If you’ve put years of blood, sweat, and tears into restoring a classic car, you don’t want to open your garage someday to find it missing.
However, there are ways to ensure your car stays safe and untouched by thieves. With just a few simple steps and investments, you can keep it secure in your garage or wherever you store it. Here are a few tips on how to protect your classic car.
Lock It Up and Lock It Down
The most effective way to separate a thief from your ride is a locked door. Ensure all the entryways to your garage have lockable doorknobs and deadbolts, and keep the keys to yourself and a trusted friend or family member.
When it comes to locks, there’s no kill like overkill, so invest in a steering wheel lock and wheel and pedal locks, especially when you drive the car away from the safety of your garage.
For extra safety and to save a little money, remove the wheels—including the steering wheel—if you have no plans to go anywhere for a while. The harder you make a thief work, the more conspicuous they’ll be.
Raise It Up
Look into having a car lift installed in your garage. Car lifts are often used in parking garages to raise cars and save space—and make it more difficult for thieves to access them. Most car lifts require more than one person to set up and raise, so a thief working alone will have more trouble.
Wire It Up
The cheapest and most basic way to keep your car from being stolen is to turn it into a temporary brick by removing the battery and storing it elsewhere. If you’re especially handy, install a hidden kill switch to the starter to prevent ignition. Kill switches can be hidden under the dashboard, in the glove compartment, or elsewhere, and they’re effective thief discouragement devices.
If it’s in your budget, add GPS tracking and a remote starter interrupter to your vehicle so that if a thief does manage to get the car started, they won’t get too far. And don’t forget to add a car alarm. It may not do much good in public, but it’ll certainly alert you to trouble at home.
Stay Smart
When you’re considering how to protect your classic car, don’t forget to use your biggest crime deterrent: your brain. Firstly, insure your car. Special classic car insurance is available, and while you’d rather the car not be stolen at all, the claim will go a long way toward taking care of any resulting expenses.
Furthermore, hire only reputable and insured shipping companies to transport your car to shows and the like. Fellow collectors and restorers are good sources of endorsements.