Technical Ideas on disabling a roadster at a show etc.

use the steering wheel to hold the pizza pan...
power shut-off mounted under the passenger seat (keyed), fuel shut-off under cab.
^ it was like watching a house burn is suppose.......

 

if it has a trunk with a lock on it, put the battery shutoff inside the trunk and mount it so they can't get to the back side of the switch from under car. Best theft deterant there is..... no battery power.

 

Coupla years back, I was rewiring the S/W gauges in my '55 F100...I have an early '70s set of Cadillac Eldorado horns, with a '76 Olds 'woofer'. Sounds like a Santa Fe locomotive.
I interrupted the broken ground wire at my door switches (for courtesy lights) and ran a lead to a toggle switch, waaay under the fender. From the switch it runs to the GM horn relay.
I trip the switch after getting out and locking the door.
If either door is opened, I can hear that horn for a coupla blocks!
Not the 'best', but the truck is seldom out of earshot...Imagine the look of the crook when he gets the door open, then: "SANTA FE ..... ALL THEE WAY..."

 

Trouble with a GPS tracker is, by the time you come out of the car show, a pro will have the car stripped and all you'll find will be the tracking device.....................

 

I like the horn trick Mike.
Just to clear up some points !
Im not that concerned here that my T will get taken, just want to be sure that's all and to have insurance in case it does is a no brainer but to think it wont or cant happen to you is just dumb now days.
I was only looking for EASY to activate deterrent things.
To all that say take the rotor with you, I do now this, im an ex mechanic and if Mrs 26 T is out in the car the rotor thing is not practical (she knows her way round a tool box and the car)
Cheers. JW

 

ejector seat.
-Pat

 

This is what I do. I have hidden the kill switch in the rumble seat area of my roadster behind one of the side panels. ( If you tell anyone,I'll be pissed. Ha,ha.)

 

Not if you can hide the battery,too.

 

^^ True, I agree that a good (removable key) kill switch is one of the best and if the battery is not to easy to get at is a good solution.
I would like to hear of any other things one has done to disable their car (other than the rotor!!).Just little tricks one could do as different ways suit different cars and applications.
Cheers, JW

 

Thieves are generally a younger crowd, so the chances that a modern-day thief will know how to hotwire an antique car with a jumper across the coil / starter solenoid / key switch and drive off with it using a clutch and a 3-speed is nearly zero. I guess it could happen. It would be more likely that they would steal your car the same way they steal any modern car - drag it off with a tow truck.

I had an Off Topic car get stolen while I had the carburetor inside the house for a rebuild. I thought I was real smart having the starter lead come from the steering wheel horn button, and the ignition box wired up to a manual toggle switch under the front seat. If a thief wants your car bad enough and the opportunity arises, it is GONE.

My suggestion would be to keep the car in a secure place, insure it adequately, and don't be so paranoid.

 

I have a toggle switch wired into the electric fuel pump circuit that is out of view. I also have a Mc Master Carr small ball valve plumbed into the brake line going to the rear brakes. Before getting out of the car I push the brake pedal down and turn the valve locking pressure into the rear brakes and locking the wheels. This valve is really not all that hidden because I use the system as a parking brake also. However not sure all thieves would figure it out before drawing attention to themselfs. The problem nowadays is if the car will roll thieves can have it on/or in a trailer or on a rollback in a heart beat.

 

A 12 pound hammer will disable the hell out of one.

Just put a fuse in your ignition and pull the fuse when parked.

 

Gotgas,not paranoid, just aware of lifes realities. JW

 

Just paint it lipstick pink.
I had a 58 Caddie and that barge was lipstick pink with wide whites and a white top.
Oddly, it was a chick magnet, bigtime. I sold that sucker to a guy at an intersection for 18K.
I had about 4K into it. And a picnic lunch in the trunk and a real pissed future ex-girlfriend in the passenger seat.
That was 1985.

 

Keeping it simple is key. JW

 

My buddy put a 4-speed into a 3-speed car, so the shifter needed another position. What he did was install a hidden choke cable to run the reverse lever.

When he parked it he put it in two gears at once. It wouldn't roll, even if you put the shifter in neutral & he put on a neutral safety switch at the trans so it wouldn't crank at all in reverse.

Slick system, unless you stalled it in reverse.

 

Well...taking the coil wire won't work. A buddy of mine bought a new 64 chevy 409 with two fours...and when he went to work he would take the coil wire with him so his girlfriend couldn't drive it. He came home early one day and the car was gone. His girlfriend "Patsy" cut a clothshanger up and made a wire to go from the coil to the distributor cap. How funny is that? The bottom line is drive it, enjoy it, and don't worry so much about it. Like someone else said...if someone wants it...."THEIR GOING TO GET IT"

 

Not sure what lipstick pink is, but if its what we used to call ''tittie pink'' its not a theft deterrent. Buddy back in the early 70s bought a WW2 era Dodge Power Wagon figuring it would be a great hunting rig. He never found out as it disappeared one night. Cops figured a pink power wagon would be easily spotted and found and they were wrong. It was never found. Maybe if it had been lipstick pink it'd be a different story.

 

It would have changed color very fast ! JW

 

my ex had a 89 camaro , alongside the driver's seat under the carpet was some kind of switch which you couldn't see or feel (it didn't have anything sticking up to press just like a flat pad) . even a police officer who thought he had seen them all couldn't start the car

 

Take out the rotor