2012 AACA Hershey Fall Meet ~ Automotive

If you're in to cars, especially antique and classics. Then you've likely heard of the Antique Automobile Club of America's annual Eastern Fall Meet in Hershey, Pa. Or better known just as Hershey. I've attended the fall meet several times, and one thing that I can say is be prepared. I visited for two days, and that isn't enough. In order to take in everything, you need all four days of the event in order to see it all. It doesn't matter what your passion is. You can find here. Looking for headlights for your brass era classic? Got em. Owners manual for your 63 Ford Falcon? Check. Tires for your hot rod? How many you need? How about a new toy for the garage? There were cars for sale from $2,000 to $400,000.

I spent all of Friday cruising the swap meet and the car corral and found some awesome buys. How about a 1960 Rambler. Completely restored, ready to go with low miles. It could be yours for $9,000 o.b.o. You couldn't even restore this car for that money. I also found a 1973 Ford Gran Torino 4 door. 73k miles, all original paint except for one door. This one was turn key and ready to cruise for $3,995. 1936 Chevrolet sedan, $14,000 o.b.o. How about a 1913 Hupmobile for $34k? I also found a 1953 Nash Healey for the bargain price of $195,000 o.b.o. 1939 Packard, $195,000. 1938 Lincoln V-12 Convertible, $237,500. This is just some of the cars available for sale. And this doesn't include the auction that RM Auctions has put on for the last few years.

In the swap meet, there are literally thousands upon thousands of swap vendors. Selling everything from parts to project cars, toys and literature, cleaning supplies, tools, garage art, clothes, you need it, it's likely you can find it here. The swap meet tends to be a car show in itself as many vendors have cars on display that are either shown on Saturday or are for sale. While walking around we were able to see an early Stanley Steamer chugging around and also spotted a Volkswagen Kubelwagen. I will say that AACA really has this down when it comes to organizing a swap meet. Every area of it is paved, as it's held in the parking lot of Hershey Park and the Giant Center. So along with being paved, it's almost entirely flat making it easy for walking around and for carts and scooters to get around. I brought my trusty wagon with me (that was given to me by my parents when I was young), but decided to leave it in the car as it was cold and windy. So that limited me on my purchases of what I could carry with me. So with that I stuck with paper items and small toys for my expansive VW memorabilia collection.

Friday morning I awoke to sunny skies, but still a little chilly. I paid a visit to the AACA museum just a few miles from the meet to take in their fantastic display. Afterwards I headed back to Hershey Park for the car show part of the fall meet, and again amazed myself as a Hershey veteran. There were 38 classes listed in the event program, but it's nearly tripled due to sub classes. Meaning that there are classes for say, production cars 1957-1958 (excluding chevrolets), followed by a sub class for just 57 and 58 Chevrolet cars. And then within that class, there's probably 50 cars. So that should give you an idea of the shear size of the car show. There's classes for military vehicles, commercial trucks, buses, fire engines, race cars and everything in between. I ended up disappointing myself in not bringing additional memory cards with me for my camera as I ended up filling the car full at 1231 pictures.