Should You Take an Unfinished Car to a Show?

Have you ever wondered exactly why someone would take a car that is unfinished to a car show?  Often the goal is not so much to win a prize, but rather to show off a car that is in progress.  This is especially common for the exotic and rare cars that are not always easily seen at car shows.  Many people pull out their cars at least once they have completed the bodywork but before the interior and the painting have been done.  You may wonder why this occurs, and you may be wondering if you should pull out your uncompleted car as well.

Generally, most people pull out their works in progress when they are not interested in an award.  They are simply interested in showing off their car and letting people see what it looks like during the restoration process. There are times when people who are attending car shows have no clue at all what it takes for a car to be restored and presentable during the car shows.  Seeing a car that is in progress is often a great experience for people and can allow them to see that creating the masterpieces that are generally on display is not really a simple task as they may believe.

Most people do not realize just how much time, effort, money or labor goes into restoring an old car.  Some cars obviously take more work than others do but all cars will need at least a small amount of work done to restore them to original condition or better.  There are some people who pull out their unfinished car for the car shows and then work on them a bit at the show.  This is a great way to see first hand what part of the process involves.  Granted it is only a very small portion of the overall process but it is a wonderful learning experience. 

If you are considering pulling out your partially completed car, you need to ensure that you talk to the organizers and ensure that they will have no problems with it.  Some organizations are not allowed to have partially completed cars on the lot depending on the event insurance that they have in place.  Checking with the organizers first will ensure that you avoid all potential problems before the show itself.

If you do bring your uncompleted car, it is a wise decision to avoid doing any work on the engine during the show.  It would be very easy to lose engine components that you need and with large crowds of people missing parts can become a huge problem quickly if something is accidently kicked away from the car or otherwise lost.  Always ensure that you are working on something that is quite simple, additionally, if you are working on your car during the show you should be ready to answer plenty of questions that people have.

Most people who attend a car show are going to be thoroughly interested in asking you a ton of questions about what you are doing and why.  This is normal and often having a bit of information already in mind can help you to answer the questions you get without having to stop and think of each answer.  If you take some time and carefully plan some activities, it can be a great way to help educate people stopping by your car.

One consideration is if you offer a specific car service, you should work on that while at the show.  For example, if you offer car detailing then you should consider working on detailing the car during the show.  This would allow perspective customers to see what you are capable of doing and the quality of your work all at once.  Making sure you have some business cards to hand out is another good move that can help make you memorable.  Just ensure if you are advertising a business or service that you are offering that you present yourself as a professional during the show.