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Just wondering if anyone had experience of storing a car for years and what preparations should be done first?
Should I drain the fuel and coolant? remove the plugs? stuff like that..
I know from experience that rubber hoses and seals suffer badly but I'm not sure if there's anything you can do about that.
Any advice guys?
Cheers
Leave all the fluids alone, if anything make sure they're all fresh or at least in good order like plenty of antifreeze and the oil isn't black. Leave some fuel in as it acts as a lubricant for all the hoses & connections for the fuel system.
Then give anything that pivots or is made of rubber a good soak with wd40, things like wishbone rubbers & ball joints, underneath the suspension top mount rubbers, rear axle rubbers.
Also make sure all the brake calipers are, clean, properly greased up & moving freely then as a bit of overkill push/wind the pistons in a little bit so the pads are not quite touching the discs as that will eliminate any problems caused by the discs rusting up when you come to be ready to use the car again.
A set of wheels with crappy tyres would be beneficial depending what state the current ones are in & if you'd be replacing them when you come to use the car again - but inflate them to a lot more than what they'd be for road used, something like 45 psi and leave the car with the handbrake off, use wheel chocks/bricks/wood whatever is to hand to stop it rolling anywhere.
Last thing is to remove the main HT lead from the coil so that every once in a while you can come back to the car with some jump leads & battery to just crank the engine over on the key for 10 seconds or so to redistribute all the fluids in the engine & fuel system
I've seen fuel filters take a beating. Get that changed to avoid debris and blocked fuel system in the future.
Also, the 'main' HT lead is called the 'King' lead. It feeds the coil/dizzy.
Paddy is from 'oop north' though so he doesn't understand 'clevor' words yet.