Now that the big Arizona Auctions are over, everyone is talking about the "trends for 2008," almost as if the year is over. People say all kinds of things about the big-buck auctions out west, but I believe only what I hear from people who actually went there to buy or sell cars. The buyers I spoke to were split. Some thought the auctions were an absolute circus that meant nothing in the bigger picture. The other group of buyers was very happy - in today's terms, there were deals to be had if you were buying. The sellers were not happy. Those who got 80 percent of what they expected to come home with felt they did well. But many got less than half of what they needed and expected and took a big hit.

So, that's the "financials" of the hobby. But if you think that headline auction prices make this hobby, you're sadly mistaken. Most of us who collect old cars don't think too much about their values, until we're ready to pass them on to our kin near the end of our life. Until that point, the"value" of the cars we own is in the fun we have bringing them to shows and the social relationships we build around attending car events.

Sure, I'd love to "make money" with my hobby. You probably would, too. It does justify the expenses. But since I'm not going to be buying or selling any cars this year (I'm too busy fixing them for warm weather use), I really don't care what Fords, Ferraris and Franklins brought out in Arizona this year. Keep your dollar signs and let me enjoy my hobby! 

Pierce-Arrow . . . now there's a real car for you. George Pierce started out building bicycles and transitioned into the carmaking business very early in the 20th century, building a car called the Great Arrow.

George had used an arrow logo on his bicycles. He cthen ombined it with his name to give his later cars a real "sharp" identity. The Pierce-Arrow became famous for its unique "trumpet" headlights. It was one of the three big P-for-Prestige cars of the '30s: Packard, Peerless and Pierce! 

Another interesting thing is that Pierce-Arrow used no radiator badge for many years, relying mainly on its kneeling-archer hood mascot for on-the-street recognition. In the early '30s, with the country deep in the Great Depression, Pierece-Arrow even brought out a V-12 to set it apart from cheaper cars that were changing to eight-cylinder engines.

My friend Wally Rank, of Milwaukee, used to be the big Pierce-Arrow collector. At one time Wally had 80 or so of those cars. In the past year, we've crossed paths with quite a few Pierce-Arrows. Last summer, we ran into two beauties in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Now, there are two others consigned to be sold at the Atlantic City Classic Car Auction at the end of February. One is a V-12 convertible sedan, which is way beyond my writer's reach. But the second is a 1934 Model 836A eight-cylinder 5-passenger sedan on the shorter 135-inch wheelbase that's probably a bit more affordable.

This car was restored in 1992 by Sam Rawlins of Dunwoody, Ga., who we just found out passed away right after Christmas. Sam was a collector and restorer of some note and I'm sure that this car will showcase his talent and craftsmanship for future generations of collectors.

It's just the kind of classic I'd love to own - a car with a great product history, as well as a great ownership history.

Tools have always fascinated me. My dad always carried all his tools (as well as his fishing gear, his bowling ball and his golf clubs) in the trunk of his '58 Chrysler Saratoga. The car was a tail dragger, but when he opened the trunk, the tools were always staring me in the face. In the early '60s, I went to Brooklyn Technical High School. It was an old place loaded with tools, equipment and machinery. The school had countless machine shops, an aeronauticaal shop where they built an airplane each year and even two foundries. I think I absorbed "vibes" from all of that hardware. Ever since that time, I have been a serious "tool enthusiast." Last night, I had the pleasure of touring Bennett Coachworks in downtown Milwaukee, with members of the Wisconsin Region of the Classic Car Club and Wisconsin Jaguars, Ltd. I'm surprised the "Tool Collectors Club" wasn't invited, too. Bennett Coachworks was a restoration shop and hot rod business loaded with beautiful cars (www.hotrodbuilders.com). But, while everyone else was busy taking pictures of Dodge Chargers, Olds Toronados and R-code Mustangs, there I was snapping photos of an English wheel and a sheet metal brake. It's no wonder people think I'm wierd. Who else do you know who would rather take a picture of a Mittner Brothers louver punch than a Dodge Brothers touring car? 

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While I was organizing my magazine collection (see previous blog), I ran across a 1937 issue of California Highway Patrolman magazine. It had an interesting story about how the CHP, the California Air National Guard and a CBS radio affiliaqte in Los Angeles teamed up to monitor Southern California traffic. Each Sunday, a CANG pilot would take to the skies over LA in a bi-plane. If the pilot spotted a traffic back up below, he would use a two-way radio to contact the radio station. The radio announcer would then broadcast the delay over the air. I wonder how well this worked back then. If I'm not mistaken, most cars on the highway in 1937 did not have a radio.

Has anyone ever heard of another early effort to monitor highway traffic from the skies?

So I told you last week that I was going to a racing car trade show at Lefthander Chassis, a business located just across the Wisconsin border in Roscoe, Illinois. And the president of Lefthander, Wayne Lensing, tells me he also has a museum I should see. So I'm thinking of a dusty little pole building with things like Richard Petty's go-kart and Barney Oldfield's goggles (oe maybe Barney's last cigar).

So I get off I90/I39 at the last exit before the Illinois Tollway, turn right and go not too far, and here's this big sign "TRADE SHOW." And at the end of the street is this huge building with a parking lot full of cars and "Historic Auto Attractions" lettered on it. I go inside and see a Ford V-8 chassis, a cut-a-way Stutz display engine and a similar Carterpillar engine and some large tin signs for sale. About what I expected. Then I go to the registration desk and the pretty little gal points me towards a set of doors off to my right. I go through them and I'm like a kid in an old-car candy store.

