winter storage

[PK5321]

This will be my first winter storing my car.  For folks in the northern climes, where you can't drive your car for 6 or so months, how do you prepare it for winter storage?

[kaiserkid]

I'm going to assume that you have indoor storage that is not heated. First make sure that your anti-freeze is good to at least 30 below zero. Clean the exterior of the car and put a nice fleece lined car cover on. Clean the interior. Buy a Battery Tender battery charger and hook that to the battery but disconnect at least one battery cable. Check the air in the tires, if you have a slow leaker over inflate that tire, maybe it will last until spring, or just fix the darn thing. Fill the gas tank and put in a bottle of Sea Foam, that will help stabilize the gas until spring it will also clean the carburator in the spring when you start to drive it again. And for fun, put $5 in an envelope every week until you get the car out so that you can have fun in the spring!

[Bulletin Editor]

You will probably get a lot of different ideas here.   Check out the QUARTERLY that is just getting into people's mailboxes and give the item on anti-freeze a good read.   I kept the Kaisers with a mix good to -30 or -35 below F.  Every so often, I would start and run the car, getting the water temp up to normal operating range.  This charged the battery a bit and got fluids circulating.  When just sitting, I disconnected the battery cables to prevent accidential discharge.   

[Fid]

My cars sit from mid Oct till early April (sometimes late March but not very often!) and I just make sure the gas tanks are full, put some Stabil (the Seafoam will do too) in the tank and when spring comes, first week of April or so, I start them up. Never had a problem.  You may have a sticky wheel cylinder or two when you get it out. I've found getting them started and driving them even for short distances, right away in early April makes a difference. I knew one guy who let his sit till June and that can mean more sticky brakes etc. but I've never had a problem for the short period mine sits. They always start right up. Sometimes it helps to dump a little bit of gas in the carb before trying to start it - that can save wear and tear on your starter. The garage where I keep them still has a dirt floor so I put moth balls on the side of each tire where it touches the ground. This is keep mice out. I also put a couple of moth balls inside them too to keep mice away. I've heard that can damage chrome over time but I don't know how much time it takes. I've been doing it for 10 years and haven't noticed any issues but of course a Henry J doesn't have a lot of chrome inside! And again, I get my cars out right away in early spring so they don't sit any longer than they have to.