If your classic car has been in storage longer than your teenager has been around, chances are it isn't ready to hit the road. If your wife&hellip;{"id":5299,"date":"2014-05-06T10:35:15","date_gmt":"2014-05-06T17:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/?p=5299"},"modified":"2014-05-06T10:35:15","modified_gmt":"2014-05-06T17:35:15","slug":"blow-off-the-cobwebs-taking-your-car-out-of-long-term-storage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/06\/blow-off-the-cobwebs-taking-your-car-out-of-long-term-storage\/","title":{"rendered":"Blow Off the Cobwebs: Taking Your Car Out of Long Term Storage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If your\u00a0classic car\u00a0has been in storage longer than your teenager has been around, chances are it isn&#8217;t ready to hit the road. If your wife isn&#8217;t even aware you own a classic car because it&#8217;s buried in the garage under all the dusty stuff marriage seems to collect, it definitely isn&#8217;t road ready.\u00a0It doesn&#8217;t necessarily have to be time and labor intensive, but there are some simple things you do need to do to get her into shape. (The car, not your wife.)<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Before you start the engine change the fluids.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Do an oil change<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Do a full flush of the coolant<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Change the brake fluid (this can be easily pumped out by bleeding the brakes until the old fluid is purged)<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Change the transmission fluid<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Hopefully there isn&#8217;t any in the tank, but don&#8217;t forget to check for stale gas. Drain the gas tank if there is.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong>Do a critter check.<\/strong> Or, if your car is stored somewhere posher than your cluttered garage, still read on.<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Before hooking up the battery (you&#8217;ll most likely need a new one), check for damage to wire looms and wires<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Don&#8217;t forget, mice love insulation and wires<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Check the air filter for nests and such (the filter should be changed anyways)<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Inspect all vacuum lines and belts for wear and cracks<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Remember to look at heater hoses, oil and coolant lines<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Simply speaking from experience, if you don&#8217;t want your wife freaking out, checking the glove box and any hidey holes for uninvited guests is never a bad idea<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Now it&#8217;s safe to attempt a\u00a0start up, let&#8217;s go over some basics.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Watch the gauges until the car gets up to temperature in case a line blows (or if there is a leak in an oil or coolant line that you missed)<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>The tires need a thorough once over for weather cracks and to make sure there is proper pressure. You&#8217;ll want new rubber, but what&#8217;s on there might be good enough to get you to the shop.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Unless you want to convince the patrolman that you were indeed using hand signals, now is a good time to test all the lights, including turn signals<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Old cars typically need some minor carburetor work after sitting<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>It&#8217;s a good idea to grease all points in the front end and the universal joints<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Take the first drive slow. Don&#8217;t leave the driveway until you know the steering and brakes are working<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now all that&#8217;s left is to convince (command) the teenager to come out to clean\/wax\/polish and you&#8217;re good to go!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":5302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cos_headline_score":0,"cos_seo_score":0,"cos_headline_text":"","cos_headline_has_been_analyzed":false,"cos_last_analyzed_headline":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[805],"tags":[1274,1276,1278,1277,1275,1196,189,1280,1281,1279],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/1965_chevrolet_ck_front_corner_in_barn.jpg?fit=554%2C434&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9nnZN-1nt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5299"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5299"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5305,"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5299\/revisions\/5305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}