Thoughts on putting the T-Bird up on "blocks"

[stevedaphotoman]

Hi all,

The tide, temperature, (and leaves) are starting turning here in Central NY... Thought of putting our new to us t-bird away for the 4 -5 months of winter hibernation is on my mind. I know I will change the oil, fill the tank, and add some fuel stabilizer.. I will probably put the hard top back on, don't know why, but might as well use it sometimes... It will nesting in a heated garage at about 45 degree F.. It will be waxed and covered with a car cover and it is sitting on a large vinyl floor covering we got from Costco to keep it off the bare concrete.. It will be on life support with a battery tender..

Here is the question, Should I put it up on "blocks".. My brother in-law bought 4 regular scissor jacks and place one scissor jack at each normal jack up location on his Miata.. He raised them just enough to take some of the weight off the tires and suspension thinking it will save the springs a bit along with minimizing the tire flat spots.. The tires are still touching the ground.. Now I have heard it's not good to take the weight off the suspension but relieving some of the weight kind of makes sense to me.. Especially now that replacement springs are scarce.. I just stopped at Auto Zone and I heard the "No don't take the weight off the suspension" thought.. Use bottle jacks or the jack stands and do the traditional off the floor with the tires.. I'm not sure if I go that route where to place the jack stands or bottle jacks.. I guess I can find that on youtube..

What do people think about the scissor jack idea?

This page contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated. As an eBay Partner, and Amazon Associate I may be compensated if you make a purchase at no cost to you.

 

[vinnie]

When all those sunny, clear winter days appear you might regret your decision to "block." The option to drive it once a week or two might deserve some consideration. Keeps the vital fluids circulating and an occasional infusion of fresh petrol can't hurt. Your Baby will love you for it.

 

[stevedaphotoman]

Thanks Vinnie, I have thought of that also.. There are a few times a year in the winter where this is no salt on the roads.. (our back top in CNY is often white with salt in the winter) The salt on the roads is definitely the deal killer here.. Yupper I may sleep on that.. Effectively we could be driving up till the Holidays.. 50% of the time we have a green Christmas.. And we do get those thaws.. My brother in law put in miata in a self storage unit while he lived here in NY.. Then after a couple years, they moved back to Florida.. He still has his 2002 Miata..

 

[vinnie]

Steve, I have had a 1964 Pontiac Catalina since 2011. I know the winters here in Southern Maryland don't compare with Central NY, but we do have snow and some liquid abomination they use on the roads. I try to drive it weekly and not let it sit for more than two weeks. Within that period I always manage to get a relatively salt-free nice day to exercise my first born - even if it's only to the gas station and back (9 miles). It has never let me down. The 3 week old T-bird and Pontiac are side by side, uncovered, in the garage. Just to be able to look at them gives me great pleasure. But do what you have to do.

 

[stevedaphotoman]

I have thought about that Vinnie, but I don't think it will be a weekly possibility here in Syracuse.. Maybe every 3-4 weeks during January and February.. It is true we do have an attached garage and it's nice to walk in from work or heading out to work and seeing the car there sitting there waiting. I have Continental Tires on the T-Bird and in one week I can feel the flat spot.. Luckily in a few miles it disappears from the ride.. I'm tossed up on playing the game of putting it up for the winter or pulling it out into the driveway and letting it warm up every couple weeks.. Still debating and researching it.. 🙂

 

[Pelagic]

I have thought about that Vinnie, but I don't think it will be a weekly possibility here in Syracuse.. Maybe every 3-4 weeks during January and February.. It is true we do have an attached garage and it's nice to walk in from work or heading out to work and seeing the car there sitting there waiting. I have Continental Tires on the T-Bird and in one week I can feel the flat spot.. Luckily in a few miles it disappears from the ride.. I'm tossed up on playing the game of putting it up for the winter or pulling it out into the driveway and letting it warm up every couple weeks.. Still debating and researching it.. 🙂

Very interested in this as I'll be putting mine away for winter (here in Alaska.) Was thinking about removing battery for the winter and covering it up well. Guess I'd better check the manual trunk release first.

 

[stevedaphotoman]

That's anther good point.. I have used my manual release a couple times, to check to see if it works.. Wouldn't be a lot easier if we could lease these t-birds but just think of all the fun we would be missing out on..

 

[captrick]

Hey Vinnie, I live out on Long Island and yes our winters aren't as harsh as yours but we have salt air 365 days a year. If you are worried about putting the car up on blocks put the blocks under the lower control arms of the front and rear. This way you keep the tires off the floor and still keep weight on the suspension, or buy a drive on lift and store the car on that, put rubber mats under the tires. I have a 1967 Shelby GT 500 which I store on a 2 post lift all winter for years and only hand to replace the bushings in the shocks, no big deal. I store my 05 T-Bird under it and drive it at least once a week weather permitting. When you store the convertible top down over the winter, when you go to put it back up in the spring only go about 3/4's of the way let the top stretch slowly try to get in the sun. Otherwise the welting tends to rip the seams. Good Luck Rick

 

[U5512]

Very interested in this as I'll be putting mine away for winter (here in Alaska.) Was thinking about removing battery for the winter and covering it up well. Guess I'd better check the manual trunk release first.

DO NOT REMOVE YOUR BATTERY because your car will lose all of its memory including the transmission's shifting points. Your transmission will need to re-learn your driving habit / shift points once again after you put the battery back in, and it will take a few hundred miles for your transmission to shift normal again.

Get a battery FLOAT CHARGER, or battery TENDER which will keep your battery fully charged during the winter storage. I have been using the float chargers from Harbor Freight on seldomly driven vehicles and a motorcycle, and the float chargers always kept the batteries fully charged and ready to go.

https://www.harborfreight.com/automatic-battery-float-charger-42292.html

 

[U5512]

DO NOT REMOVE YOUR BATTERY because your car will lose all of its memory including the transmission's shifting points. Your transmission will need to re-learn your driving habit / shift points once again after you put the battery back in, and it will take a few hundred miles for your transmission to shift normal again.

Get a battery FLOAT CHARGER, or battery TENDER which will keep your battery fully charged during the winter storage. I have been using the float chargers from Harbor Freight on seldomly driven vehicles and a motorcycle, and the float chargers always kept the batteries fully charged and ready to go.

https://www.harborfreight.com/automatic-battery-float-charger-42292.html

If the Thunderbird's battery is weak and needs replacement, always use / plug in the "car memory saver" PRIOR to removing the battery so that the car's several computers and transmission's shift points (and the radio's preset stations!!!) don't have to "re-learn" again.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Car-Compute...084105?hash=item1a35ff7649:g:RkIAAOSw5VtZxqE1

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vehicle-Clo...559159?hash=item1c921e89b7:g:-zAAAOSwTUVZrRqb