Gallery from the LA Roadsters 60th Anniversary Show and Swap
The Los Angeles Roadsters car club was formed in 1957 and in 1960 they held their first exhibition of club cars with some local hot rodders at an event located in the parking lot of Southern California’s Hollywood Bowl. After a second show in 1961 that was plagued with problems, they withdrew from organizing a third event until 1967. But when the city of Los Angeles told them 30 days before the show they couldn’t sell used auto parts in a swap meet setting, they moved the event to the Great Western Exhibition Center in nearby Commerce. This was also the first time the club conducted the show on Father’s Day weekend, beginning an enduring tradition.
The Great Western facility was used for more than a dozen years until it was scheduled for demolition, and in 1980, the event was forced to move once again, this time to the Pomona Fairgrounds (later changing its name to its current Fairplex moniker), It has remained there since.
In the 1980s (pre-internet days, mind you) the show expanded rapidly, as did the swap meet area as it became the main source of real steel parts from which to build your hot rod. It wasn’t until Covid hit when the club cancelled two years’ shows (2020 and 2021). So, with a few holes in its timeline, that meant 2026 was when the LA Roadsters’ Show & Swap event could finally celebrate its 60th anniversary.
The 60th show kept its two days before Father’s Day schedule, but the club physically moved it from the outlying soulless parking lot to the area around the ground’s buildings (similar to the layout seen at wintertime’s Grand National Roadster Show), which meant more trees and shade, along with a more festive environment.
Nearly a dozen Southern California-based rod shops also conduct open houses in the days leading up to the show, and folks can check out all of their current projects going together. The LA Roadsters have always had a strict rule of only accepting pre-1937 convertibles and roadsters into their club, but the event is actually open to non-roadsters, too, and you can find a large contingent of closed-roof vehicles in the Specialty Car parking area of the show.
The changes the club made to the event this year seem to have worked in their favor. More than 400 roadsters showed up, 500 or so specialty cars, and you could wander through nearly 600 swap meet spaces. It seemed folks like the park-like atmosphere over large open lot they had in the past and, since roadsters (and their specialty car brethren) will always be a popular segment of hot rodding, we hope for many more LA Roadsters’ Show & Swaps in the years to come.
Photos: Eric Geisert
