With winter fast approaching many people’s thoughts are turning to the perils of using their older car in the slush, fog, ice and salt. Then theres the risk of being hit by some out of control car sliding about on ice, tail ending you in fog, or whatever. The thought of putting the car away in a garage for the “off-season” and grabbing it out again when the weather improves (approximately 10 minutes next July I think) is tempting. But I have found over the years that winter garaging of classic cars can do more harm than good if you don’t go about it the right way. So, here are some things to think about and some suggestions and I’m always interested to hear your own too.
1. Chose your garage. Different garages behave differently over winter. In my experience the very worst garages for over winter layup storage are council lockups. Sadly this is where most of us are forced to do our laying up. I have found that leaks are common and water collects and basically holds your car in a damp cocoon similar to the one in which the Tulsarama Belvedere was kept… The next up the food chain is the concrete sectional garage. These are damp prone structures and are the type most commonly erected at home due to their low cost. Some blocks of garages are sectional rather than brick which instantly demotes them to the lowest order of storage! Brick and timber garages are the best for storage as they are typically the driest, especially integral garages.
2. Ventilate! One of the problems with garage storage is the build up of condensation which is effectively a wet blanket for your car touching every surface. Opening the doors on a dry winter day and even rolling the car out every so often will deal with any build up of condensation and damp and prevent rust as well as helping to prevent stuff seizing up. Car interiors can get way mouldy and develop a nasty smell if left all shut up in damp garages. It is often better to leave the car with the windows dropped down an inch or two which allows the air to circulate through the car.
3. Grease is the word… any bits which might seize up, grease them. Hinges, linkages, catches, etc. a nice dollop of grease will prevent surface rusting and seizing. I also found that on cars with exposed surface rust on the panels a wipe over with grease was ideal to prevent them getting worse or furring up further in storage. Remember to wipe it off with a solvent before using the car again though! Also should be avoided if you store the car in a garage at home where you or your family need regular access as it will transfer onto your clothes…
4. Chocks away… You can avoid the handbrake sticking by leaving it off, but chocking the wheels so it can’t roll anywhere. Don’t leave it in gear because if it gets jammed in gear then you’ll have the devils own job getting it sorted if its in a narrow lockup… Even better you can jack the car up and leave it on stands to prevent the tyres from getting stressed from standing with the weight on the same place for several months. This also relieves the wheel bearings too. I have seen it recommended to over inflate the tyres and equally, I’ve seen recommendations to lower the tyre pressures when stored on jacks. I do neither. Although I do tend to leave the car sitting on its wheels anyway. If you want to avoid a stuck clutch on your return to the car then a chock on the clutch pedal to keep it depressed will do just that, but be aware there is an “equal and opposite reaction” here too – you can stretch the cable, weaken the pressure plate or cause hydraulic leaks doing this. The risk of these is much less than that of a stuck clutch. However a stuck clutch is usually easier to fix…
5. Don’t be fuelish…. Petrol can go off when stored. This usually isn’t an issue for a one-off storage of your car. However if you make a habit of laying the car up for periods then you can find that a gunge of petrol jelly builds up and this can cause blockages in fuel pipes and gunk up carburettors. You can buy a product which calls itself a fuel stabiliser which prevents this and would seem like a worthwhile alternative to the periodic stripping and cleaning process.
6. Store, don’t abandon… Its very easy to shove a car in a lockup and forget all about it. I am guilty of this. Try make sure your lockups are always local and keep visiting it/them. Keep opening the door will aid ventilation and get damp out and it will also make your lockup look less like it’s an abandoned dump which can then be a magnet for vandals. If the worst does happen and someone does break in and steal or wreck stuff then you want to know as soon as possible really, not 3 months later.
7. Security considerations… A lockup with more locks than Fort Knox will make people wonder what is in there that’s so valuable? And when the scrotes break in and find it’s a “worthless” old Singer Gazelle and a pile of “junk” NOS Zodiac parts they are unlikely to just quietly lock the door behind them and leave it as they found it. On the other hand don’t rely solely on the single lock in the door handle. God knows how many other people have a key for it by now, especially with council lockups, and they are so easy to force that a child could do it. And they often do. Use good sturdy locks but keep security “Low key” visually. I always remove the battery and maybe the king lead when I store a car. If you take the battery then you can ensure its charged up before you come to get the car out again in the spring rather than the inevitable having to jump start it because the battery WILL be flat.
8. Duck and cover… If you are storing the car in your garage at home, or a barn or a working unit of some sort then you need to give some thought to access, either by yourself or by others not minded to be quite so careful of your pride and joy (co-workers, co-habitants, family members, passing gypsies, etc.) so before piling all your boxes of spare carburettors on the bonnet and your kids bike on the roof you may want to think about putting an indoor car cover on it to prevent scratching. Some old cotton bed sheets will do the job nicely in a dry garage or barn, and you can open out cardboard boxes to act as padding to prevent marking if you are forced to turn your retro ride into a kind of non-modular storage shelf system. Be wary of doing this in a damp or leaky garage or shed though because the cardboard will absorb and retain moisture and act as yet another rust promoter against the car’s bodywork.
