In today’s DIY How-To we’re going to go over a handful of products and tips to either put your collector car away for the winter or protect that daily driver and keep it
around for miles to come.
Batteries in items that sit often will tend to sulfate and lose their charge over time. If you can’t start and run the item regularly adding a Rockwood battery maintainer will constantly check and either apply no charge and float or automatically switch to a perfect 12 volt 0.8 amp trickle charge when needed. No longer will you need to go out and put a charger on once a month. Simply plug in the maintainer and let it do the work for you during the winter. The LED light quickly informs you which state of charge is currently underway and reverse-polarity protects from mistakes. 12 foot leads on the maintainer makes it easier to reach the battery in most any vehicle.
If you live in the “Rust Belt” then you know how harsh the chemicals used on the roads can be on your vehicle. With our home office in Pennsylvania we need to come up with a product to put a stop to the damage done to even modern cars. Our solution is the Eastwood road salt neutralizer. Each gallon of concentrate makes up to 21 gallons of neutralizer to keep you cleaning all winter road salt, brine, and ice melt are no match as the salts corrosive film is neutralized by this cleaner. Eastwood Road Salt Neutralizer can either be sprayed or sponged on. We like using a universal pump style sprayer to make this as easy as possible. Once applied and five minutes have passed all that’s left is to hose the car off, leaving the vehicle good to go until the next snowstorm.
Wheel dollies are a perfect way to maximize garage space since most garages the door isn’t aligned with the side of the building. Not to mention pushing a car is much
safer than trying to drive into tight spaces. There are two types of dollies to get your car into the correct location. We have fixed styles in which you simply jack the car up and then lower the vehicles onto the dollies or our hydraulic wheel dollies which lift the car themselves. Eastwood’s hydraulic wheel dollies easily handled tires up to 12 inches wide and can support up to 1,300 pounds each. Once all four tires are supported you can easily push cars off to the side of the garage to make more room for items you might need like a snow blower.
Batteries in vehicles or motorized items don’t always need to be left connected to a vehicle’s electrical system and can be disconnected to minimize discharge with the Eastwood battery shutoff switch. All you need to do is simply turn the green knob half a turn counterclockwise to stop the possible flow of electricity. You can even take the knob completely out to prevent unauthorized vehicle usage.
Protecting from dirt debris and dust while indoors has never been easier since we introduced the Eastwood Car Covers. The super stretch material will fit the contour of the vehicle perfectly and has an elasticized bottom hem for snug fit breathable material that stops condensation from occurring. This cover is excellent for inside storage or your car and three size options ensure these covers fit multiple sized vehicles with ease. The entire cover is machine washable to allow you to clean last
year’s dirt and dust off before covering your car again this winter.
The underside of your vehicle is one of the most important places to protect as we go into winter. Starting with the rubberized undercoating you’ll want to coat areas such as wheel wells since these take all the abuse from everything tires can throw at them from stones to any debris in the road.
Eastwood rust encapsulator can be found in different forms and sizes to make sure you have what you need. Our best version is the Rust Encapsulator Platinum. This superior rust encapsulator can be brushed, rolled, or sprayed-on. You can be sure any of our rust encapsulator products will lock down and encapsulate rust for the foreseeable future. We’ve tested our Platinum Encapsulator at 1500 hours in the salt spray chamber, mimicking the worst environments. It still managed to come out
intact unlike our competitors. We suggest using rubberized rust encapsulator on wheel wells and undercarriage where you need the strength of a rubberized product but also want to stop rust. The best of both worlds! Rubberized Encapsulator has all the benefits of the standard rust encapsulator with the added bonus of a rubberized coating to protect against chips and scratches.
Our most important tips outside of the products we sell are things like using a fuel stabilizer to protect the fuel system during off months to stop gum and varnish buildup. Changing the oil also removes dirty contaminants from the engine. We also suggest filling the gas tank because it will avoid an empty space which can cause condensation and eventually rust in the tank.
A quick tip is to stuff the exhaust and air intake with rags steel wool or a plastic bag to prevent animals from nesting. If using a rag or plastic it may be beneficial to also add metal screening.
The last and most important tip is to make a sign that you put on the driver’s seat to indicate what has been done to store the vehicle. This way you or whoever starts it next knows exactly what has been done. Hopefully these winter storage and vehicle maintenance tips are helpful and you can be prepared this season.