Race car driver Ken Schrader presents friend and Carolina Collision owner Tim Spencer with the keys and title to a classic Chevy Nova. The gift was in exchange for Spencer's paint jobs on Schrader's cars. With a dejected look, Tim Spencer told Ken Schrader he didn’t have the cash to purchase his dream car.

Turns out, he didn’t need any.

Last Thursday, former NASCAR driver Schrader presented Spencer with the keys to a vintage 1966 Super Sport Chevy Nova.

Spencer said he took a liking to the car when he and local race car driver Dennis “Rambo” Franklin visited Schrader’s workshop in Concord, N.C., a couple of years ago.

“I was up there and one day I asked him if I could buy it,” said Spencer, owner of Carolina Collision and a county councilman.

But Schrader told Spencer that he couldn’t part with the sports car because it was one of five cars he had purchased with the late race car legend Dale Earnhardt.

Spencer didn’t leave empty-handed. Schrader asked Spencer to spruce up a battered Impala his crew drives to race tracks.

So, Spencer meticulously changed the color scheme of the 1998 model to a sleeklooking black and silver.

Schrader was so impressed that he wanted Spencer to paint all of his cars, including a 1955 Ford F-750.

Schrader called Spencer this past Wednesday and told him he was bringing the Nova to Spencer’s Frederick Street body shop.

Spencer said he couldn’t afford the the car, valued at around $30,000. But Spencer was caught off guard by Schrader’s response, “He said ‘yes you can.’”

In exchange for painting more of his cars, Schrader turned over the Nova’s keys and title to Spencer.

Spencer said he doesn’t plan on changing the car’s blue exterior, but does want to boost the car’s horsepower by replacing its 283 cc engine with a 327.

Don’t expect Spencer to be one of those owners who lets their vintage cars collect dust in a garage. Rather, you’ll be seeing Spencer behind the wheel of his prized possession.

“I would never sell this, it’s a gift,” he said. “I’m just going to drive it.”