Jim Bollman

Here is a shot of our Crosley Club Thursday lunch gathering in the South Chocolate field. I think this is the third year we have done this officially and not by chance.

I didn't see it but a friend sent me some pictures of it. Sorry for the low res but that is what he sent me.

Crosley sold off the appliance and radio side of his business at the end of WW-2 to concentrate on the car business. The Pre-War Crosleys were made in Richmond Indiana. I talked to a librarian in Richmond back in the 70s when I was doing some research on Crosley and she said she had worked for Crosley before the war and was on the refrigerator line and could look across the factory floor and see the cars coming down the assembly line. I never compared them side by side but the prewar Crosley script used on the side of the Crosley car hood look very close to the one used on the front of the refrigerator at that time. Here a couple of links that might be of interest, one is on a non electric refrigerator that Crosley produced back in the late 20s up to about WW-2, some Crosley firsts, early fax and an important non automotive contribution to winning WW-2. https://crosleyautoclub.com/IcyBall/crosley_icyball.html https://crosleyautoclub.com/Crosley_Firsts.html https://crosleyautoclub.com/Reado/Reado.html https://crosleyautoclub.com/Proximity_Fuze.html

I have a nice Sears emergency CB radio package, antenna and all, that my in-laws carried in their car just in case. I’m guessing from the 70s. I have it on my flea market table at Hershey this week CI8-10.

I also encourage kids and adults to sit in my cars but I have cheap cars that are not perfect by any standard and I understand people on the other side of the coin. This thread remind me of a time probably 25 years ago now, I was showing Willy’s FC170 that I had at the time. Two fellows came up to me one blind and the sighted person ask if his friend could touch my truck because she could not explain what it was. I told him no problem and as the blind fellow walked around the FC lightly feeling it, the smile on his face was priceless.

Next step up if you have lots of cars to move. u have

I put e-track the full length of my trailer just outside the wheels. It has worked well for me for years then I had a car that I wanted to us over the wheel tie downs on the front because I had length problems. I then added two more lengths just in the front of the trailer space so wheels were centered on the e-track. I like my system now because I have options. If I had different widths to plan for I might one car that would work best with tire hold downs and use that spacing and tie the rest down in or out. I think wider is probably better. I had the original e-track installed by the trailer dealer. I immediately took out the wood screws he used and replaced them with bolts with large washers underneath and used twice as many as he used wood screws. I also made sure I had bolts go through any steel supports underneath that I could.

I don't know it is standard but when I had the floor poured in my last shop the mason suggested I get pieces of angle iron, I think it was 2" and drill a few holes to anchor it with carriage bolts. He then pressed it into the wet concrete at the edges of the door openings and pushed the carriage bolts into the hole. it held up well and didn't have any chipping over the years. Used the building for over 30 years and it was still tight when we moved.

I had under floor heat in our previous house. What the installer did to balance the loops was to put a valve and a temperature gauge on the return on each loop to adjust the flow so you could balance the temperature or make certain areas warmer by changing the flow rate. Loved the heat but now we live where heat pumps are practical so no under floor heat. Been enjoying your progress reports.

Hershey always has weather, bring clothing for all kinds. Sometimes all kinds in the same week. A few years in the same day.

I was thinking in the movie the majority of the cars in the show would be the equivalent of a field of 70s and 80s cars today age wise. The advancement in styling has slowed down and most of the improvements the last 40-50 years has been in stuff that doesn't show.

The local High School had football games in the stadium some years on Friday night during the AACA meet. I always thought that was a brave thing to attempt. I don't remember when it stopped but I assume when the Red Field opened and took all the parking. I remember some of the flea people going to the game.

This was our 2020 Hershey.

1973 was our second year having a space. The 67 Ranchero was our camper the first few years. I bent up some electrical conduit for bows and threw a tarp over it. The first year we had new tarps that leaked like a sieve, I woke up to water dripping on my face. A friend gave us a large piece of plastic off a roll he brought to cover up parts, to throw over the tarp to keep us dry. Place I bought it admitted to a bad batch and gave me different tarps.

My second trip to Hershey with my parents was 1966.

I have my calendar marked to expect the packed around September 1st based on passed years so it sounds like it should be a good estimate again this year.

