DOWAGIAC — Perched on a table inside Jim D’s Body Shop are twists and turns of bolts, nuts, screws and chains. Although the recycled car parts are expected to be at a body shop, these specific ones make up handcrafted trophies, which will be awarded to 20 participants at the 29th annual Rod and Roll Classic Auto Show in downtown Dowagiac. The event, which takes place Saturday, will welcome more than 200 car owners competing for Best in Show.

Jimmy Kazlauskas, the owner of Jim D’s Body Shop and son of Ed and Sue Kazlauskas, the founding members of the classic car show in town, has been on the event’s board for two years now. Kazlauskas stepped up to the role to give back to the event he had always attended. While he does more behind the scenes work, the day of the event, Kazlauskas will be seen helping out with logistics.

This year, he also volunteered to help create more personal trophies to be handed out to the winners, which will be difficult to top next year, he said.

“Now, each trophy has to be built,” he said. “They are not all the same. One turns one way, another turns this way.”

Vincent J. Jewelers, located on Front Street in Dowagiac, supplied the engravings for the trophies, while Ridge NAPA Auto Parts and Paint provided the parts. This proves how the local community puts their brains and supplies together for a project, Kazlauskas said.

This year’s car show will also feature some new classes of categories.

“We took five classes away and added five personalized classes this year,” Kazlauskas said. 

The five new classes will give more cars and their owners a chance to win select categories.

“We kind of wanted to even the playing field a little bit,” Kazlauskas said.

In the middle of the trophies on display, sat the Best of Show Award, surrounded by some of the new categories, including: Best Paint, Best Interior and Best Engine.’

Kazlauskas said the team spent three days working on the trophies as they dug through bins of random pieces and parts. To keep the trophies uniform, some pieces had to be ordered. The Best of Show trophy, with its different design, was just a bunch of things placed together. After the trophies were assembled, they were given a rainbow-like appearance through a technique called bluing, which involves taking a torch and heating up the steel.

Kazlauskas said in the past, specific cars have placed well during consecutive years, but ultimately the voting is always up to those who have registered and filled out a ballet.

This year, Kazlauskas will have three cars in the show, including a truck he built for a man from Korea who is still living in the area. While some prefer to keep their classic cars protected at all times, Kazlauskas has a different attitude.

“I’ll drive anything and everything, anywhere,” he said. “These are just cars. That’s how I look at it. I know we can always fix it here.”

Jim D’s Body Shop has been busy helping car owners get their vehicles touched up throughout the year. This past week, Kazlauskas also said auto owners have brought in their vehicles for last minute repairs.

“The place has been here since the ‘70s,” Kazlauskas said. “We work on everything here.”