The Pomona Swap Meet Is A Weird And Wonderful Place

Photography by Ted Gushue

The beauty of the automotive world is that it spans so many boundaries. Economic, political, tribal, racial, sensical, nonsensical, you name it: we all share this common passion for wheels in motion that move our soul.

At Petrolicious, we preach our own vision of what that looks like to us, and while we may be accused of being Porschelicious, or Alfalicious, or Younameitlicious, you’ll never find us not intrigued to see whatever aspect of car culture is up to.

Which leads me to why I woke up at 4:30 on Sunday morning to visit the Pomona Swap Meet.

For those in the know, it’s legendary. For those who haven’t heard, it’s by far and away one of the largest and most diverse swap meets you could ever hope to attend in America. Where else can you find a rusty tail light for a Chevelle next to a 914-6 ignition assembly? Where else can you buy a NOS GI Joe from the same guy who has 17 different VW Bus Roof Racks on offer? Or how bout a Jeepster, or even a belly tank racer? You name it, someone is selling it at the Pomona Swap meet.

I snapped a couple hundred photos and tried to narrow it down to the most interesting 80 or so. If you have any particular questions about what you see, drop a note in the comments and I’ll try and sort you out. Many of these have phone numbers on them, so if you’re interested I’m sure they’d love to hear from you.

Have you scored any awesome deals at the Pomona Swap Meet?