Have you ever wondered exactly what you can do with your car while you are at a car show?  Aside from the obvious of staging your car perfectly there are some things that you can do to help pass the time, or even help share your love of cars with the different people who are there. From simple things to those that are more elaborate if you talk to the coordinators of the show you can usually have a lot of fun and do more than stand beside your car talking to the occasional visitor.

There are many car shows that would love to have someone doing detail cleaning, or a bit of light bodywork, or even some minor engine work to show visitors what goes into the car.  If you are skilled in any of these areas, you could volunteer to demonstrate these skills and help teach the visitors a few things.  This is something that you can that is very inexpensive, allows you to continue working on your car that weekend and still enables you to share your love of the vehicles.

Other things that you think about doing is bring along a television and VCR and perhaps show a video of you doing some work to the vehicle that you brought.  This would enable people to see how far the vehicle has come and what type of work was put into it in order to get it ready to go to the car show.  Realize that most people have no clue what it really involves to get a car ready for the show.  They generally think that all you do is roll out of bed the day of the show and decide to go.

You could also consider having plenty of pictures and a small table that you set up to depict the work process.  This would be a great way to also allow people to see the process and without the hassles of needing an inverter or electricity for the television.  You would be surprised how much small details like this can really encourage people to spend time by your car.

Additionally, if you are willing to talk about the history of your car and how you have worked on it this is another great way to share experiences.  Not all people at car shows are willing to talk about the work they have done on their car, if you choose to share you are in the minority.  What their reasons are tends to vary, but for the most part there are few who will openly discuss their work.  Feel free to talk about it and share your experiences.  You may help inspire someone to start getting involved with their own vehicle.

You should be very careful though and always discuss your plans with the car show coordinators to ensure that there will be no safety concerns.  Additionally, some car shows do not allow demonstrations because they feel that they are distracting or pose large liability risks.  As long as you have received the okay from the event coordinators feel free to have some fun sharing your love of cars and showing off your skills as well as your gorgeous car.  Just always ensure that you are making sure everyone is safe first, so leave the welder and other dangerous equipment at home.

Have you ever wondered exactly what the judge’s at car shows are looking at?  Many people wonder and yet not everyone is always fully aware of what they are looking for.  Of course there are different categories have different criteria about what is expected for each car.  You are never going to please all of the judges, but if you know what they may be looking for, you can certainly help increase your chances of coming out well in the car show.

Clean cars, this is something that most people do not care about category for.  The only time you should ever have a dirty car is if you just participated in a race as part of the car show.  Otherwise, your car should be completely clean.  This means inside and outside and no signs of dirt or debris anywhere.  If you need to spend a few minutes after you arrive ensuring that it is clean and doing a bit of touch up work.

Scratches are something to avoid as well.  Judges are not impressed by scratches and there is rarely ever a category or prize for most scratched car.  Ensure that the scratches are dealt with appropriately before the car show.  This will help improve your winning chances and the judges are much more likely to pay attention to how your car really looks, rather than their eyes wondering over to the scratches that you left in place.

Your tires are important as well.  You may not realize it, but this says a lot about the way you maintain your car.  They are looking for simply the best; judges are not going to appreciate seeing a year’s supply of mud caked up underneath the wheel well.  They are impressed by immaculately clean cars, not those that need a through detail cleaning.

Some other areas to look at include paint, this may seem strange but the judges usually like to see something that is unique and creative.  Just because your car was originally the same red color as the other 1 million cars that rolled off the assembly line, looking just like it does not mean it needs to stay red.  Sometimes a new shade or even a completely different color can make a normal and boring car quite unique.  If you have the personality for it a creative paint job can make your car especially memorable.  After all, how many black, blue and red cars do you think the judges will see?  How many do you think they will see that are lime green or even hot pink?  Choose paint color carefully but look for something that is going to be memorable in a good way.

A final area to look at is the overall feeling of the car.  You generally would not take a 1930’s Chevrolet and trick it out with rims, televisions and tons of other high tech goodies.  However, at the same time, you should look for a few modern touches to make the car unique and enjoyable.  Unless you are just trying to obtain the most unique award, try to keep your car styled around the same as it was originally just better if possible.

Ensuring that your car creates a memorable and positive impression on the judges is not always easy.  After you participate in a few car shows, you should start to gain a good bit of ideas on what exactly the judges are looking for and ensure that you are fitting into their needs and wants.  With some practice, you are sure to enjoy the sweet success of winning a few trophies or even a ribbon or two.

