By Brett Jay Apgood | [email protected]

On July 7, a warm Saturday afternoon, Riverton City hosted its annual car show as part of its Town Days celebration. Participants came from across the valley, displaying a variety of makes and models spanning various decades and with every car comes a story.

Some of the cars have been lifelong passion projects for their owners, while others have been projects that allowed for family bonding.

“I’ve had it for a little over eight years; just bought it on KSL, and I’ve been restoring it for the last three years,” said Jerry Van Scott.

Van Scott has been rebuilding a 1973 Z28 Chevrolet Camaro, which he has restored completely from bottom to top.

“I have been a mechanic for 40 years,” he said. “So I had a guy do the body work and the paint. He gave it to me as an empty shell, and I assembled the whole thing.”

This has been his first restoration that he was finally able to get started during retirement.

“I redid the interior and redid the engine,” Van Scott said. “It was a total restoration; it was pretty ugly.”

The decision to restore the Camaro was easy.

 “I’ve always been a Chevy fan,” he said.

Riverton resident Brian Thacker was at the show displaying his 1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442, which is his first restoration.

“It had a 350 small block Chevy in it when I got it, so I pulled it out and found the correct 400 and went through the front end and redid everything completely,” Thacker said.

His interest in cars started young and took off from there.

“I’ve been into cars ever since I was a kid,” he said.

Lane Sutowaty brought a 1934 Ford 5 Window Coupe, which has been a family restoration project.

“My favorite part was just building it with family, with my brother and father, when my father was still alive,” he said.

The desire to work on cars has been lifelong for Lane, as the 1934 Ford has been a part of his family his entire life. Sutowaty has rebuilt many cars through employment, but some of his memories from rebuilding stay within the family.

“I’ve rebuilt this 34; I rebuilt my brother’s 67 Corvette; the Model T we rebuilt for a family project,” Sutowaty said.

Sutowaty has found a lot of joy from working on cars and enjoys working with various makes and models.

“I enjoy all the aspects of cars; it doesn’t matter if it’s Ford, Chevy or Chrysler,” he said. “Each car is unique in its own way, and they’re fun.”

Wayne Mcallister was at the festival showing his 1951 Chevrolet Belair, which he rebuilt himself.

The festival went from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. to close out Riverton’s annual Town Days festival.