The Stovebolt Site Forums The Side Lot Texas Connection Pate Swap Meet April 28-30, 2022

PATE SWAP MEET
Coming April 28-30, 2022 in our traditional west-side venue of the Texas Motor Speedway.

The Pate Swap Meet, celebrating our 51st event in our 50th year,
is the largest transportation swap meet in the Southwest and the second-largest in the United States.

10,149 Vendor Spaces

135 acres of selling area (~6-million square feet.)
Plus, 180 acres of public parking.
Literally, 18-miles of Vendor Space frontage!
Including Big Lots and Vendors Midway.


Free Admission for the Public

The public always gets in FREE and parking is only $5.


A Car Corral For running, operational vehicles.

Pate Times Online

All of our public visitors can pick up a FREE printed copy of our Pate Times directory and/or use our new Pate Times Online directory service with expanded listings and a GPS locator.

Free Parts Hauling

For heavy or bulky items. We'll pick up your purchases at the Vendor Spaces and haul them to a drop-off point in the parking lot.

Lodging

We work with a number of the hotels/motels near the venue that offer discounted room rates for vendors and visitors to the Pate Swap Meet.

Camping

Regular campgrounds are available for dry camping on the northwest corner of the venue for $20 for the entire pate weekend collected at the gate.

Free showers are available in the venue's shower facilities that feature hot water.

In addition, Texas Motor Speedway is providing access to their Emerald Luxury Coaches VIP Campground spots come with a number of special perks including an oversized paved spot, a prime location near the main grandstand, proximity to restroom and shower facilities, and electricity and water. Also included is a free parking pass for the main parking lot. The fee for VIP Campground spots is $35 per night collected at the gate.

Sponsoring

The Pate Swap Meet is sponsoring the Wheels for Wellness a car and truck show for classic, muscle, street rod, custom cars, and custom trucks. The event benefits cancer research.

The “Grandaddy” of them all! I went last year and it had been moved to the other side of the racetrack so the drive through Covid-testing could take place, but it’s been moved back to the correct side this year so it will be easier to get around. It was grass, gravel and some mud in places last year. Nice asphalt parking lot this year. If you’ve never been to Pate you owe it to yourself to go at least once. If you go I promise you’ll be hooked!

I’m leaving at 4:00 AM Friday for Pate. Forecast is for a high of 86° and 68° for a low. 10% chance of rain. On Saturday it’ll be 88° with a low of 64°. 20% chance of rain. I’m thinking it will be partly cloudy, so the sun shouldn’t be too intense. I’ll give a report Sunday after I return to San Antonio Saturday night.

Well, I’m back. I had a wonderful time at Pate walking around and hunting for treasures. The weather couldn’t have been nicer! Cool, windy, and overcast most of the day both Friday and Saturday. There was a record number of vendors this year. So many that they had to put them on the grass parking lot where us attendees park. Took up about 5 rows of parking spaces. That means this big ‘ole swap meet keeps growing! I arrived at 8:20 AM Friday morning and left about 5:30. Drove 14 miles to my Super 8 motel in Ft Worth. Showered and went downtown to have some Cajun cooking at Razzoo’s. Nothing like a good waitress and a hot meal to end a long day of walking. Afterwards, I went next-door to the Flying Saucer to have myself a really nice stout beer and listen to some good old country western music played by “The Raised Right Men Band”. Boy, they were really good!! Met a local couple from Ft Worth and we shared a table together. Really nice folks! I was back at the meet by 8:30 AM to pick up where I had left off the day before. Walked and walked and walked. I finished up and left for home at 3:00 PM. Made a stop to pay respects to my little mother at the cemetery in Itasca. Lost her a year ago at 95. Stopped for dinner in Round Rock to have some awesome Indian food at Chennai Cafe’, then back on the road to San Antonio. Got home about 10:30 pm.

Here’s the list of treasures I found…..

Carter WA-1 (216 motor, automatic choke, 1932-1949) $5
Carter 966s (235 motor w/ manual choke 1950-1952) $20
Carter 2100s (235 motor w/ manual choke 1953-1956) $20
SM-318 3-speed transmission. Clean and in good condition. $20
Chevy deluxe heater, original condition, works $20
Chevy round recirculating heater. Really bought for the core. $5
216 thermostat housing for my new 225. $5
Pair of working Auto Lite horns $20
2 small vintage pump oil cans. Free
Large programmable Crockpot. Free
Folding wooden 2-step stool. Like new. $5
‘47-‘54 Chevy truck gas tank. Like new condition. $10
‘47-‘54 Chevy truck gas filler neck w/ cap. Free
Five hard cover car books. $5
Early Chevy 5-blade fan. $5
Stainless steel ‘47-‘53 LED tail light. New in box. Darn it, he only had one!! $10

I’m a little sore from 2 days of walking but not too bad. And I’m already looking forward to next year!

Chuck

Good scores! So you're the reason my buddy and I didn't find any good carburetors...

We got there around 10am on Friday and left around 5. The fitness app on my phone says we walked 12.4 miles. I found a Weiand 216 dual intake manifold with linkage for $150. Stuck it in my backpack and it got heavier and heavier throughout the day... My friend traded three front axles (for cores) to Nostalgia Sid for a D&S 216 dual intake manifold. I picked up a tach for a friend who forgot to go back to get it from Sid's table at Round Up. That's all we bought.

It was a long day of sensory overload and dodging folks on scooters who weren't watching where they were driving.

Sounds like a great time ! Mike

Eric, I know what you mean about sensory overload. I was really experiencing it by Saturday afternoon. Way too much stuff to see in such a short amount of time. And the rude people driving those electric scooters and Honda Trail 70’s!! Geez, a man couldn’t shop for always having to look out for ‘‘em so ya didn’t get hit.

I bought the two YF Carter carbs from a fellow who had a bunch of various carbs on a trailer. I was interested in one that had a number I wasn’t familiar with, so I told him I’d go home and look it up on Google and If I could use it I’d come back Saturday to buy it. Went straight to his spot first thing Saturday morning and it was empty. He had packed up and was gone! Missed out on another good Carter carburetor!

This is weird…….

Noticed in my last reply that the word “DuckDuckGo” had been automatically substituted for my word “Google”. I went in to edit it, changed the word back to Google, and when it reposted the same word, DuckDuckGo appeared. What’s up with that?!?!?

NOTE…….. even this reply has been hijacked. Every time I type in the name of the search engine that starts with “G” it automatically gets changed to DuckDuckGo. Apparently Stovebolt.com has been infiltrated with some malware that is making the change.

Malware = the grand poobah's dislike of g o o g l e.
It's programmed into the software to change it.