Here are a few shots of the flea market from 1964, my first time going with my parents. Of course there was only a blue field back then and it ended before the hill in the middle, roughly where the big roller coaster sticks out now. One picture is taken from the side of that hill. The other couple we were with and a single spot. The fellow was my Dad's best friend and spent his Winters restoring brass. He pulled into his spot and put up a sign he would be back at noon. He said we should walk the whole flea market quick and get any bargains or rare things we spotted and then he would open up and later we would walk it slower to find the hidden stuff. He opened by putting up a single card table and displayed in his trunk and the card table. He had a small crowd waiting for him at noon. Some of his brass was pre-sold, he took care of that first. He was pretty much sold out a couple of hours later and he put the card table back in the trunk. We were coming from Ohio and the closest motel we could get a room was at Breezeway just off the PA turnpike.

A broader shot from 1980. Shows our 1965 Ford camper van with turtle top. We have represented the Crosley Auto Club out of our booth since 1973.

I went a few times in the 60s with my parents and started as an adult in 1971 with a space ever since 1972. I will have to dig some more for early pictures but I always liked this one from 1980. It shows my 4 year old son running his own table on our spot and my long time friend that joined us for years at Hershey.

I had it open a pin hole in a metal Tee that was part of the lower hose for the heater. But as Matt said, better to find it and fix it. Worse/best part was I already had a new hose and straight tube that I was planning to put in as soon as I had things cleaned out.

I never drove in a Demo Derby but was pit crew for a friend for two Summers at the county fair. I still think of the two very nice cars we destroyed. The first one a near mint 1950 Chrysler but in 1966 it was just an old car, we bought it from the original owner for $50. It got knocked out of it's first round but we got it running again for the final round which was for any car that could be made to run from earlier rounds. We got it going but the radiator had been pushed back into the fan, so we cut the fan belt and filled it with water and went for it. We won that heat and had to shut it off at the end. Later we tried to start it to pull it out of the way and the engine was seized. The next Summer we tried again and found a 58 Lincoln, not as nice as the Chrysler but pretty close. Got knocked out almost immediately even though we thought we had a winner with that massive car. As I recall the fuel pump was too close to the front of the engine and one of the first collisions broke the fuel pump loose. That second year I stepped in a hole in the infield and thought I had sprained my ankle. Walked on it all evening and drove home after the fair closed down. Was really swollen the next day, went to the emergency and had an X-ray and had a broken heal and ended up in a cast and crutches to go back to college a few weeks later. So ending my illustrious demo career.

Besides two large dry chemical extinguisher in my shop I have a large CO2 extinguisher that my Dad had in his shop when I worked in it 60 years ago. When I cleaned out his shop I couldn't believe it was still around. I didn't expect it to still be any good and cracked the valve and it is still charged. I keep it close by as a first one to grab since it will not make a mess. I looked at the Element when it first came out, may be time to look again for both shop and cars.

Only Le Car I have seen in a long time. It is local. Picture was taken before the leaves came out, all I could see today when I went by was the front foot of so. I think it is beyond saving even if someone wanted too.

We went half dozen times leading up to 2012 when Crosley was the Feature Make then life seem to get in the way after that and haven't been back since. We always went for all 3 days of the show and enjoyed all 3 variations. In the short time we went we could see the direction the flea market was going. One story to share since the member has long pasted, back in 80s or 90s several of our local region went every year and talked about how great the show and flea Markey was and how hot it was. They use to take their class C camper and one year the fellow, not a small guy, couldn't take the heat anymore and went back to the camper, not sure if they had a flea space or they were in the parking area but he put the AC on high striped to his skivvies and crawled into the upper bunk. After rolling around awhile he fell a sleep with his butt up against the front window and his undies had work part way down and he was mooning anyone that walked by. He took kidding about the floor show for years after. They gave him a special award that year at our yearend banquet.

I'll try and get the thread back on track. I haven't used it for a few years but I use to keep a tube of "Seal All" in my car tool bag and another tube in my shop at all times. I fixed rusty leaking gas lines, gas tanks, even a gray water tank in a borrowed camper. The only quick failure was a patch on my then young son's wading pool, too much flexing. Great stuff, you can even stop small active leaks with a couple of applications. A bandaid, yes but it does last a long time and if you forget to fix it right or it is too expensive, just patch it again. Most of my fixes last multiple years, some till I got rid of the vehicle.