Carlisle ,PA Ford Nationals

[Blue_Streak]

Has anyone ever been to the Ford Nationals in Carlisle? Its coming next weekend and I was thinking about heading down to search for parts for my bump. I was wondering if anyone has been , what its like , is it decent place to search for bump parts or is it just a Mustang , Cougar , T-bird , and Crown Vic convention? In short is it worth driving 7 hrs to go to?

Thanks

[Ranchero50]

Been many, many times so my views may be biased. Carlisle is one of the largest auto swap meet / shows on the US. The Ford show is pretty nice. I plan on going Friday for parts. The auto show part is mostly Saturday. I have no longer have any desire to go to the car show as it's 95% newer mustangs and the mid atlantic air museum WWII weekend is Saturday in Reading. Honestly if you want to step back in time and see a bunch of WWII aircraft and soldiers doing their things this is a must have. I'd drive 7 hours for the MAAM show yearly but would only do Carlisle once or twice.

http://www.maam.org/maamwwii.html

http://www.carlisleevents.com/

http://www.carlisleevents.com/pdf/Ford-Map.pdf

That being said hotels are probably booked solid. Parking for Carlisle is hit or miss. Check out the map of the area. I typically will park in someone's yard for $5-10 within 2-3 blocks of the show or on the street if I get there before 8am on the gate 1-3 area. Bring a bunch of snacks and a gallon per person of watery drinks to avoid dehydration. Food and drinks on site pricing is ridiculous. There is a neighbor outside gate 7 (to the left under the white awning) that does really good burgers for a decent price. Bathrooms are all over, mostly port-a-potties, and take tips. 25 cents per go is appreciated. Show shirts used to be reasonably priced but are now over $23. I'll typically take a small pack or a jacket with a lot of pockets and work the aisles from gate 1 until I'm loaded or need a drink and then walk back to the car. The trick is to stay hydrated, especially if it's hot or sunny. I'm praying for occasional light drizzle with intermittent sunshine. Too much rain and a lot of the vendors cover their stuff up.

I'd recommend making a list of what you need for your project as well as tooling and consumables. There's a ton of tooling vendors, from Chinese junk to used / new Snap On and everything in between. I typically go looking for machinist tooling and specialty stuff since my truck is pretty well done. There are a couple truck only vendors there and Dennis Carpenter will deliver to the show and has some reject parts for 1/2 price which is hit or miss.

Some years the historic cars are worth going to see. Looks like this year isn't going to be that great as they are doing Starsky and Hutch stuff as well as Pinto's and baby Broncos. Used to be a ton of factory race cars and stuff you usually only see in period books.

If you have any questions, ask away. I plan on taking my truck up Friday and plan on the MAAM show Saturday. Fifi is sitting at the local airport this week and I need to go visit her before she flies up North. She was flying nonstop last year at the MAAM show and I didn't get to see her up close. Only B29 still flying.

[Blue_Streak]

Thanks Rancher50.
That insight helps out a lot. You sound like a combination of myself and my older brother. I'm a Tool and Die Maker with a penchant for bumps and he is a WW2 airplane fanatic. In fact he just was elected as president for the Canadian chapter of something or other that has to do with WW2 aircraft. The name escapes me.

When actually is the show? Website says June 3-5 which is Friday to Sunday but show times say 7am-7pm Thursday to Saturday
2nd question; tipping for port-a-potties? What's that all about?
Do you think hotels in Harrisburg would be booked up as well? Half hour away so MapQuest tells me. If you're going Friday you might be in luck. Forecast is calling for cloudy and rainy.
The car show is not that important for me. I get sick enough of the plethora of Mustangs up here in the local car shows without driving 7 hrs to see more. Don't get me wrong, I like and can appreciate an old Mustang but they're like cockroaches. They are everywhere and ya can't kill 'em .

My main goal is to find a '67 cab. '67 doors would be nice but not a big deal. Same for a box. I don't need a whole lot that I can't buy new from DC or LMC. Little stuff that they reproduce is easy to buy. The stuff that is hard to find or buy, I already have from my own truck that was in decent condition. I thought about ordering a bunch of stuff from DC and pick it up there. All the weather-striping would be a good start. Am I looking through rose colored glasses in finding a cab or doors or box there?

