If you’ve ever been to a car show in your life (and I’m sure you have because you’re reading this), you know the basic etiquette and perhaps the most important rule to follow: if a sign tells you not to touch the vehicle, keep your hands off it. I’ve always kept that in mind when I go to car shows, but when you have to open certain parts of a vehicle (with permission, of course) to shoot a video, things are a little different. I became acutely aware of that while filming content at the Barrett-Jackson 2025 Palm Beach Auction (stay tuned to the ClassicCars.com Journal for those videos). Below are some of the things that popped into my head there.
MINIMIZE YOUR EXTREMITIES
Swinging your arms is fine if you’re power-walking on a nature trail, but when you’re moving between cars, keep them close to your body. I had to remind myself to do that, especially because I often had my large hard-sided camera case with me. Even when I wasn’t carrying that, I had to tone down my gestures so that “talking with my hands” didn’t result in me banging my watch into a $30,000 paint job. Several times, I leaned over to get a closer look at a classic—after tucking the ID card that was hanging around my neck into my shirt.
HELP IS OUT THERE
When I needed to pop the hood on a vintage Maserati, I asked Dustin (the Collector Car Network’s media supervisor) to hold the driver’s door open so it didn’t swing into the car next to it while I pulled the release latch. Knowing there are videos out there showing people opening the hoods of various other cars gave me even more peace of mind. I was about to pull one up on the Dodge Viper RT/10 when an owner of multiple Vipers stepped in and told me how to open the massive panel. He even warned me and Dustin not to tilt it too far forward so we could avoid damaging it. We followed his instructions slowly and carefully.
TRY TO HAVE AN INVISIBLE TOUCH
“Invisible Touch” is not just a catchy Genesis song—it’s also something to strive for when opening up and filming a stranger’s car. After I opened a hood or door far enough to gain control of it, I switched to using the joints between my fingers and palm or just the palm to move it without getting fingerprints on the finish. It eventually occurred to me that I could step things up by keeping my wedding band in my pocket (we all want to be “the man,” not “that guy”). The few times I sat in a car, I made sure to move my wallet from my back pocket to my hip pocket. Yes, that was better for my back but, most importantly, it kept me from leaving a rectangular dent in the driver’s seat.
ASSUME THE WORST, THEN THINK AHEAD
Thanks to brochures and advertisements, I learned several things about the 1936 Packard 120 Convertible Sedan the easy way. One thing I didn’t know was if the front passenger-side door was going to open so wide that it would contact a nut attached to an arm holding the spare tire carrier in place. I certainly didn’t want to find out the hard way, so I kept my thumb between the door and the nut while our media supervisor got interior footage.
If you have any rules you live by when you’re at car shows or shooting other peoples’ cars, post them in the Comments section below.
