Last night I was traveling towards Appleton, Wis., on Highway 10 when I noticed a beautiful late '60s Nova just ahead of us. The car looked to be fully restored in silver with a black vinyl top. As we passed in our modern car, it flashed through my brain that modern collector cars like the Nova were built in the era when the serial number of the vehicle can be seen through the windshield. Then I remembered reading about a scam where thieves were copying VINs through the windshield, then going to dealers to have keys made from the number so they could steal the car. I do not think they were stealing collector cars. However, it's possible this little "numbers game" could be used to rip off a nice, late-model collector car like the silver Nova. So, I think it would be a good idea for owners of such cars to tape or cover their VIN so as not to take chances.

Speaking of Novas, have you seen the great Nova Book that Doug Marion (former editor of Super Chevy) wrote for Old Cars Weekly's book division? I think it's the greatest Nova book anyone ever did. There should be facts about it on www.krausebooks.com. Check it out. It's way cool.

Every time spring rolls around, I remember the time that I took my 1936 Pontiac out of the storage garage I rented, drove it about a mile down the road and sailed right through the stop sign. Over the winter, the brakes on the car had absolutely gone away. If a car or truck had been coming through the intersection that day, I wouldn't be here writing this blog today.

The morale of this story is to check your brakes carefully when you start using your old car at this time of year. Look around the wheel cylinder boots for leaks. Check the brake lines for any rust that developed during winter storage. Listen for any sounds you shouldn't be hearing. If the pedal is low or mushy, find out what's causing it.

The life you save may be your own.

I'm working on a story about three Vespa 400s (cars, not scooters) that I have seen at shows and they really reflect the great diversity of the old-car hobby. 

The first car is bone stock. The second car is mostly stock, but dressed up with shinier paint, two-tone upholstery and chrome engine parts. The third car is an all-out drag racing machine with a Chevy 454 big-block stuffed into it. If you squint, it even looks like a shrunken '55 Chevy.

(Strangely enough, all three cars are from indiana. If anyone knows why that might be the case, please let me know.)

I think that all three of the cars are very cool. Lots of fun whether stock, custom or race.

Right now is a good time to be a collector because it's a "buyer's market" out there. Today we attended the annual vintage motorcycle auction at S-K Service (www.S-KService.com) in Hatley, Wis. Steve Kasten and his crew were offering about 60 bikes for sale in a great little auction, but instead of bringing thousands of dollars, most bikes were fetching bids in the $400-$600 range.

In one case, a Triumph crossed the block and sold for $600 and when the high bidder showed his paddle, Steve recognized him. "Didn't I buy this bike from you?" the dealer asked the man. "Yes you did," the fellow answered. "And you gave me more for it than I just paid you to buy it back!"

That's a pretty good reflection of where the collector vehicle market is right now, so if you need another project car, truck or motorcycle, don't wait.

By the way, we are looking forward to a return trip to S-K Service to do an article on the business, which is headquartered in a great old automotive building and filled with many collectible bikes, old signs and memorabilia. Seems like a great place to have a bike serviced, too!

The lead photo on Yahoo! News the other day showed a vintage yellow Corvette with red racing stripes parked in front of a gas pump in San Bernadino, Calif. The sign behind the car was advertising $4.79 a gallon high-test gas!!!

Now, I know that back in the '60s, when gas was 40 cents a gallon, I made $1.20  an hour, so I earned 3 gallons per hour. When I stopped getting paychecks, gas was $2.50 a gallon and I earned $20 an hour, so I made 8 gallons per hour.

As you can see, the price of gas is really in line with price and wage inflation. The problem is every company is raising the price of everything else - and not by pennies. In the past two weeks a bag of Famous Amos cookies at our Wal Mart went from $2.50 to $2.75. That's huge!

Here's one way to fight without hurting yourself. Continue buying gas, but do not buy anything else at the gas station or convenience store. No soda, no coffee, no butts, no donuts - nothing!  Don't give up the other things - just think more about your purchases and buy what you need at the "big box" department stores, discounters or supermarkets, where you will still save a bit on each item. I guarantee, you'll save enough money to offset the higher gas prices.

Yesterday I saw an ad in a hobby magazine trying to sell an "authentic" copy of a rare sports car. The ad said that it was an "exact" reproduction of the original. It also mentioned that the reproduction had a carbon fiber body. The original did not have a carbon fiber body. Does anyone out there see anything wrong with this description?

As new enthusiasts enter the hobby and as hot rods and Resto-Mods gain more acceptance, the meanings of terms like "exact," "original," "authentic" and "factory" are really getting more and more blurred.

I don't think that true collectors appreciate this.

An original car is one that looks like it did the day it was built, has all of its factory made parts, is finished with factory colors (using the same type of paint counts, too), has the engine it left the factory with and has the closest-to-original-equipment-available reproductions of items that can't last forever, such as tires, belts and hose clamps.

Sorry. But if a car is a "little" more original than it is modified, that just doesn't work! And the car that is painted in nitrous cellulose lacquer still gets more "originality" points than the car done in basecoat/clearcoat.

