not hacked up. But they to are repairable. Maybe that will work out

As for NC. That is a real hike. I was thinking less than two days d I've ish.

Thanks for all the comments. I found a couple cabs this week that should be a good starting point.

I will let ya know progress as it happens I guess.

Thanks for all the input. Keep it coming.

The best trucks that have or ever will be made!!!

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by s_nova69

Well as we all know doors are much harder to find that are not hacked up. But they to are repairable. Maybe that will work out

As for NC. That is a real hike. I was thinking less than two days d I've ish.

Thanks for all the comments. I found a couple cabs this week that should be a good starting point.

I will let ya know progress as it happens I guess.

Thanks for all the input. Keep it coming.

The best trucks that have or ever will be made!!!

Get the the big truck doors and weld on a corner, they are usually in good shape and should be pretty easy to find out your way....

LockDoc

[1970 charlie]

Me to for the Pittsburgh part-a-rama don't just stop at cabs all stuff for 67-72.