shrike62

I have a '58 (driver) with really nice chrome (probably not show quality, but very nice). Anyway, being in the Navy, it is now time for me to head off to the Persian Gulf for a 6 month deployment. I am going to put her in a storage unit, but I really don't want the chrome (and anything else to get destroyed). (Corpus Christi, TX - Gulf Coast). I know the typical storage unit is just a single garage and I can't find any around here that large that are "climate controlled". I am hoping at least to get one with an electrical outlet so that I can rig a dehumidifier and drain it out the back with a hose. I also have a decent cover to keep on the car. Would this suffice to protect it? I have thought about putting a layer of the "chrome polish" on the chrome and just not buffing it off - thinking that it would preserve it better, but am unsure of the long term effects of keeping it on the chrome.

Any ideas on the best method to store the vette?

Also, two other quick questions on storage:

1) disconnect the battery or not and hope that my wife will actually start it up and idle it every few weeks?

2) put the car up on blocks (protect the www tires) or just have her push it back and forth a foot or so every month so that it doesn't sit on the same spot? (she can't drive a stick shift)

Any help would be greatly appreciated - or any other ideas for storage/locations.

Thanks,
Brian

00fxd

DO NOT EVER USE CHROME POLISH ON CHROME THAT YOU LIKE!!!
If your really concerned you could put a coat of wax on.
The dehumidifier is a nice thing. I see no reason to start the engine periodicaly. As they say, 90% of engine wear occures durring cold starts.

Hitch

Go NAVY.. As for storage for six months or so.. Just the same as a lot of us do in the winter.
Change the oil
Change the antifreeze if it's not new
Pump up the tires to the max sidewall pressure
Clean and wax everything
Put a good car cover on and put desicant bags in the interior to cut down on moisture
Fill the gas tank completely full to prevent condensation
I would not put it up on jackstands as the tires will not be hurt just for six months. They will be some vibration for the first few miles when you come back but it is far worse to put the car on jackstands and leave the suspension in a droop.

Have a safe cruise it always seems the first four months fly by and the last two drag on.... and on and on... Last but not least have a good time.... Dave.

BarryK

I just scratched the h*ll out of one of my perfect chrome bumpers because I tried to clean it with Chrome Polish.
That jar got thrown out and I'll never use chrome polish again ever. Just clean it with water and wax it good.

other than that, Youwish2bme pretty much has the rest covered.

if you do get a unit with electricity, you may also want to get one of the Battery Minders to keep the charge up on the battery.

C2IT

The chrome shop I go to coats newly chromed parts with glass wax, without wiping it off

67's

All good posts already, the only thing I would add is if you can find one with power, a car capsule storage unit would work better than a dehumidifier.

Good luck on the cruise,

Tom M

BADBIRDCAGE

Absolutely BEST thing you could do is put the car in MY very capable hands while you are gone off making the rest of us proud while you are serving in the NAVY.

I could garage keep the vehicle for you, exercise it regularly and keep it washed, waxed and the chrome shiny and bright. MUCH better than having it sit in some storage where you never know what can happen to it and you have to WORRY while you are floating around in the middle of some ocean.

If you don't want to accept this most generous offer you won't be the first, or the last. I figure there is no harm in trying.

Be safe on your cruise and, if you get stranded in the Iraqi desert, say HI to my son who is deploying quite soon with the ARMY.

Rich

Crazyhorse

Safer to disconnect it , doesn't need to be started up.

stall

I want to thank you for all you do. I'm a Marine who's service was in the early sixties. Come back safe.

To what was already posted I would add.
--Use what they call "insulator wax" on the chrome. It's a thick wax with no cleaners / abrasives.
--Lay a plastic tarp on the concrete floor as a vapor barrier. Moisture seeps up thru concrete.