Not got a garage or lockup?
I notice a number of cars on neighbours drives or gardens are preparing to spend the winter under tarpaulins or other car covers. While it makes some obvious sense to put a cover over your old car to keep the weather off it there are some serious considerations you need to give this.
1. Just using a tarp or any old section of weather proof material will not do the job. If you wrap your car up in plastic sheeting or whatever, sure you will keep most of the rain off but you will trap condensation and the car will rust from the inside out faster than you can say “breathable outdoor car cover”. A breathable outdoor car cover will allow the car to stay dry but will allow the moisture to escape out. To a degree. I don’t know how good they are in the significant downpours we have been having recently. If the car gets covered with wet leaves then this moisture can seep through the cover down to the car so you still have to keep brushing these off or whatever. And there are other cover related issues…
2. Fitting the cover is important. How it fits is part of this. I have seen cars where the paint has been worn away by the movement of the cover in the wind, and my old Rambler had holes in the (fabric) roof because of a car cover which had been on the car while it was parked outside. Some car covers have super soft lining to prevent paint wear. Some you can pretty much rope on the cover so it won’t move but beware the ropes chafing!
You may think with the various problems of outdoor car covers, breathable or otherwise, that it’s just best to park the car up on the drive/lawn/patio and leave it standing. To be honest this is my approach. You will need to attend to the same car care you would do if the car were on the road (keeping leaves off so they don’t stain, washing bird poop off so it doesn’t etch the paint, etc.) but then you have the additional delight of your neighbours maybe considering that your stash of old cars is an eyesore and dobbing you in to the council under the “safer and cleaner neighbourhoods” provisions of the Local Government Act they can do all manner of foul things to people “storing” old cars on their property. If those cars are not taxed, tested and insured then you can be considered to be storing waste without a licence, and that’s just for starters. So keep your car storage areas tidy and if possible keep everything taxed and insured all year around (harder to do with “project” cars I know)
You may wonder what the ideal situation is then? And this is my personal take. Cars are meant to be driven, not designed to be parked up half the year around. They don’t like it and its often fairly inconvenient. I’ve had cars I tucked up for the winter then not surface for like three years as “out of sight is out of mind” and by then they’ve acquired a whole list of extra storage related issues. Either that or they are sulking. I don’t advocate taking your pristine concours Datsun out in the salt and the slush but keeping it ready to go and driving it on whatever dry, clear, salt-free days the winter gives us will keep it active and not do it any harm nor put it at increased risk of being hit.
Do what works for you…
1. Chose your garage. Different garages behave differently over winter. In my experience the very worst garages for over winter layup storage are council lockups. Sadly this is where most of us are forced to do our laying up. I have found that leaks are common and water collects and basically holds your car in a damp cocoon similar to the one in which the Tulsarama Belvedere was kept… The next up the food chain is the concrete sectional garage. These are damp prone structures and are the type most commonly erected at home due to their low cost. Some blocks of garages are sectional rather than brick which instantly demotes them to the lowest order of storage! Brick and timber garages are the best for storage as they are typically the driest, especially integral garages.
2. Ventilate! One of the problems with garage storage is the build up of condensation which is effectively a wet blanket for your car touching every surface. Opening the doors on a dry winter day and even rolling the car out every so often will deal with any build up of condensation and damp and prevent rust as well as helping to prevent stuff seizing up. Car interiors can get way mouldy and develop a nasty smell if left all shut up in damp garages. It is often better to leave the car with the windows dropped down an inch or two which allows the air to circulate through the car.
3. Grease is the word… any bits which might seize up, grease them. Hinges, linkages, catches, etc. a nice dollop of grease will prevent surface rusting and seizing. I also found that on cars with exposed surface rust on the panels a wipe over with grease was ideal to prevent them getting worse or furring up further in storage. Remember to wipe it off with a solvent before using the car again though! Also should be avoided if you store the car in a garage at home where you or your family need regular access as it will transfer onto your clothes…
4. Chocks away… You can avoid the handbrake sticking by leaving it off, but chocking the wheels so it can’t roll anywhere. Don’t leave it in gear because if it gets jammed in gear then you’ll have the devils own job getting it sorted if its in a narrow lockup… Even better you can jack the car up and leave it on stands to prevent the tyres from getting stressed from standing with the weight on the same place for several months. This also relieves the wheel bearings too. I have seen it recommended to over inflate the tyres and equally, I’ve seen recommendations to lower the tyre pressures when stored on jacks. I do neither. Although I do tend to leave the car sitting on its wheels anyway. If you want to avoid a stuck clutch on your return to the car then a chock on the clutch pedal to keep it depressed will do just that, but be aware there is an “equal and opposite reaction” here too – you can stretch the cable, weaken the pressure plate or cause hydraulic leaks doing this. The risk of these is much less than that of a stuck clutch. However a stuck clutch is usually easier to fix…
5. Don’t be fuelish…. Petrol can go off when stored. This usually isn’t an issue for a one-off storage of your car. However if you make a habit of laying the car up for periods then you can find that a gunge of petrol jelly builds up and this can cause blockages in fuel pipes and gunk up carburettors. You can buy a product which calls itself a fuel stabiliser which prevents this and would seem like a worthwhile alternative to the periodic stripping and cleaning process.
