Heres 2 examples of Camaros stolen recently not too far from where I live. The first article mentiones some some details as to how the theft occurred.

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-lost-and-foun...-ss/1082927500

http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/vintage-...home-1.1282533

I think ignition switches may have helped. It wouldn't have hurt.

 

Too high tech for me, I want a simple on/off switch. But thanks.

 

oh yeah, I almost forgot something I did on my first car. I installed an electric fuel cut off switch inline to the fuel system. It will start up still, but only get a few blocks with the fuel in the float bowls, then just die. If someone was trying to drive it off, it would be unlikely they would figure it out quickly, plus they would be on the side of the road.

 

In addition to a switch on the coil wire, I thought about hiding one of my iphones in my car. The thieves can't look everywhere and most likely would stop searching once the car is moving. If the car is ever stolen, I could use the find my phone app. Knowing the location of the stolen car would be extremely valuable in getting it returned. And as a bonus the thieves caught in the act. Tim

 

A little more involved as the air cleaner top needs to be removed:
A plug in the vent tubes - engine will start but it won't stay running.
John

 

You would need to maintain a data plan with the phone so you are looking at $$$ per month to keep activated, and you would need to devise a way to keep the iPhone charged in a very discrete manner.

The phone relies on a GPS lock and connection to the local cell tower. Both would be immediately lost if your car was loaded into a trailer due to the metal walls. Sophisticated car thieves could scrub the car for transmitters at their leisure once shielded.

If you want to do vehicle tracking, buy a dedicated GPS tracking device. It will continually send location updates and you can set perimeter limits which will send you an alert the moment the tracking device breaches a pre-defined perimeter.

 

And a professional thief will have an iPhone/GPS/LoJack jammer in his pocket:
http://www.jammer-store.com/xlg15-xm...r-blocker.html

You guys are gonna worry yourself sick about your car being taken and then add 'goodies' that are add'l points of failure when YOU want to operate the car.

Occasionally, I'll put the "Club" on my steering wheel -- more as a visual deterrent to a potential joy rider but that's about it....I have no illusions that'll stop a pro (or determined amateur) for more than 90 seconds.

 

Hint! Install a hidden switch in series with the starter sol!

 

I would never use a club, I've seen steering wheels bent when the thief forces it off. Just picture your teak wheel bent and the wood broken!

 

I had a kill switch that went bad. Never again.

I put this in the category of wheel locks.

Anyone who is serious is going to get your car. It's most likely going to South American or the Middle East. It's gone.

Your car is most likely going to be stolen by professionals. There's not much you can do about that.

Richard Newton
The '58 Interior Project

 

If somebody gets caught breaking the "Club" off my plastic, reproduction steering wheels - so be it

 

I've seen articles recently that pointed out that the joyrider, amateur thief, teenage punk, etc. couldn't drive a stick, and just gave up. That, alone, makes for a deterrent, right? Next, simply switching the blade type battery cutoff switch to the open position takes only a second, but, I agree that it does require you to open the hood before you go into the restaurant, or the beach. All other kill switches, gas cutoffs, power interrupters or whatever, are all good, but the professional thief will just bypass all of that with a winch and tiltbed.

 

A pro who wants your car will get your car. No problem. I use The Truck Club on my convertibles. A bolt cutter will cut right through a steering wheel on a classic very quickly, and The Club will be tossed aside, unscathed. I like a simple kill switch, but have had to bypass mine after about 10 years of use do to failure. As Frankie said, the more interruptions in a circuit, the more 'points of failure', and it is true. A job-rated and hidden switch to the ign. coil + The Club is good enough for me. Keeps honest folks honest. The pro's will haul it off on a flatbed. They don't need no stinkin' switches! Do what makes YOU comfortable. For me, it's adequate insurance.

 

This won't help you guys much but my resto-mod has a modern GM fuse box so I have a mini fuse specifically for the coil. I just pull that fuse, stick it in my pocket and go.

I also have a master fuse for the entire electrical system. No more fires for me. Finally I seldom leave it out of range on my carry weapon.

