Poll: Car Anti-Theft solutions

I just drive a ****py car, or a 4-door. No one wanted a '60 Pontiac sedan, or a '72 (even with the 455 in it). So when the '57 came up I didn't even worry about the extra set of doors. I had that winter beater '84 Skylark too, I could leave the keys right in it and it would always be where I left it. Even downtown.


I'd worry more about vandalism or people stealing parts. The electric fence charger hookup is a good idea if you dont have any electronics it would fry for you. They make solar powered ones, too (they must charge some kind of battery so they work after dark) - you could mount it right in the car. Will mess with the rollback guys too, if they can't disable it somehow - once it's chained to the truck it will go through that too. Then if it would just blow out their computer in the truck.... won't run without that.

 

theives dont usually walk around with a coil wire, and you cant start a car without one.

 

Every body keeps talking about taking the coil wire, you can use one of the other plug wires in its place. I am wondering about some method of covering the coil connections on my truck. It still has the starter pedal, so you cant disable it, a good jumper and it will run. Jay

 

I have designed my vehicle to be so visually repulsive that the would-be theif is physically unable to steal and object that horrific. At least thats my wifes take on it.

 

I have however had problems convincing the trashman to leave it in the driveway. Every time I get a new guy on the route, my wife has to stop them from hauling the peice of **** away.

 

I read this post and had a real good laugh.Lots of good ideas and some a little far-out.Here's a couplene used to available and the other is home-made(and highly illegal in most states).
We used to install alarms that were wired with a hidden switch that allowed you to even leave the keys in the ignition.You could start the car normally but as soon as you put your foot on the brake,the engine shut down and the horn started blaring.Worked pretty well.
The second method also involves the use of the brake pedal but in a slightly different manner.
Basically you rig a steel tube parallel to the steering column that is essentially a zip gun.You load it with .22 caliber ratshot and rig the hammer to trip when the brake pedal is applied.Won't kill anyone but it sure does leave an uncomfortable feeling in the lower abdominal area!
Unfortunately most states have laws against setting gun traps.I suppose you could rig a taser to do the same thing.

 

My dizzy is real easy to reach, so I take the rotor with me and snap the cap back on so you can't tell anything is missing.

 

Not in Texas. A repo man was shot AND killed in Texas (Dallas if I remember right). The guy who shot him got off scot-free and did a 60 minutes interview. The local authorities then advised repo guys to " Find another line of work". True story.

 

Just one last thread to this... what we used to do back in highschool is carry around a FAKE coil wire... We would make up an extra wire but not put a terminal on it... As everybody has been saying, an 8 will run fine on 7 cylinders if the theif subs***utes another wire for a missing coil wire... The thing that works with this solution is nothing looks wrong.. You can acheive the same effect by pulling your rotor but that involves popping off your cap and dealing with the other 8 wires..

seems to have worked well.. I still have my first hotrod

 

Add a kill switch hidden under the dash, Ground one side of it and wire the other side to the coil, The side that goes to the distributer. The car will crank till the battery runs down, but it can't be hotwired till the thief finds that kill switch.

 

Keep your car lloking like this. It can't be hotwired, you'd need a towtruck to move it, and if it did get loaded up, the tailgate would fall off.....

 

I agree on the key in dash theory. without a locking column someone just needs a 3' jumper to get power to the coil and can be off in no time. I run shaved handles and have a beater looking car so that keeps people away from it.

 

I air mine out, the rockers lay to the ground.


Then i flip the kill switches, 3, 3 way switches, only 1 of the 3 ways works, and all three have to be in the right spot. and they're all hidden somewhere not near each other.


It gives a lot of combinations of switches, so it's hard to "Guess" they all have "wires" connected to them, no matter , because some don't really go anywhere except for into the insilation... looks cool though.


my great-grand pa was HUGE into "inventions" and tinkering. I've been told the story by my grandpa a few times...

He had a 30's something ford, he love it a lot. So he wired up an "alarm".

he pulled the door appart, and put in 4 1x1x2 piece of metal, and drilled a small 1/4 inch hole in the middle of all of them.

welded them inside of the door, and then dropped a wire down the middle of it with weight at the bottom, making sure it was nice and straight.

Then he ran the wire to the horn switch as the ground.

So... if you went up and wiggled the car, it would make the wire "ground" the circuit. and thus, blow the horn.


THe dimentions of the measurements are probably off, but you get the GIST of what he had in mind.

Pretty creative guy. he did a BUNCH of other fun things to his car.

 

Well since people are going off an tangents anyway... How hard would it be to wire the coils or distributor to a contraption running wires through the front seat. Ya flip a switch that turns the system on then when the guy tries to hot wire the car he gets it in the ***.

I remeber a mean trick played on me as a young lad. I was told to hold a plug wire close to the car body to check spark. Well he had me lean way in so I had alot of contact with the body then cranked the engine over for about 30 seconds. Needless to say I was stuck to the car and screaming for him to stop.

Could work in the car as well! If it didn't start a fire!

 

I prefer the Von Dutch approach: Since you're building your own car, make it so detailed and confusing that you're the only one who can start it. In St. John's book, he reprints the lengthy written directions on starting and keeping the KenFord truck running. Dig that dash!

 

damn straight, lever's like manual spark and choke and stuff.

 

Not sure if anyone posted it yet or not, but there seems to be some REALLY effective methods at stickdeath.com

 

....a piece of vacuum hose about the size of a coil wire all dressed up with the coil and distributor boots on 'em works real gooooooooood...like ya said...nothin' looks wrong or outa place..