Team,

 

I finally took the plunge and am adding a Ferrari 456gt to my car collection. (The kids legs are getting longer too.!)

 

Trouble is I really want to keep and store the Z and keep it looking as good as possible for as long as possible un-wrapping it for the occasional blast into europe etc.

 

The ferrari will take the garage space that my Z currently lives in so i need some advice and help on the best way to keep a car rust-free etc.

(LOL i know i will need the info more for the ferrari than the Z but at least it is Ally and carbon fibre body!)

 

It seems such a minefield for advice about storage with conflicting advice e.g. heat the garage, de-humidify or do not de-humidify etc. I have the chance of a lock-up barn type building with power.

 

Any advice greatly appreciated

It is a 1992 JDM car and I have the genuine nissan indoor cover for is

It depends on how long you want to store it I guess. You can go as far as putting the thing up on axel stands, taking the wheels off, putting it in one of those sealed bags with an extractor/dehumidifier, draining the coolant out and all sorts.

 

I store mine usually for about 3 to 4 months over the winter period in a heated garage. It'll get moved and driven up near when it's stored when it's dry as the road is never gritted/salted.

was wondering how effective the bag / de-humidifier thing was and how often to run and drive it to avoid having to do all the naus of draining fluids etc. It is one of the issues i have seen when searching for the 456 is that most have done less miles than the average lawnmower so suffer from all sorts of ills. Don't want my Z to be the same.

 

So wondering what the happy balance is between storage and use.

 

Chris C

try these

 

http://www.usadmc.com/carcoon/outdoor.html

 

we use them for our 3 rover p110's, austin 135 and a mk 1 escort. you cant fault them they are top quality and i strongly recomend them

wicked. a blow up garage!

 

I have just undersealed my car totally and it has 0 existing rust. I'm going to keep driving it over the winter but very little, once or twice a week. Cant wait to find a big car park and some snow!

i like the looks of those carcoons, what a great idea

Cool,

 

I think I sould get the car undersealed as well but this carcoon looks like a good bet.

 

What about storage times and draining fluids etc. Say if i drive it once a month and then service it according to the time based schedule will that be ok? A lot of the ferrari's i saw before i chose have very low mileages but were often in a state (seals gone rubber perished, hoses cracked etc) i think it was due to a lack of use more than actual use. Could be crap quality as well as IMHO the Z is better built but then jap cars are.

bump

Ferrari - you jammy barsteward! Lend us £10 to mend the shed - I can pay you back when I get a postal order from Australia. :rofl:

 

I once head salt stays on the roads until April or May. Dunno if it's true but motorbikes (which corrode very fast) seem to rot still in March at the very least.

 

Edit

A bloke I know stored his Boxster over last winter - it ****ed the cats and cost £1200 to fix.

Thats kind of what i am worried about, storing it and making things worse. Right now it is rot free and mechanically very sound. Having spent loads on it i don't want it to dis-intergrate. I have been offered the use of a barn building with power so the car bubble approach seems like the best but is it best to have it in the barn with a de-humidifier going, the bubble, drain fluids (i will probaly use it once a month or so)?

 

Jammy? its all relative really in my book Someone like the twat-in-the-hat (JK from jamiroquai) is jammy, but then he would think that Jay Leno (US comedian and mega petrol head) is jammy. Jay Leno probably envies the sultan of brunei (gets one-off coachbuilt ferrari's made). No matter how much you have or how little you have there is always something more. I was homeless at 16 and the only thing i have learned is never look down always look up

 

Chris

Mine has been parked up for nearly two years. Apart from having to remove the brake discs to remove surface rust I didn't need to do anything else. Problems such as binding brakes are usually due to bad caliper piston seals letting water in etc. I'm sure I heard somewhere that it's good practice to jack the car up and put it on stands to save the springs, although I'm not sure how much truth there is in this?

Perhaps you should use the Z as a daily drive and store the ferrari.

 

Darrell

Perhaps you should use the Z as a daily drive and store the ferrari.

 

Darrell

 

Actually neither are daily drives (that is an E34 5 series) but a small collection of (MHO) classy drivers / sports cars is being built.

The ferrari is always garaged but getting more use than the Z simply because the kids are way more comfy in the ferrari as they have grown quite a bit since i got the Z.

 

The ferrari could never live outside because its build quality is about 40% of that of the Z !!! and economically i have more tied up in it.

 

The Z will probably get used about once a month for a cross country blast so i want it to last but not have to have the hassle of long term storage. Advice from this and other forums is:- Never drive it on salted roads and always put it away dry under one of these bubble type devices with de-humidification built-it. That seems to be the consensus. Using it must less actually leads to lots of big issues, as i found out when looking at super low mileage ferraris they look great but often seals, hoses etc are screwed due to lack of use !!!!

 

Put it this way one of the worst cars I saw was a 7,000mile ferrari (12 years old) and actually bought a same age car with 30,000miles because at least it had been USED regularly........

 

Don't want my Z to go the same way through lack of use it is too good a drive and great sports car design to sit slowy decaying....

 

Chris