Friday Morning at Goodguys PPG Nationals

Friday morning I made my first ever visit to the Goodguys PPG Nationals at the Ohio Expo Center.

The past four years I've attended both Friday and Saturday of the Arthritis show.  The last thing on my mind come Sunday was another car show.  This year with Goodguys and the Arthritis show on different weekends, I finally had my opportunity to spend a few hours at Goodguys.

I arrived around 8:30 AM and paid the $7 fee to park in the Mapfre stadium lot.  Entry into the Goodguys show was another $20.

 

After entering the gate, I walked the entire length of the Expo Center to meet some friends at the Cars 4 Sale Corral. Next up was a visit to the swap meet area. 

Besides car parts, the swap meet also had some unusual items for sale.

After the swap meet, it was off to the Voinovich building and the Indoor vendors area.  On the way, I had a chance to photograph some of the cars that had started arriving to the show.

[Click on an image for a larger view or to view this gallery in slide show mode]

One surprise of the indoor vendor area was the number of vendors selling products totally unrelated to cars.  There were vendors selling clothes, cosmetics, wallets, and even paint on tattoos.

Of the vendors selling auto parts,  it seemed radiators, dashboard

instruments, and suspension parts out numbered everything else.

 

 

 

 

After walking the entire indoor vendor area, it was time to check out the outdoor vendor booths.  And of course,  photograph some more cars.

I caught this gorgeous 1947 of Buick Super Convertible of Dale and Cindi Turner from Canal Winchester, Ohio.  The car is powered by a LS6 engine.

Also found this LSX 454 powered 1962 Corvette of Noel Grace from Hamilton, Ohio.

This first generation Camaro was part of the Prestone booth.

Ford proudly had their Mustang GT350 on display in their booth.

Terri Blackburn of Durham, NC parked his customized 1967 Camaro at the Mothers Polishes booth.

Final stop of the morning was the indoor car show which is a new feature of this year's show. It was automobile "eye candy" from corner to corner! Definitely vehicles that aren't driven on the road very much.

I captured a few more vehicles on the walk back to my truck.

Everyone warned me that there would be a lot of hot rods and coupes.  And indeed there was.  But I was also pleasantly surprised at the number of cars from the 50s and 60s, and even late  models muscle cars on display.

Four hours and 15,000 steps later, I would assess my first Goodguys show as a lot of fun.  I'm definitely making  it a point to come back next year and see more.