 

I have a couple older iPhones that I no longer use, and would not cost that much to reconnect with minimum service. As far as the phones not working in a trailer, thats just not true. And all those so called pro car thieves are not straight out of some movie like the Fast and Furious. I'm sure there are some very capable car thieves out there, but most are not that sophisticated. I say make sure you have good insurance and use something that will slow the thieves down. Enjoy your car and try not to worry to much. Tim

 

Funny u guys ask, just installed a switch on the neg side, ran the wire from dist to inside switch and hard wired to a lock/unlock solenoid, bought a conversion kit for door locks, removed the key holes on doors when it got painted, so no scratches from keys now, so when I hit unlock, it unlock doors and connects dist to work, kit cost $25.00,
yep china crap but it works well. mike 58.

 

Hi jet-tech,

I spent most of my career in the cellular industry and I'm very familiar with RF performance of handheld devices. Its all about proximity to the cell tower. If placed in a metal enclosed trailer, coverage will be degraded to the point you will only have coverage pretty much directly under the tower. My first guess is you would lose over 90% of the tower coverage footprint.

The bigger issue is the GPS lock. The GPS signal is hamstrung in at least 2 more areas than cellular. Firstly, it is a much weaker signal, easily 100 times less signal strength (-20dB). Secondly you need coverage not only from one satellite, but from several in order to get a lock and you need open sky in more than one area to pick up the satellites which are placed in a constellation across the sky. It doesn't even take a metal box to kill GPS lock, even ordinary building materials are quite effective. In addition the lock times are much longer than for cellular.

Theres no need to argue the point as this is all governed by the laws of physics. If you would like to use an old phone (any phone with GPS will do), I would recommend a few easy tests.

First, go outside and pull up an ap on the phone that uses the GPS. then take the phone inside your house/apartment etc and test for continued GPS lock. e.g. the garage where you store the car, various areas in the house etc. Even placed in the location you would like to hide it in the car, and place the car outside, then move it inside to your regular storage area. etc. Test for both GPS and cellular lock in various areas to get a feel of the performance. Warning: some of the older iphones had terrible RF performance, I've seen the reports. The new ones are good. You will also need to buy a tracking app, and maybe pay a monthly fee in addition to your cell service.

Now imagine the inside of a metal trailer. That environment is far worse.

For a few extra bucks, I would buy one of those tracking pucks. They are specifically designed for anti theft use, have charging harnesses, and have apps that you load on your current phone where you can dynamically track and set parameters. Even receive an alarm if the cellular lock is lost. In addition you can track on your computer with updates anywhere down to 10 second updates and display the movement on a map. Theres lots of vendors out there and they're not expensive. Heres one example:

http://www.cloudhawk.com/tracking-ve...heft-recovery/

Most classics are very visible and noticed. Its in the best interests of the thieves to get the car hidden either in a trailer or in a building so either way, RF links will be highly degraded, and unfortunately GPS lock will be the first to go.

I agree, bottom line, make sure you have good insurance and use some basic intelligence not to leave unattended for long periods and that is what will give you the most peace of mind.

 

I like interrupting the coil, or fuel better. Less obvious to the thief what the issue is. Interrupting the starter, the source if the issue is immediately apparent (no cranking noise), and (while still an extra step to go through) pretty easy to bypass.

Not that the fuel or coil interrupt is less easy to by pass, just may take a tad longer to diagnose. Some may think, an old car does not want to start, or just dies on them.

Again, I don't think anyone is suggesting these have any affect on pros....

 

Hi - we are a new vendor, (hope this post is ok) but if you have any GPS tracking questions - give us a shout! Many modern GPS trackers can detect towing events, and there are some trackers avail that can even detect location while inside a metal trailer with a varying degree of accuracy using assisted gps technology...

 

I rely on a good insurance policy and don't worry too much about fancy protective devices. About the only time I leave my car unattended is when we're at a restaurant. For those times, I have one of those wireless driveway alert sensor/transmitter motion detector devices. Once I've parked, I put the sensor/transmitter down in the footwell behind the brake and clutch pedals.

The sensor/transmitter transmits to a small receiver about the size of a package of Tic Tacs that I carry in my pocket. If anyone opens the door to get in the car, the receiver buzzes and vibrates. If it's a rollback thief, it senses his arm movement as he reaches over from the outside to disengage the parking brake and take the car out of gear.

This setup takes up less room than The Club and is just as fast to deploy.

I was wondering, however, since many thieves have to gain access to the engine compartment to defeat the various kill switches and other protective measures, has anyone ever come up with an easy way to make the hood release handle removable? Sure, the thief can use vice grips on the wire but it would present another obstacle.

-- Steve