Semper Fi

SWCDuke

Six month storage is nothing!!! I have two cars I've been swapping back and forth every six months for the last ten years with no problems at all, but I always do proper short term storage prep. DO NOT STORE IT ON JACKSTANDS. This can damage the suspension bushings. Look in the AIM or service manual and ask yourself why they state to torque the bushings with the car at normal ride height.

Starting the car during storage is neither necessary nor desirable. Being as how about 80 percent of typical car engine wear occurs during cold start and warm-up there is absolutely no point in starting the engine unless you plan on driving it.

1. Air the tires to the maximum cold pressure placarded on the sidewall or at least 35 psi.

2. Wash the car, vacuum the interior, detail as you see fit. Waxing the chrome with any kind of non-abrasive car wax will protect it. Wipe/buff off the residue as you would normally if you were going to continue driving the car. Use an old paint brush to apply Armor All to the exhaust manifolds. (I use a solution of 50/50 Armor All/distilled water.) This will keep them from picking up anymore surface rust than they already have. Dress them with Armor All even if they have some kind of coating.

3. Change the oil and filter and lube the chassis just before storage.

4. Fill with fresh fuel

5. Change the antifreeze and brake fluid if they will expire during the storage period.

6. Remove the battery and either connect it to a battery tender or leave it in the care of a responsible individual who will trickle charge it monthly. Extreme heat and cold is tough on batteries, so try to keep the battery in an area that is cool to room temp. The higher the temperature, the greater the self-discharge rate, and a discharged battery can freeze at about 10F.

7. Liberally deploy rodent traps and poison in/around the car and the storage area. This includes in the engine compartment, interior, and trunk. RODENT DAMAGE IS THE SINGLE BIGGEST RISK IN STORAGE!!! Also, monthly inspection for rodent activity is a very good idea, and make sure nothing edible is left behind.

8. Cover the car with at least a cheap, single layer breathable cover to keep it from getting dusty. If you're absolutely certain there will never be condensing humidity (not necessarily a good bet for an uninsulated stroage unit) you can cover the car cover with plastic sheeting, which will really keep dust off the car.

9. Maintain comprehensive insurance on the car, but suspend everything else. In a storage unit your car probably will not qualify for most "collector car" insurance policy (They usually specify a locked residential garage), but USAA will happily provide you with compreshensive. The cost will be the same as if the car is driven, since they don't offer a specific "storage policy". They have never objected to my every six months revision of my policy when I swap my winter driver for my summer driver. My storage spot is a small building in an industrial park I rent from a friend who keeps other cars stored there, and there is no other activity.

He laughed about my obsession with mice (There's no food around around here, but there are a bunch of feral cats he said) until one day when we found one in a trap. He then went out and bought traps/poison to seed the other building he has with more cars about a block away. Mice love to chew on rubber, plastic, vinyl, insulation, and have a particular taste for wiring harnesses - especially those on the car that are most expensive and toughest to change.

When it comes time to take it out.

1. Remove cover and rodent protection
2. Do a general safety/leak/fluid check inspection
3. Set TP to normal driving pressure
5.. Install a freshly charged battery
6. Get a syringe and fill the carb bowls until the fuel just barely dribbles out the venturi discharge nozzles. Then go through the normal cold start procedure.

The clock doesn't run on fresh oil in storage, but it does run on the antifreeze and brake fluid.

IIRC Corpus Christi is hot and humid in the summer, mild and humid in the winter. Using a dehumdifier in the summer will add more heat that it's worth, but is probably okay in the winter.

Sears has a good 750 Watt unit that you can leave on "auto" and set the engagement at anything from 40 to 70 percent. The bucket has a provision for a drain hose.

Duke

hermit

Fuel stabilizer (Sta bil) is also cheap insurance.

JoesC5

I agree with everything Duke says but I would go even further to keep the mice out. Stuff some steel wool in the exhause pipes and take some aluminum pie plates and put Bounce dryer softer sheets in them. Put them in the interior, the trunk, under the hood, etc. The mice don't like the smell. Don't put the Bounce sheets directly on the carpet or seats as it can stain them.

gonefishn

Be safe while there! Another hole to plug is the frame rail holes. Those little mice love to live in there as I had found a nest in mine.

