I've mentioned a lot about how to keep a car outside of a garage and how to protect it. So here is the devil of the details. Photos always help a lot better than descriptions. So I engaged the help of my sweetie to take some photos while I did my stuff.

It looks like a lot of work, but it does get easy with practice. The main trick is to fold up the tarps and car covers when you take them off - makes it a snap to re-apply.

Setting up the tarps and car covers when you first take them out of the bag - well, that takes some time. Maybe that might make for a sequel on this thread one day in the future.

Ok, so here we go. 1st thing I do is lay out a couple of thick pieces of carpet from the rear hatch areas of SUVs out of the local salvage yard.





That piece on top is to just add a little something to keep water from laying around - forces it to drain off.





Gotta remove antenna. The antenna mount WILL punch through the car cover and tarps with time!!




........So cover it up with a piece of carpet





Same thing here - a little something to force the water away from the horizontal areas. Hard rains will pool water where ever it can!!





2 Car covers: The bottom one is worn out , I just keep on using it. Both provide a thick barrier. Think of it a thick layers of loose fitting clothing in the winter. Notice how I have folded and all rolled up. The rope and cords are on the top cover's eyelets, help keep it in place.






Getting the covers in place while KEEPING the pieces of carpet in place requires some fiddling - take time, don't rush!!





"Well I'll be damn....he DOES have 2 car covers, doesn't he"





What is this??? This bent piece of threaded stock makes all the difference between hooking up a bungee cord in an eyelet and halfway crawling under the car trying to grab a hold of the end and fighting to get the cords hooked up. Been there - done that!!





Car Covers on - Next - Tarps.





An old man and his car - ain't it a beautiful thing!!





I can't understate the importance of folding and rolling when uncovering. It really makes this easy.





Now unfolding








Tarps are easy since there isn't that carpet to get lined up when laying down the car covers.











I get the bungee cords at WalMart - Come in clear plastic can with a screw lid - Cost $10. These Green colored ones are the perfect length for these J-Bodies going from side to side.





1st place to start is in front of the front wheels and behind the rear. This allows you to center the tarps upon the car. Also if the wind does blow these 2 cords will keep you from loosing your mind - and the tarps!!








Now for 3 cords in the middle between the wheels - pulls everything on the sides all snug. Using that home made hook!!





I don't have to crawl under the darn car trying to get those bungee cords!











These tie up the front and rear flaps left over. These are ultra cheap tie-downs from the dollar tree. The blue colored cords work best here.














See how this pulls all the loose ends together?





And to make this look really nice I just tuck the tie down behind those green cords . Keeps the wind from blowing everything around.





And that is it. All smiles and you will have a nice clean dry machine the next time you uncover it. Only thing to do is keep an eye on that top tarp - replace as necessary. (Now you don't have no excuse why you can't keep your car in good shape for a very long time)





.

None of the pics are loading for me....




~ Mike ~

I double checked to make sure the photo album was properly shared. Everything looks good on this end

Mike I noticed your Sig is broken from my viewer too. Logging in didn't help. Wonder if it is a server snafu?

Anyone else having viewing issues please let me know!

Thanks!!


.

Yeah, I cannot see the pictures either


______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"If you ain't first, you're last." -- Ricky Bobby (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby)

As you all know I finally got the old Pontiac out for a spell this past weekend. Going to put some new axle shafts along with the Hood Ron Love picked up for me. Hard to tell all what I will get around to doing while I got it in the Garage for awhile. Sure is nice to actually see it for a change - since it has set under those tarps and covers for years mostly.

Which brings me to the heart of this update....

It has been a long time since I've had a real good look underneath the Pontiac and was very curious what I might find. As you all know I have been trying to learn how to keep a car protected when there is no roof to keep it under. I try to share what I've learned with everyone here so they can keep their cars and trucks for the long haul in as good a shape as possible. So here are 10 photos to show everyone just how well the Pontiac is holding up out there in the blazing hot sun, the frigid cold, the rain weeks on end , the snow and the ice. These are photos of down under where rust sneaks up on ya and plays havoc 24-7.

I was really surprised to see these myself. The old car isn't a a car-show queen, but it is a fun little tinker toy I have had many hours of enjoyment turning wrenches and painting on. It's paid for, parts are cheap and it runs darn well now! Life is good!!


































.

I see a compression fitting in one of the pics, hopefully it's not a brake line.

A big no no if it is....wouldn't pass
yearly vehicle inspection in NY from my experience.

Doug in P.R.




92 Pontiac Sunbird LE, 2.0, AT, Red / Black with Grey 155K miles. Hurricane Maria Survivor ! ( It takes a licking and keeps on ticking ! ).....in Salinas, Puerto Rico!

Thank You for letting me know Doug!

I never ever claimed to be an expert at brake lines to begin with, so after reading I went digging on the internet and indeed found Virginia has the same law. I guess I just got lucky passing inspections after botching this thing up. Nowadays I run Antique Plates on the Pontiac and never have to get an inspection. Amazingly, the compression fittings has held since 2012 - my repairs needed then courtesy of a bouncing ride in a Roll Back after the Ignition Control Module went out. I guess the bouncing caused the line to crack.

Far, far worse than this - (and I can hear the hollering all the way to Spokane......) - when I patched up the 2002 Cavalier a few years ago I actually went to the U-Pull It and removed the entire set of fuel and brake lines to replace the rotted out ones on the car. Yep - used compression fittings front under the drivers foot area of the floorpan for all of them. Was real proud of myself too!! Hahaa!!

Well, I will soon pick up a flare tool and various unions and fittings and some brake line and fix this like it is supposed to be. I am thinking about just going ahead and replacing the wheel cylinders while I got the brake lines opened up. That'll clean out the system all the way through and make for a simple one time bleed off.

By the way.....anyone got any idea what size the lines are? 3/16" maybe or some metric size???



P.S.... I didn't feel quite so bad after I saw Scottie Kilmore showing people how to fix their brake lines with compression fittings. He had a bunch of negative replies too...LoL.

Probably you passed because it looks like a fuel return line, you can hide it with spray can undercoating .

( Don't worry , I see noooothing!)lol

Doug in P.R.


92 Pontiac Sunbird LE, 2.0, AT, Red / Black with Grey 155K miles. Hurricane Maria Survivor ! ( It takes a licking and keeps on ticking ! ).....in Salinas, Puerto Rico!