Check out the chrome and colors of Engels Car Show

Islanders will ogle vintage hot rods, roadsters, hydroplanes, tractors, and even a few supercars when Engels Repair and Towing hosts its annual car show, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 18, at 22725 Dockton Rd. SW.

For Paul Engels, the annual celebration of fossil-fueled finery — held on the grounds of the iconic gas station his family has owned since 1951 — is a labor of love.

The show is non-competitive, free to enter, and has always attracted participation from a wide spectrum of car collectors on the island and beyond. Rust buckets may sit next to meticulously detailed classics, giving the show an ecumenical feel missing in many other shows in the region.

In recent years, it has exploded in size, with cars lining the Engels’ property to Kingsbury Road. And this year, too, Engels hopes for a crowd with car collectors coming from Port Orchard, Bremerton, Puyallup, and beyond — hopefully arriving and departing Vashon easily and with no ferry delays.

Engels said that it’s always a treat for him to get to know new folks who make the trek to Vashon for the car show for the first time. Car aficionados are a breed apart, as he describes them — folks who always remember a name or a face if it is linked to a vintage vehicle.

“They can’t remember a math theorem, but they can remember who owns the 1970s Barracuda parked behind a barn,” Engels said.

Still, he expects this year — as in years past — plenty of participants will come from Vashon, bringing out cars that have been safely tucked away in barns and garages for most of the year.

“We have our local guys and gals who show up, decade-in and decade-out,” he said.

One of those guys, islander Paul Norton, owns the officially designated show car for the event — a four-speed manual 1967 Buick Skylark Gran Sport 400 that he bought as a rust bucket in 2002 and then spent years restoring to its current, immaculate condition.

The car appears on this year’s official Engels Car Show t-shirt, designed by Chris Barnes, of Wagons of Steel.

It is part of an impressive fleet of vintage cars owned and meticulously restored by Norton, including a custom 1979 Chevy van, a 1964 El Camino, a 1984 Pontiac Grand Trans Am, a 1968 Camaro Super Sport, and a 1969 Corvette Stingray 427 four-speed manual.

“It’s my drug,” said Norton, of his highly enjoyable obsession with restoring cars from the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s.

The car show will also boast a few wildly inventive novelty cars, including Ryan Daschofsky’s 1918 Ford Model T, which he reconstructed from scratch, much in the way that Johnny Cash sang about in his famous car song “One Piece at a Time.”

The Model T boasts headlamps from a 1937 Chevy pickup, tires from a 1933 Ford, and a back truck bed from a 1948 Ford owned by Daschofsky’s grandfather. The best part of all? Inside that back bed is a hot rod Volkswagen engine that Daschofsky said has “pulled different tires off the road.”

“It’s a wheelie machine,” said Engels, adding that the car has also spent time on Oregon and California sand dunes when Daschofsky installed paddle tires on the rear.

As always, food will be available at the car show, with street tacos and other treats served by La Isla Mexican Food.

Another inviolable car show tradition will also remain proudly intact: a reconstituted version of the Doily Brothers, a storied island rock band from the 1970s and ‘80s, will play several sets during the day. Players will include Brett Bacchus, Gary Todo, Loren Sinner, and Scotty Johnson.

Engels hopes to see a big crowd of islanders show up on Sunday to experience one of his favorite days of the year.

“It’s all about seeing the shine, the chrome and the colors,” he said. “People look forward to it, and when it’s all over, you let out a big sigh of relief.”