6. Store, don’t abandon… Its very easy to shove a car in a lockup and forget all about it. I am guilty of this. Try make sure your lockups are always local and keep visiting it/them. Keep opening the door will aid ventilation and get damp out and it will also make your lockup look less like it’s an abandoned dump which can then be a magnet for vandals. If the worst does happen and someone does break in and steal or wreck stuff then you want to know as soon as possible really, not 3 months later.
7. Security considerations… A lockup with more locks than Fort Knox will make people wonder what is in there that’s so valuable? And when the scrotes break in and find it’s a “worthless” old Singer Gazelle and a pile of “junk” NOS Zodiac parts they are unlikely to just quietly lock the door behind them and leave it as they found it. On the other hand don’t rely solely on the single lock in the door handle. God knows how many other people have a key for it by now, especially with council lockups, and they are so easy to force that a child could do it. And they often do. Use good sturdy locks but keep security “Low key” visually. I always remove the battery and maybe the king lead when I store a car. If you take the battery then you can ensure its charged up before you come to get the car out again in the spring rather than the inevitable having to jump start it because the battery WILL be flat.
8. Duck and cover… If you are storing the car in your garage at home, or a barn or a working unit of some sort then you need to give some thought to access, either by yourself or by others not minded to be quite so careful of your pride and joy (co-workers, co-habitants, family members, passing gypsies, etc.) so before piling all your boxes of spare carburettors on the bonnet and your kids bike on the roof you may want to think about putting an indoor car cover on it to prevent scratching. Some old cotton bed sheets will do the job nicely in a dry garage or barn, and you can open out cardboard boxes to act as padding to prevent marking if you are forced to turn your retro ride into a kind of non-modular storage shelf system. Be wary of doing this in a damp or leaky garage or shed though because the cardboard will absorb and retain moisture and act as yet another rust promoter against the car’s bodywork.
Not got a garage or lockup?
I notice a number of cars on neighbours drives or gardens are preparing to spend the winter under tarpaulins or other car covers. While it makes some obvious sense to put a cover over your old car to keep the weather off it there are some serious considerations you need to give this.
1. Just using a tarp or any old section of weather proof material will not do the job. If you wrap your car up in plastic sheeting or whatever, sure you will keep most of the rain off but you will trap condensation and the car will rust from the inside out faster than you can say “breathable outdoor car cover”. A breathable outdoor car cover will allow the car to stay dry but will allow the moisture to escape out. To a degree. I don’t know how good they are in the significant downpours we have been having recently. If the car gets covered with wet leaves then this moisture can seep through the cover down to the car so you still have to keep brushing these off or whatever. And there are other cover related issues…
2. Fitting the cover is important. How it fits is part of this. I have seen cars where the paint has been worn away by the movement of the cover in the wind, and my old Rambler had holes in the (fabric) roof because of a car cover which had been on the car while it was parked outside. Some car covers have super soft lining to prevent paint wear. Some you can pretty much rope on the cover so it won’t move but beware the ropes chafing!
You may think with the various problems of outdoor car covers, breathable or otherwise, that it’s just best to park the car up on the drive/lawn/patio and leave it standing. To be honest this is my approach. You will need to attend to the same car care you would do if the car were on the road (keeping leaves off so they don’t stain, washing bird poop off so it doesn’t etch the paint, etc.) but then you have the additional delight of your neighbours maybe considering that your stash of old cars is an eyesore and dobbing you in to the council under the “safer and cleaner neighbourhoods” provisions of the Local Government Act they can do all manner of foul things to people “storing” old cars on their property. If those cars are not taxed, tested and insured then you can be considered to be storing waste without a licence, and that’s just for starters. So keep your car storage areas tidy and if possible keep everything taxed and insured all year around (harder to do with “project” cars I know)
You may wonder what the ideal situation is then? And this is my personal take. Cars are meant to be driven, not designed to be parked up half the year around. They don’t like it and its often fairly inconvenient. I’ve had cars I tucked up for the winter then not surface for like three years as “out of sight is out of mind” and by then they’ve acquired a whole list of extra storage related issues. Either that or they are sulking. I don’t advocate taking your pristine concours Datsun out in the salt and the slush but keeping it ready to go and driving it on whatever dry, clear, salt-free days the winter gives us will keep it active and not do it any harm nor put it at increased risk of being hit.
Do what works for you…
;D
and to think it was a job to rid of the mice! ;D