John

shrike62

Thanks for all of the great advice. I never even thought about the mice. I'm looking at a few more tomorrow and another consideration is geographical location of the storage unit. Some are right down at sea level basically and some are in parts of town that are pretty elevated (which would be better in the off chance a hurricane did come and flood out the lowlands. I'll let you all know how my car fared after Valentine's day when I return.

Hitch

Something else that I didn't think of until now.. I once did the same with my daily driver that I pampered while I was stationed in Pascagoula,MS.. Definately similar to your location ie flooding and hurricanes... I put the car in the storage unit and basically did nothing as it was a newer car that I wasn't worried about like I do my vette. We did have a hurricane while I was gone no flood damage but the building did sustain damage. I had a car cover on it but sheetrock fell on the car doing some dent damage along with some small scratches from sheetrock itself and other stuff. Now I guess I could get to the point... Buy a couple of the large wool blankets from the Army/NAVY store for like 20 bucks a piece and put them over the cover.. Don't know the ramifications of this though, maybe someone else will chime in about covering a cover... Dave..

SEEVT65

Looks like lots of great advice from good folks.
Best wishes and God speed
I served in the Navy (ET) a little further East in 69-70

SWCDuke

This past Sunday I swapped my winter driver ('88 Mercedes 190E 2.6 five speed manual ) for my summer driver ('91 MR2). No rodent activity though I did find a dead cockroach nearlyi the size of a mouse in the building, and, as usual the MR2, fired up after about four cranks. The Merc always does, too.

The nice thing about modern fuel injection cars is that the fuel systems are essentially sealed, so there is no fuel in vented carb bowls that evaporates, and you don't loose much of the low boiling point fuel components due to the ability of the tank to hold a little pressure.

A vintage carbureted car will lose all the fuel in the bowl during storage and might lose some low boiling point fuel components since the tank is vented, especially if the storage environment is warm to hot - less so in cold winter storage. This can result in slightly harder cold starting and even a loss of octane number until the fuel is consumed and replenished with fresh fuel.

The reason to fill the carb fuel bowl with a syringe is so you don't have to crank the engine until the mechanical fuel pump fills the bowls. If you fill the fuel bowls prior to cranking it should fire right up just like a modern FI car.

In ten years of swapping the Merc for the Deuce about every 5-7 months using the above storage prep procedures, neither has failed to fire right up with no problems, and other than catching one mouse in a trap a couple of years ago, there's been no sign of rodents, but I consider the traps and bait to be the most important part of storage prep.

I never used an commercial "fuel stabilizers", but they should not do any harm. Gasoline shelf life averages about a year before there is much chance of gum or varnish formation, and the colder the storage environment, the longer the shelf life.

Duke

JohnZ

I was asked by a potential purchaser to inspect a '65 L-76 convertible for him several years ago, and the owner had it stored in a typical concrete-floor steel-building commercial storage unit. When the storage unit door was opened (car had been in it for about a year), the car had a light cotton dust cover on it and looked terrific from the outside when the cover was removed, but under the hood (and under the car) EVERYTHING was rusty - not perforated, just surface rust - would have required yanking the body to clean it up and refinish everything. Between the moisture migration up through the concrete floor and the condensation that formed on the inside walls of the building, it turned the storage unit into a humidity cabinet, and essentially cut the value of the car in half.

Hitch

John would putting a tarp on floor help this situation any or is the only way to prevent this prior to pouring the concrete with a vabor barrier? Dave..

JohnZ

I had one guy tell me that laying a poly tarp on the floor and then laying 4x8 sheets of plywood over the tarp made a reasonably effective moisture barrier/absorber, but I don't think there's any way around the wall/ceiling condensation issue.