I get a laugh out of some of the listings on eBay. There are some sellers offering cheap, period accessories as if they were original factory parts. I have seen chrome headlight visors, generic rearview mirrors,old "curb feelers" and other such items presented as if they were designed and manufactured for a specific car. Are there buyers who really get fooled by the yokels who think all's it takes to be a parts vendor is to go to a Pep Boys' liquidation sale? The listings never mention that these parts are "one-size-fits-all" aftermarket cheapies that probably sat on the shelf for years because they were "junk" from Day 1. eBay has some good stuff, too, but you really got to be careful.    

I grew up on the East Coast, where spring is well underway by the middle part of March. Thirty years ago, I moved to the Upper Midwest. The first year I moved here, I had planned to go to a show back home in New York City the first week in April. but before I could pack up my family and scoot, we got dumped on . . . a couple of feet of snow! The company Suburban got buried up to its door handles.

That was 1978 and every year since then, I've heard someone around Iola say, "I like living in the Midwest where we have spring!" Well, I'll tell you, that's perfectly true. We had spring last week. The week before that we still had four feet of snow. This week, it hit 70. That means it will be 90 next week. Summer has arrived.

For old car nuts in the Upper Midwest, this time of year is just a bit frustrating. Since we already had nice weather, we all have our old cars out and ready to go. But show promoters have learned it doesn't pay to schedule events for this time of year, when snow is still a real possibility. So, we have to wait until the Spring Jefferson Show on April 26-67 (www.madisonclassics.com) before we really have a good-size swap meet to visit.

That's Spring in the Upper Midwest.

What would really be amazing is if you could take your muscle car into a shop and have it tuned up by one of the legendary muscle car mechanics of the '60s. Well, guess what? You can!

Don Swiatek was considered "The Man" by Chicago Chevy enthusiasts back in the '60s. In that era, Don was the High-Performance Manager at N-I-C-Backwards "K"-E-Y Chevrolet in Chicago. He was about equally adept at tricking out a '55 Chevy Two-ten Del Ray coupe for drag racing or making a 427 big-block Biscayne run strong in the Stoplight Grand Prix.

Now, Don is back at Nickey Chicago, a revival of the old muscle dealership. It was a few years ado that enthusiast Steve Bimbi found out the rights to the legendary Nickey name were for sale. Steve was not only smart enough to grab the backwards-"K" logo, he also hired Don Swiatek back to work for him.

Find out more about Nickey Chicago at www.nickeychicago.net. Or call (630) 561-1215 and talk to "The Man." The new Nickey is in St. Charles, Ill., and it's becoming "Supercar Headquarters" for the Midwest.

Now that it's (finally) getting nice up here, I've been putting an hour or two each day cleaning "Gunner's Garage." It is stuffed with cars right to the door - 12 of them. One belongs to one of my twin granddaughters. The rest are mine. If I ever want to move around comfotably inside, I gotta sell something. Not the '36 Poncho or the '53 Catalina. Those are keepers. And my '89 Caprice 9C1 police car is a keeper, too. I just had the brakes on the '48 Streamliner sedan fixed at Zerp to 60 garage (www.zeroto60garage.com) so I might as well get at least a summer's worth of driving out of it. The '57 Buick Century has only moved two or three tiimes since I bought it six years ago, but aahhh that rumble! It's not for sale either. No one needs an MG TD and an MG TF -- but if you have both, you might as well have a TC, too, right? I really don't need the '91 Lincoln Town Car, but no one else wants it. The same goes more or less for the '94 Sunbird convertible. I'd probably lose money selling either of those cars and they're too nice to take a loss on. That leaves the MG Magnette and the 2003 Ranger. Can't sell the Magnette, because it's all apart. And I just bought the Ranger, so I'm not going to sell it.

Guess I can't sell anything.

Oh well! Might be a good year to buy another building. Then I can store some cars there and have the room I need. Until the MG TC arrives, that is!

So much for cleaning garages.

At the Chevy Vettefest I was able to take a "barometer reading" on the Corvette hobby right now. I spoke with D & M Corvette Specialties, Pro Team, Corvette Mike, An American Classic and Valley Corvette. What the experts told me was that "regular use" Corvette sales are very slow and prices on these cars have leveled. When I asked for a definition of "regular use," I was told it applied to most (not all) 1973 and later Vettes.

The experts said that the Shark-style C3s are getting the most attention right now. They thought this was because these cars fit the "baby boomer" market. The people who were too young to buy them in the '70s, but dreamed about it, can now afford their dream. I think there's also another reason. Car collecting really boomed in the '70s, when many of these cars were near-new, and since everyone thought of 'Vettes as one of the top collector cars, I think people put them away, instead of selling them used. So, that makes availability high.

The experts were careful to point out that rare and desirable Vettes of all eras will "always have a buyer waiting." If you have a rare C-3, that's probably a good place to be right now. An early '70s LT-1 or LS6 will sell quickly and bring top dollar.