Here's a list: John Dillinger car, Bonnie & Clyde movie car, Al Capone beer truck (I remember the Chicago auction where this one sold), Conway Twitty's Lincoln, the Johnny Cash one-piece-at-a-time Caddy, an Elvis car, a '53 'Vette, a room full of Presidential cars from Roosevelt up, plus cars from the Royal Family, Peron, King of Siam (ex-Imperial Palace), etc. Then an old ambulance, a room packed with racing cars, a room of Super Hero Cars (including the Ghostbuster wagon), a room of TV cars, Stalin's '37 Packard . . . the list (and the cars) just goes on and on.

Like I said, it's called Historic Auto Attractions. The place is easy to find. I must have driven past it on the highway hundreds of times. It offers you a fantastic journey through time. It's definitely a must for your summer travel list if you live in the Midwest or if you're passing through the Chicago area. Visit www.historicautoattractions.com to get all the other details. It's definitely worth a long visit.

One of my first retirement projects is to sort out and organize my car magazines. Over the years I have collected thousands of publications from classic issues of Speed Age to the lastest Old Cars Weekly. Years ago I had nice book cases built by a friend to store my library, but then things slowly got out of hand. I found myself stuffing magazines in file drawers and cabinets. I have plastic bags and canvas bags stuffed with periodicals. I have cardboard boxes full of magazines that publishers handed out at the last three SEMA Shows. I have copies of Auto Trim and Restyling News, Modern Tire Dealer,Undercar Digest, Car Life, DUB, etc. I have just about anything you could imagine in car magazines.

Other folks say "throw them out" or "take them to the pulp factory," but I have been a car magazine lover since I hid Hot Rod in my math text book and read it in Miss Whitney's eighth-grade home room. If old Miss Whitney didn't get my HRM, the pulp factory won't either. 

Now that I'm working for myself, I'm trying to get my magazines oranized into 3-drawer plastic storage units that I stack on wire shelves. So far I have filled about 60 of these on seven wire shelves and I figure I might be 20 percent done at best. The magazines will be stored in my car building. They'll be a bit cold, but I don't think that will hurt them. A few bugs will get in the plastic drawers, but the alternative was stacks of magazines all over the house, and I don't think that was better.

The fun thing about this project is re-reading all those great old stories from the '50s, '60s and '70s. The sad thing is looking at the original prices of those cars and thinking how much I could make today if I could buy the same cars for those factory prices. Wow!

My magazines may not stay mint, but at least I'll be using them and enjoying them again.

I have written many articles about restoration work in which I tell people to make sure they take pictures of things before they take them apart. But sometimes you also have to THINK BEYOND THE CAMERA.

Tonight we were putting the twin S.U. carbs back on my MG Magnette and we couldn't remember how the float bowls were oriented. Did the fuel line run to the rear carb or the front one? How about the line between the two carbs - how was it routed?

I remembered that I had diligently taken photos of the engine bay the day the car arrived. All I had to do was look at them, right?

Wrong. A few months after getting the car I bought a second engine on eBay. It turned out to be slightly different. When I complained, the seller said it was the correct type of engine. It was then that I realized the car had an MGA engine in it. That was the engine I took photos of. (I never did take photos of the second engine, until after we removed the carbs.)

Bottom line: The photos I had weren't going to help much. I had planned everything so well, but I forgot to think beyond the camera.

My senses tell me the old-car hobby is heading to a new level in 2008. This isn't just corporate hype. In fact, I don't even work for the corporation anymore. I can tell it straight and the worst they can do is take my blog away. And if you give me lots of your comments this year, the computers will tell them this is the most active blog and they'll put up with me. (How's that for a deal?)

Getting back to this "new level" prediction, think of it. We've got some great Arizona auctions to kick start the year. We've got the Great Race folks going around the world for the first time. AROUND THE WORLD! That ain't like around the block, you know! We got a big Impala-in-the-barn auction coming up, plus a Mecum Auction with three serial no. 1 'Vettes. Then we have the 100th Anniversary of the Model T Ford in July and the 105th Anniversary of Harley-Davidson in August. I hear that Bloomington Gold has a special theme planned to shake up Corvette fans in June. And today I got a call from Joe Bortz telling me that his GM Factory Dream Cars are going to be the center of attraction at Pebble Beach. I guess GM is taking the cars there to make its own centennial very special.

The world's got a lot of problems - wars, elections, $100-a-barrel oil, bad weather, global warming, terrorism - you name it. But the old-car world is like the little town of Perfect in the Walgreen's commercials. Only good things lie ahead. And we're taking all the good stuff to a new level!  

This is the first "blog" I'm writing as a "civilian." That's right . . . after 29 years, last week I cleaned out my desk and started a new career as a free-lance writer. Not bad for a 60-year-old coot, huh?

Since I'm a little paranoid about making enough money, I have been keeping my nose to the grindstone. One thing seems to lead to another. Today I was calling some talented sheet metal fabricators to get their opinions on tools. Wayne Lensing of Lefthander Chassis in Roscoe, Ill., was on the list. When he heard about my connections to Old Cars Weekly and Iola Old Car Show, it was like talking to my long lost best friend. Wayne invited me to a trade show at his facility. Before very long he had me convinced I should drive a couple of hundred miles to go. I haven't looked it up on the Internet, but it's Friday and Saturday. According to Wayne a lot of big vendors will be there. Wayne has a museum he wants to show me and sheet metal restoration workshops he says I'll enjoy.

So there I was, trying to start my retirement. One thing led to another. Now, Wayne has got me working again. Boy, am I going to give him a piece of my mind!

If you're interested in sheet metal fabrication, you might be able to get in the door this weekend. No promises . . . it ain't up to me. But, you can try calling Wayne at (815) 389-9999 to see what the game plan is.