What three words best describe Jim Croft?
That’s easy: Picky, picky, picky.
But he’s not alone, and he especially won’t be alone Saturday, Oct. 10, when lots of picky people will be coming to Oak Harbor to participate in the North Whidbey Lions 17th Annual Car Show.
If all those people weren’t so picky, their cars would look like ours: Dusty and grimy, with the occasional ding, dent or worse. Even if you think you take great care of your car, you don’t. Not by the picky standards personified by Jim Croft.
Croft has been exhibiting cars in the Lions’ show since its inception, but getting ready for one never gets any easier. It always means long hours of polishing, nipping and tucking until the entry is exactly right. Even then, he’ll likely find some flaw that not one in a thousand visitors would notice. He’s like the gemologist who detects a slight imperfection a diamond that isn’t even visible to the untrained eye.
Croft like many Oak Harbor residents first came here in the Navy. He went on to become public works director for the City of Oak Harbor. Now that he’s retired, he has more time to fix up old cars and follow his beloved NASCAR circuit with his motorhome and wife Carol.
But when it’s car show time, Croft devotes his time to getting ready. This year, he will enter three vehicles:
l A 1934 Ford 5-window coupe.
l A 1979 Z-28 Camaro.
l A 1985 Thunderbird.
All three cars are stock, meaning they look like they did when they first rolled into the showroom. And they’re bound to win some awards, as always happens when Croft enters a show.
“I give out awards to him two or three times every show,” said Jim Woessner, one of the founders and organizers of the Lions show. “He hops out of one car and into another.”
Croft has other, not-so-stock cars stashed around his neat house and tidy outbuildings, such as a Pontiac GTO with 570 horsepower, and a 454 Chevrolet SS 454 that he’s teaching Carol to restore (“my wife’s into cars as much as I am,” he says). He also has a variety of other old cars in various stages of renovation, but right now his major project is his GTO.
He’s had the GTO for years, but now he’s bringing it up to his own picky standards. He’s a bit fatalistic about the process as he anticipates many hours of hand-sanding. “I’ll do it til my nose bleeds, til it’s like glass,” he said. “Then when I paint it I’ll find stuff and have to re-do it.” He tells of others who have had their cars ready to paint, only to have them flunk a passover by Croft’s practiced hands. They discover they still have hours of sanding ahead of them.
Croft has a wife and grown son, and numerous photo albums. But the pictures aren’t of the family. They’re of his cars, showing how he found them in some wrecking yard or barn and their various stages of improvement, until they are the sparkling specimens that he exhibits in car shows. One formerly rusted truck took 300 hours of sanding, Croft said. “I had to get it down to the base metal.” But today, it’s perfect. Except for the bed, which needs more work. “This truck I’ve had 20 years. It was my work truck,” he said. Today it could be featured in a glossy truck magazine.
For people who might want to get into the car restoration hobby, it’s simple. At least according to Croft. “It just takes time. There’s a lot of time — and money — involved.”
Of course, it also takes a tremendous amount of know-how accrued through a decades-long love affair with the automobile. For those without the required amount of time, money and know-how, you can still enjoy the perfection created by Croft and others like him. All you have to do is attend the Lions’ Car Show at City Beach Park on Saturday.
A great car show, and lots more
Perfectly restored classic and antique automobiles from throughout the Northwest and beyond will greet visitors to the 17th Annual North Whidbey Lions Car Show all day Saturday, Aug. 10, at Oak Harbor’s City Beach Park.
Jim Woessner was among those who started the car show in a field adjacent to the Parts Plus auto parts store in Oak Harbor. “it was for customers to show off their rods,” Woessner recalled last week. “We were overwhelmed by 50 cars.”
From those modest beginnings, the car show outgrew several locations before finding a permanent home at City Beach Park, where thousands are attracted to the cars and the family-friendly waterfront environment. Les Schwab and Parts Plus continue to underwrite the show, while the Lions Club receives the profits for its many community projects.
This year more than 200 cars and trucks will be on display, and that’s only part of the festivities which are designed to appeal to virtually any interests. Activities include:
The Lions’ mobile health screening van, to give free health check-ups.
DJ music.
Kids swimming area and playground.
A variety of local foods.
Demonstrations by Oak Harbor’s award-winning cheerleading squads.
l Whidbey Wheelers wheelchair basketball.
A dunk tank.
Demonstrations by firefighters.
A fun run sponsored by Oak Harbor firefighters, beginning at 8 to 9:30 a.m. Call 240-1608 for fun run information. For more car show information, call the Oak Harbor Auto Center at 679-1595.
