At least in a sense it sure is. Two million square feet of convention floor space of wheels, tires, parts, paint, performance parts, accessories. Well, if it can go on a car or truck it’s there. It’s called SEMA, the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association. For comparison, I think the largest GIS took up a quarter of that space.
Anyway, through a nice friend, I had the opportunity to spend a couple days in car guy heaven. This show is not open to the public and is not an easy ticket. For good reason; with already around 100K industry people there, adding the public would create a huge logjam of humanity.
My goal in going there was to check out the car kits. These are the ready to assemble kits to create your own 32 Ford or Cobra or any number of other classic designs. While you can get these kits assembled for you, I think for most it is the challenge of doing it yourself. After I spent a good bit of time questioning a rep there and asking in as many ways possible if a total klutz could make his way to the finish line, I decided that one day I am going for it.
I already have an engine that I rebuilt with a LOT of help, a transmission that I took from one of my cars, and even a couple of Saturn bucket seats (a $50 find on Craig’s List), heck I am almost there. Except for that one nagging question – are the instructions really clear with lots of photos?
Here are some photos from the SEMA show.
