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4 Things Silently Killing Your Vintage Car
You click the ignition key one detent to the right. A quick twitch of the right foot to tickle the accelerator pump and set the choke. Another touch on the key and . . .
Nothing.
What should be a crescendo of eight trumpets playing the V-8 version of taps and stirring the car person’s soul awake is instead the painful silence punctuated by the soft click of the ignition cylinder returning to the off position. Wake up, it’s just a nightmare.
At least, for now it is. It could happen to you, though. Nature is a cruel mistress who is conspiring against us and our cars and doing so both vigorously and silently. Here are four main offenders to keep your eye on, since your ears aren’t going to help.
The Garage Fridge
Current moving around inside an electric motor—like the compressor of a refrigerator—produces ozone, and that combined with sunlight can age tires and other rubber parts very rapidly. Replacing dry-rotted but otherwise fine parts gets expensive and annoying very quickly. If you are like me and aren’t ready to give up the fridge or freezer, focus on keeping sunlight away from your vintage ride.
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Corrosion
Deep inside your car, there is a war being waged between materials and nature. Hate to break it to you, but nature always wins. That means rust and other types of corrosion are leaching into the metals and connections that not only shape your car but also make it functional and easily serviceable. For every joke about “hearing a car rust” there are five cars that rusted away before the owner even noticed.
Being Parked
Sitting is the last thing cars were designed to do. All of the silent killers, and a few of the noisy ones, attack when the car is laying dormant. These things gain ground while the car is waiting, only for us to claw back some ground with our occasional drives. Oil coatings slip off and leave dry-start conditions inside an engine that could drive an owner to doing the extra work of priming an engine just to go driving. That’s only for those who are both aware and care enough to take that action. For many, ignorance is bliss when turning the ignition key and hearing the rumble through the exhaust pipes.
Friction
Fine, I’ll concede this one is not always silent, but with or without noise, excess friction is making your vintage car smaller with every drive. I’m not even talking about the intentional friction from brake or clutch lining, but instead about the metal-to-metal contact that was never designed to be that way. Grease and oil are subject to gravity just like us, so keeping oil and grease in the right spot is a never-ending task as they silently slide and ooze past seals and gaskets. One small drop on the garage floor might not seem like a big deal but over time can mean lots of very worn-out parts that seemingly happened out of nowhere.
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i live in newfoundland canada its very cold here winter time my truck is 40 years old in storage i can not start it up every month its 29 0ther car and trucks there so you put car or truck in storage you wait until may to get it out we live in nl, canada not disney land yahoo.com
Ozone production from your garage fridge?
Maybe if you have a 75 year old refrigerator and a garage that is all windows.
Take off the tin foil hat.
Thank you A.Ski- Hagerty should not perpetuate old myths when it comes to old cars.
question for all those in the know
I live in a humid environment close to the coast. I have my babies in a garage with 2 dehumidifiers running to maintain a constant 50% humidity. The garage is not dark as stated as a possible solution because the doors are a frosted glass. Thoughts of this ozone issue that’s discussed
Stored chemicals!!! Never, never, never keep fertilizers or pool chemicals including chlorine in the same air space you keep your cars or tools !!!
Kyle, if you don’t “cry uncle” soon on garage refrigerators and ozone this thread will likely go on for weeks. There are probably another 1000 posters that will feel a need to tell us garage refrigerators don’t generate ozone gas. 😂😂😂😂😂
Love the comments and appreciate the concept of driving the classics! I have a 84 Mercedes 380sl which I drive regularly and a 1960 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II, which has been in the family its entire existence. I am a physician, and for those of you who admit to being older, I give you the the same recommendation. Keep the body moving and keep your ‘engine’ going. Stay active with your body and that will give you plenty of time to enjoy your classics!
Clearly you weren’t in the military. It’s Reville, not Taps. Taps is for going to bed. Reville wakes you up.
Refrigerators DO NOT emit ozone. The motor is sealed inside the compressor housing. The idea that refrigerators are a source of ozone is so off-base that it’s not even wrong.
a bearing co once said a car needs to be driven 123 ? miles to “Fully” warm up bearing to normal opperating temperatures.
Any Ozone created by a fridge compressor will stay sealed inside the compressor/motor assembly.
Don’t worry about the fridge, have a beer.
The ozone warning from refrigerators is very misleading. Only significant electric arcing produces ozone, not a sealed compressor from the last several decades. Some refrigerators with an added “ionization” or “air purifier” accessory will produce ozone deliberately, but not the small basic fridge pictured.
Nature is a cruel mistress?! Sorry to break it to you fine folks but she doesnt do any of us good
either. For your information we start to decay the moment we come into this joint.
I built my street rod in the early eighties, it was mainly for going to the Street Rod Nationals and local shows, no heat or air, I’m now in my seventies and go for drives as many times as I can, turbo engines love cold air, when it’s close to zero is the most fun as long as the roads are clean, I had the chassis and suspension powder coated many years ago by the house of powder and still look great. it’s no fun if you don’t drive them!
I love reading the comments, especially when they say ” it’s in perfect condition ” Its used! Right off the assembly line as soon as someone starts it up and drives it to park, ready for shipment, it is a used vehicle. Lol
Isn’t it some kind of selfish to be buried with your car & depriving someone else of the enjoyment?. At 88 I sold my “57 Citroen Traction-Avant to a chap a bit younger than I. He loves it & I am so happy for both of us!