I will be putting my vette in my parents garage while I'm deployed. I already know that they probably won't have time to really start it up and drive it occasionally. How should I prep the car to sit for a year?

 

Just a few suggestions before you put it away;
- clean car, exterior & interior
- change oil & filter
- overinflate tires to 40 PSI
- use a battery tender or disconnect battery
- plug holes (ie. exhaust, intake, etc.) to prevent rodents from getting in
- cover car with breathable cover
- lubricate moving parts such as door hinges, etc.
- fill tank with fuel & add stabilizer

hope this helps.

 

if it were my car, I would look into putting it on jack stands.

i think the tires would develop flat spots if the car were to sit for a great period of time.

just my two cents.

 

I had my 99 in storage for a year while I was assigned to Korea. I took the battery out and left it with my wife. When I returned, I charged the battery and put it back in the car--it started right up; it ran rough for about 5 seconds and hasn't had a problem since (2001). I did not even have to reprogram the radio presets or the tire sensors.

I also inflated my tires to about 36 PSI; they were right at 30 after a year. I did not notice any flat spots.

Other minor things I did:

-I left the windows down a bit and slightly popped the roof, hatch, and hood to avoid compressing the rubber seals.

-I stuffed some rags into the tailpipes to keep out mice or bugs.

-I had a few bags of the dehumidity bags inside the car on plastic.

-I parked the tires on cardboard-I read somewhere that prolonged sitting on concrete was bad for the tires.

-I put some gas stabilizer in the tank.

-I had a full tank of gas.

-I had a fresh oil change just before going into storage and right after returning.

-I did not put the car up on jacks and the suspension seems fine (Z51).

-I thouroughly cleaned and Zaino'd the car and stored it with a car cover inside a garage a self-storage place.

The car was in Denver, so humidity was low and the temperatures were not too severe.

I don't know about your case, but since I PCS'd to Korea and was not authorized a car, the government paid 100% of the storage costs and the cost involved in storing the car (oil change, lock, stabil, dehumidity bags, etc.) The total cost was about $1500; the only downside was I did not get any of that money until after I returned from Korea.

I am now in Belgium, where the car gets stared at everywhere I go.

 

Modern radial tires don't really "flat spot" like the old bias plys did. Over inflating them by about 5 lbs is ok as long as you remember to check the tire pressure again when you pull it out of storage and bleed off any excess pressure still remaining.

You might do more harm than good - the suspension needs to be loaded on these cars, unloading it by using jackstands may actually damage the suspension over a years time.

I think the list posted earlier is perfect on what to do.

Good luck!