Most car shows tend to be held in the spring and summer when it is very warm.  The number of shows in the winter months tends to subside heavily mostly due to the cold weather and the holidays combined together that make it very difficult for organizers to have a large enough attendance to be worth the effort.  If you are looking for the best car shows possible, you need to search heavily during the spring and summer.

If you are looking for the best car shows in terms of weather, looking in the late spring and early summer is best.  This is the time of year when the weather is warm enough you can skip the heavy jackets, but still cool enough that you will not roast as you walk around the show grounds.  It is very important regardless of when you plan on attending the car show that you dress appropriately.

For example, in the summer you need to wear short sleeves and shorts most likely, especially if the car show is outside so that you do not overheat while you are there.  In the early part of the spring, you should wear a lightweight jacket in case it is chilly outside.  If you are going to a show in the winter check to see if it is held indoors since many during the winter are.  Choosing appropriate clothing will ensure that you are not uncomfortable during the show.

If you are taking children with you, you may want to look for shows that are in the afternoons.  Late evenings tend to find children rather cranky and early mornings tend to also find children cranky because of having to wake up early.  Looking to the afternoon time frame after lunch usually finds kids in the best moods possible and less likely to get into trouble and misbehave.

If you are going to the car show by yourself or only with other adults, you may find it is best to go during the early part of the day so that you can avoid a good majority of the crowd that appears in the afternoon.  If you are looking for the biggest crowds of people then afternoon is generally going to be your prime time to attend.  Choosing the best time to attend the car show is often going to depend upon your schedule with other activities in the same weekend as well.

Once you have a good indication of the weather and your schedule, it is usually quite easy to fit a trip to the car show in so that everyone is able to do something that they thoroughly enjoy without a lot of problems and hassles.  If you have any questions about what to wear to the show or the weather always feel free to consult the local weather, or call the organization that is sponsoring the car show to ask.  They are generally able to help you ensure that you are dressed appropriately and have a great time.

If you are quite uncertain over the weather, taking a change of clothes may be your best option to ensure that you are comfortable during the car show.  After all, you certainly do not want to be uncomfortable or you may want to leave early which could have you missing out on a large portion of the show.  Keeping yourself cool, warm and comfortable is a key need to ensuring that you enjoy the car show as much as possible.

One of the best places to look for car shows are in your local event calendars.  Most cities and regions offer these calendars and they can usually be found online as well.  They will give you information about the location of the show, admission charges, what is offered at the show and any other detailed information you need to know.  This will usually be a great way to locate those shows that are in your area that do not do much advertising as well.

Another option that you have is to do a search in your favorite car magazine.  Most magazines have a place where groups can advertise the car shows that they are organizing.  This will allow you to see shows from all around the country typically and possibly even some shows that are located in different countries.  Each place has their own requirements and admission information that may not be readily available in the magazine but you should be able to find the dates and some general contact information to use to get more information if you need it.

If you belong to a car club, your monthly newsletter should also have some information on various car shows that you may be interested in.  This is not always going to be an all inclusive list so be sure to look around in other locations for information as well to ensure that you are getting a good picture of all shows that are going to be available.

The newspaper is another good source.  Newspapers almost always report on events that are coming up, and this can be a great way to get a good scoop on the upcoming shows in the area.  Anyone who is organizing a car show in your area is going to ensure that their event is listed in the newspaper and this makes the perfect opportunity to find everything in a single place.

Some of your other options include doing a search on your favorite search engine for recent car shows.  This option is most effective if you are not concerned with sticking within a specific region.  It is often much harder to narrow down specific areas but it is still possible.  This can often be a great way to plan out any trips that you have in mind to take for a good while into the future.  This can also allow you to book hotels ahead of time for discounted rates if you are going to be traveling to the car shows.

If you are interested in attending tons of car shows, you are going to find plenty that will interest you.  There are almost always at least one show a weekend and some weeks are busier with more than just a single show.  If you are interested, you could fill up all of your weekends for a year or even longer without any problems.  This would also be a great way to travel all around the country and check out some other attractions as well.

Never think that car shows are boring, if you find the good ones you are sure to have a great time and the time spent locating the show is a great investment.  You are going to have a ton of fun planning your trip and searching for the car shows of your dreams as you can see is really a simple project.