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Winterize your Musclecar / Chevelle

Winter always seems to come faster than expected, one day you will be raking leaves and the next shoveling snow. Seems to me I never have enough time to really brace myself for the onset of winter. So I figured I would write a little article on how a few of my friends and relatives store there muscle cars for winter.  

Alright to start here are a few tips I have picked up on the internet, and from family and friends.  

- Store your car in a “climate” controlled environment, at least a garage (away from the moisture and salt). 

- Protect that beautiful paint job. Give your Chevelle or Muscle car a good end of year wax job. Use a breathable cloth car cover to cover that pretty car, avoid using vinyl or “plastic type” covers.  Vinyl, or plastic covers keep moisture in and make an ideal zone for rust to oxidize.  

- Protect your suspension and tires by jacking your car up putting the whole car up on jack stands, and let a little air out of each of your tires.  Doing these two things takes tension off of the suspension and stretch tension off of your tires.  

- Completely drain the cooling system and fill with rust inhibitor type antifreeze.  

- Change your oil and filter cartridge on you muscle-car, and make sure to add an additive that contains some type of corrosion protector. 

- Protect the fuel system by adding a fuel stabilizer, and filling up your fuel tank.  Make sure to run the car for a while to get the entire system protected. 

- Keep those mice and other vermin away from your muscle-car. Mice and other vermin love to burrow in seat cushions, get down into your air vents, and eat up under hood material. Use mothballs under your seats, dash and under the hood to keep them away.  Alternatively another way I have found use-full since I hate the smell of moth balls is to make a fence like structure around the perimeter of your car. Use aluminum flashing you can buy in rolls at any building supply store and turn it sideways to make a fence. Inset the aluminum into a piece of wood laid flat on the floor to keep it on its side (see drawing).  This will prevent the mice or vermin from climbing over to get to your muscle-car.  

- If you have a convertible make sure to secure the top in closed position (not open). If stored open it would shrink, causing all sorts of issues.  

- Done, not quite!  Don’t forget about your interior, it needs protection too. Make sure to give them vinyl/leather seats, dash and other trim a treatment to protect them over the long winter.

Got any tips, trick, or suggestions of your own?  Email me so we can share them with the rest of the world. Send all your ideas to webmaster@71chevelle.net  with the title “winterize tips” and we will get them added!!  

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