The Beatersville Car and Bike Show has its fair share of vintage cars polished and detailed to gleaming perfection, but the heart of the event was summed up by a few words scrawled on the tailgate of a well-loved Chevy pickup truck:

“Don't buff 'em — scuff 'em.”

The sixth annual Beatersville show on Sunday at the Phoenix Hill Tavern drew hundreds of cars and motorcycles, along with a handful of bicycles, all of them admired by a large, colorful crowd of gawkers and gear heads.

Legitimate beaters, cars that clearly show their age and miles, sat alongside stone-cold beauties at the show, which is loosely dedicated to models built before 1968. Cars filled all of Phoenix Hill's ample parking lots and overflowed onto Baxter Avenue, which was blocked off between Broadway and Rodgers Street.

Vendors hawked car parts, T-shirts and tattoos under a blazing sun while rock ‘n' roll bands played indoors and Miss Beatersville contestants worked the crowd in fishnets and severely red lipstick.

It's exactly what co-founders Scott Shuffitt and Shawn Blandford envisioned when they started the event.

“What we're trying to do is celebrate the shade-tree mechanics and engineers, the guys working on their own cars and doing the best they can,” said Shuffitt, also co-founder of Louisville's Lebowski Fest and a beater-level mechanic. “A lot of times, their cars won't fit into other shows, but they fit here.”

Dennis Dugger owns one of those cars, a 1953 Ford Ranch Wagon on which he hand-painted flames in a decidedly homespun style. Dugger, 65, drove the dented, rusty jewel from Terre Haute on a whim Sunday morning to take in his first Beatersville show.

“It's just like my first car, and it took me 15 years to find it,” said Dugger, an X-ray technician who bought the car four years ago. He's done all of the engine and body work.

“It's not fancy. It's just to drive. I drove it to Austin (Texas) for a show and I used one quart of oil and lost two hubcaps in Arkansas. They've got the worst roads in Arkansas.”

On the other side of the aesthetics fence was Louisville's Rick Wahl, 54, whose 1933 Ford coupe was done up in classic hot rod style, flashing serious chrome and a fiery orange paint job.

“This was driven, not trailered,” said Wahl, who combines hot rods with evangelism at godsspeedshop.com. “In the summer we'll drive it every weekend to shows in Knoxville, Nashville, wherever.”

Shuffitt said one thing that sets Beatersville apart is its location.

Phoenix Hill Tavern has plenty of room and is built for live music. Five roots-rock and rockabilly bands performed Sunday, and many in the crowd sported a vintage 1950s greaser look, from black jeans and motorcycle boots to polka-dot dresses. Body ink was everywhere, including some designed by Liberty Tattoo & Art Parlour, which hosted an art show on Friday night to officially kick off Beatersville.

“I would say that most of what we do is custom artwork, and most of what they do is custom artwork,” said Liberty co-owner Gary Bell. “So it fits into the show's theme really well.”

Butch Pate, of Murfreesboro, Tenn., was taking pictures for hotrodhotline.com and said the combination of hot rods and rock 'n' roll gives Beatersville a distinct vibe.

“This is very, very cool, especially having it here at such an historic site,” Pate said. “There aren't a lot of shows like this.”

- Courier Journal

Written by Jeffrey Lee Puckett