There is a fairly big automotive flea market up here this weekend as well but it has turned out to be a really big garage sale selling stuff not even auto related but the real auto parts resellers set up Thursday . My thinking was to do that on Thursday and then drive to Carlisle overnight to be there for Friday morning with my truck and trailer.

Maybe we could meet up sometime somewhere.

How far is Reading from Carlisle?

Thoughts?

[Ranchero50]

Call Flashback F100's down in NC. He'll be up there with good Western sheet metal. His prices are not cheap but he does run out there and hand pick what he brings back. There's another guy who brings a bunch of sheet metal. The bad thing is the '67's are so unique that finding good metal is gonna be a bear. They have potty cleaners / wranglers that work for a tip. They keep the paper full and the seats clean as well as keeping them in use. You'll see. You'll see quite a few corrals while walking the 15 miles of roads on the grounds. There's usually 3-4 other guys with parts and a bunch of miscellaneous parts at different spots. I've picked up two nice dashes up there for under $100. You will be able to pick up your cab if you find one but the grounds are pretty cramped.

The Show runs from Thursday through Sunday. In years past Thursday was setup day and Friday - Sunday the show. Car show was Saturday. Seems they are going to let the public in on setup day. Sunday is dead as most vendors are leaving Saturday night. Oh yeah, when I said Mustangs, I meant row after row of dang near new ones closest to the parts area. They pushed all the old cars onto the back side and on top of the hill. I had my truck there a couple years ago and it would have been closer to park offsite vs. walk up and down the hill to it all day.

Google the Reading airport and you'll get a reference from where it is compared to Carlisle, about an hour further Northeast for me. It would make a darn fine weekend to hit them both but you are going to be whooped by the end of it. Carlisle takes a full day to explore and you'll miss 80% of the car show. MAAM is another full day and your brother will be beside himself most of the time. Just walking through the encampments and talking to the reinactors is well worth the trip. Most of the aircraft are in the walking areas so stuff is always going on. Lot of blanks getting fired off by them and you can rent some machine gun time on the range. Parking was off site with buses bringing folks on grounds and the first thing I saw when getting out of the car was a P51 coming off the field doing ride alongs. Then Fifi came over the trees and the show just got better from there. The B17 will be flying doing ride alongs as well as being part of the show. Just like Carlisle the food was expensive but it's worth supporting that show.

Harrisburg should be a decent place to base out of for two or three nights. There's a Bass Pro on the North side and a Cabela's somewhere up there.

[Ranchero50]

Made the trip today. Watched the rain go around it until 10am and then hit the road. Got there at 11 and it poured as soon as I went through the gate. Overall it was about what I expected. Wet followed by humid. I did find a overflow bottle from a early Bronco that might fit my truck well and also got a '67 Mustang rear view mirror setup hoping that I can finally get a mirror mounted.

[Blue_Streak]

Yup. I finally made it down as well after a long tedious drive. Should have taken another route as Google took me down a two lane goat path, up and down hills and mountains and around hairpin corners , up steep grades and down steep grades. Took me about 3 hrs longer than it should and got there around 1pm Friday afternoon. Did a quick cruise around the swap market to find vendors selling bump parts and headed to the motel. Back in again at 10am Saturday morning to start buying. Flashback 100's had some nice stuff there but IMO just a little bit pricey. He does have a '67 cab for me back at the shop that he said he needed to fix up a bit before he sells. Talked with Steve from Arizona and he had a ton of old sheet metal. He did have a '69 cab there but was just delivering it to a customer. He also had doors and fenders and hoods but again priced along the same as FB 100's. He said he would go back and have a look. He said he had three but not sure if they were '67 or not. Also found Dale from Maryland. He had a few good parts along with a decent long box. I did end up buying some fenders and a '67 door that were pretty nice. Should have bought the box as well but by then it was the end of the day , he wanted to pack up and I was low on cash so it didn't get done. He also said he would keep and eye out for a '67 cab. Got some Lightning headlights, sidelights and foglights for my 2000 f150 and a couple odds and ends.
I did lots of walking but not much cruising through the car show. Just TOO many Mustangs for my liking and besides I was there to buy not to look.
I then went to Hershey World on Sunday morning and headed north up 81 to Wilkes-Barre when it started to pour. I then heard that the NASCAR race in Pocono was postponed until Monday so I decided to stay the night and on Monday went to the race.

All in all it was pretty good. Tired and broke but I made a few contacts to hopefully help me in my search.