CHICO — The beaming smile of a child who has just built the model car of his dreams doesn’t always last into adulthood, but that’s the case for Andy Isaacs of Chico.

Standing near his teal 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air, Isaacs grinned loudly as he mingled with other car enthusiasts Saturday at the 20th annual Hot August Day Show and Shine at the Chico Elks Lodge, hosted by the Sierra View Region of the Vintage Chevrolet Club of America.

“I’ve always wanted one since I was a kid and now I finally got it,” Isaacs said. “The dream is hard, but it’s worth it.”

The model car that Issacs assembled as a child became a reality about five months ago when the Chico native found his dream car at a classic car dealer in Chicago.

On Saturday, his car caught the attention of older visitors, who shared memories of the old days and made comments like, “Oh, I had that in high school, too!”

“It’s just fun to talk to people,” he said. “They see it and it takes them back to when they had one themselves.”

Mike Shores, board member of the VCCA’s Sierra View Region, said this is the organization’s largest car show this year and about 100 cars participated Saturday.

Although Chevrolet is in the club’s name, the VCCA accepts all people who love cars – “if a Ford guy wants to join, we’re nice to him,” Shores said jokingly.

The show was attended by car enthusiasts of all kinds, some even built their own cars.

For example, the tailgate of Connie Bueller’s 1938 Ratrod pickup is not an everyday thing: She chose an antique sewing machine, took it apart and, with the help of her husband, converted it into a functioning tailgate with the Singer brand placed in the middle to round off the aesthetic.

The entire pickup truck was hand-painted by Bueller and has a whiskey theme. A still is mounted on the bed of the pickup truck and the Mountain Spirits slogan, “Heals what ails you,” is emblazoned on the cab door.

“I told my husband I didn’t want a beer keg as a gas tank, and when I saw the whiskey still, I thought I could make some kind of theme out of it,” Bueller said.