I Own a Classic Car: 1961 De Soto — It Just Doesn’t Run (See Cars That Do at All Wheels Weekend)

All Wheels Weekend is THIS weekend in Dayton, Washington, and it's going to be a blast. If you've never been, this is one heck of a car show. It completely takes over downtown Dayton -- one of the most picturesque historic towns in Eastern Washington. Maybe one day I'll enter my car into the show: a 1961 hard top De Soto.

It was the first car my dad ever owned. He loved that car and took good care of it. But for decades it just sat behind the house with weeds growing around it and wasps making nests in it.

After my dad died my mom took some of the insurance money and built a shop. We dragged the derelict into the shop and have slowly started working on it.

My brother was able to hunt down the correct rubber hoses for the engine and figured out what kind of battery it needed. With an oil change, fluid flush and the new parts, he was able to get it started in less than 20 minutes! Imagine that -- it hadn't run in 30 years!

But the transmission is frozen. There's a lot of work left to do before we can drive it around. My mom is even thinking of just getting rid of it.

But if I had the money, I'd get that thing restored in a heart beat. Then you could come see it at All Wheels Weekend every Father's Day weekend in Dayton!

.[PHOTO SOURCE: Poster-Rama via Amazon]