Islanders can 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. 20, 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.

Last year, Engels took to calling the show “The Umpteenth Annual Engels Car Show,” saying he’d lost track of the number of years he’d been putting it on at the station, with only one pandemic pause in 2020.

But this year, he said he’d been talking it over with some of his friends who had been there since the start, and they’d all decided this was the 20th year for the show.

“Somebody said, we started this a couple of years after Engel’s 50th anniversary, and that was in 2001,” he said. “So I said, okay — 2003 to 2023, that’s easy to remember.”

The car 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, the show has exploded in size, with cars lining the Engels property all the way to Kingsbury Road. And this year, too, Engels hopes for a crowd, with car collectors coming from Port Orchard, Bremerton, Puyallup and beyond.

“People always ask me who’s coming, and I tell them, ‘I’m going to be there for sure, I don’t know about anyone else,’” he said. “Everything else just happens.”

Engels said that it is 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.

“It’s more than just looking at the chrome and paint, it’s meeting new people,” he said.

Still, he expects that 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 thing will be different this year at the car show, though: it won’t double as a fundraiser for the Vashon High School football team, which entails parents and team members serving up hotdogs and hamburgers. Engels said this year, he’d been told that the high school couldn’t find enough volunteers to staff the hamburger stand.

“I guess the parents these days would just rather just write a check,” he said, lamenting the end of that particularly tasty tradition, and the smaller number of kids who turn out for the team these days, compared to his own days at Vashon High School in the 1980s.

However, there will be plenty of food at the event for anyone who shows up hungry — street tacos will be served up by La Isla Mexican Food, and the popular caterer will put hot dogs and hamburgers on the menu, too, as per Engels’ request.

Another tradition remains firmly 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.

Johnson’s classic blue 1969 Mustang Fastback, which he purchased on the island in 1979 when he was 19 years, will be parked close to the bandstand, in the space between the gas station’s front door and its vintage gas pumps — and also depicted on T-shirts made for this year’s event by Chris Barnes.

Last week, Johnson, who now lives in Edmonds, drove the Mustang over to Vashon and parked in front of Engels, marveling at the passage of time while leaning on his still sleek and streamlined relic of the past.

He’d bought the car when he was a senior at Vashon High School, he mentioned, adding that during his last year of high school, he had simultaneously worked the swing shift at the K2 ski factory. A few years after that, he said, he started playing with the Doily Brothers.

He said in all the years that have passed since then, he’d never considered selling the Mustang.

“I was always going to keep it forever,” he said.

What’s Engels most looking forward to this year? Hearing what he calls “the band formerly known as the Doily Brothers” play, for one thing. His friend Scotty, he said, is one of the greatest guitarists and singers he’s ever heard.

“Scotty could have stood on stage with ACDC,” he said.

But Engels is also looking forward to seeing other friends, both old and new.

He said that Carl Olsen will bring his high-end supercar, a 2018 McLaren — and that he’s hoping to see some other supercars as well — Chris Terp’s 1972 Pantera, for instance.

He said his father, Lou Engels, will show off a 1934 Pickup truck that he rebuilt in 1954 — a group project he undertook with intrepid island friends.

“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.”