Mochi

As my project nears completion I find myself looking for things to protect my investment. The very first thing I'm going to do is lojac-ish and an alarm that will email or text me. I honestly don't care what it costs because knowing that I will be alerted if a person breathes on my car gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

That and my "a gun lives here..." sticker ;-)

And to the OP. I'm going with Hagerty. From everything I've read, easy to deal with overall and the agreed upon value makes it even better. Especially with my "2010-2011 build sheet"

GTI_Guru

I'm personally not a fan of this idea, and I have perspective and evidence to back it up. This is advertising that there might be a firearm in the vehicle, thus making it a VERY desirable target for a break-in or worse. Having a lo-jack sticker or something to that effect is good, but telling people you're a firearm owner makes them wonder if it's in the car and easy to get to.

Even worse, is that now they know you own guns, and may follow you home from anywhere and break in the house. Keep as low a profile as possible, don't attract the wrong kind of attention. My brother is in law-enforcement, and I have several other members of the family in different cities that are as well. I've always been told for years by them this is a bad idea.

If you have guns, keep it to yourself. If thieves/criminals know about it and come after them, they will likely be armed as well. Let them find out you're a firearm owner and know how to use them the hard way, if at all.

Hopefully it never comes to that, but every time I see a house or vehicle with a "This (insert object here) protected by Ruger/S&W/Colt/Etc." it just screams to me that there's not only a target, but the owner isn't smart enough to keep that info to himself. (not trying to belittle anyone here with that statement. Just a generalization.)

This works with home security systems as well. Why bother putting in a very expensive home security system, and then put a placard in your front yard advertising just what system it is. Now they know what they are up against, and can find the correct information to bypass it. If you're trying to protect what's yours, don't give ANY information out to anyone about it. Nobody outside of your immediate family should ever have this kind of information.

If you do plan to keep a firearm in your vehicle, do it for the right reasons, and have it secure, but easily accessible. There are gun vaults that can be welded into the floor (yeah, I know it's not a factory option, and will cost you points when being judged at a show, etc.) but that's truly the only way to be safe about it. Having it in a locked console or glove box will just get them crowbared open if that's what they are after, thus causing massive damage. I've seen thieves use a sawzall to remove car stereos out of a dash that's worth $20-$50 on the black market TOPS. What do you think a junkie or professional thief will use to go after a gun worth possibly a few hundred....

-Jeff

Mochi

Good advice. It's the same principle as keeping your shotgun in the back window of a pickup. Maybe not the smartest idea; but with my alerts and combination of a kill switch or two it will give me enough response time to approach, assess and contain the situation. I have plenty of experience with hostile situations and would hope no one challenges the idea that a weapon may be in the car. Which it never is unless I am.

I tell my wife to keep a flare gun in her car for a few a reasons.

MDchanic

I agree that whatever security system you are using, it is wisest to leave it to potential assailants to guess what it is, rather than to tell them.

I've heard that it's also not a great idea to sport aggressive gun-related bumper stickers when crossing the border into Canada.

- Eric

starfire

You make some very good points here. I think the idea of the sign in the yard for home security systems is the hope that the potential thief will instead target a neighbor's house that does not have a security system advertised. This is a good deterrent to the crack heads or random thieves, but not for a thief who has targeted your house because he/she wants something in particular.

slowdime

there have been police cruisers stolen where i live at several times

there was a youtube video of a joyride in a stolen cop car but it was removed

Destructor

A few weeks ago the news showed the result of a car accident in which the two occupants of the vehicle were killed, the car was cut in half after striking a pole. The car was stolen, such a wonderful end for a pair of scum of the earth car thieves. They will never steal anything ever again.

GTI_Guru

Saw a corvette in a yard once a few years back that was almost unidentifiable. Split straight down the center. No fiberglass left at all. The only way to still ID it was the gas tank cover emblem still hanging on by the release cable and what was left of 2 wheels. The lump of mangled engine/trans (after rolling a few hundred yards or so) was dropped back into the appx. engine bay location. no interior left at all. I asked the yard owner about it and he said that it was off to the side in the impound area awaiting possible further police investigation. Stolen car. Running from the cops, and hit a LARGE tree head-on at over 140mph out in the boonies trying to escape. Both thieves did not make it outa that one either. I did notice some smears in the rear "area" of what was left. It was a new enough model at the time I'm sure the owner was insured, but I feel bad for the tree they hit.

Karma works in mysterious ways...

-Jeff

p.s. FWIW, I think I saw it mentioned briefly here earlier as well, but any wheel/brake pedal lock combo is damn near useless as well. Bolt cutters make quick work of the steering wheel itself. Doesn't matter if "the club" device is made out of titanium. There's a flaw/weak link in this system that's not considered by most people either. Seen those cut wheels in yards on destroyed cars quite a few times.

help442onguam

if there a certain model type i should use for my cutlass or is it one size fits all

coltsneckbob

In my opinion the lo-jack is probably ur best option. I am sure nowadays they even have a smart phone app for it (last time I considered one was 15 years ago....so I am out of touch with lo-jack).

I will tell you though nothing stops a stupid thief. I had a 78 Trans Am that was a constant target. As a grad student at my university we had on campus parking privledges. Where I parked there were lecture halls and various buildings all around in addition there 14,000 undergrads walking around. Nevertheless in broad daylight 2 high schoolers walked on campus, and tried to steal my radio and battery. When they couldn't get them out they scratched my "screaming chicken". They did steel another car's radio though. Naturally the little buggers were caught and spent time in juvie.

At school I lived in an adjacent apt complex. Now even though I had 5 of those special shaped key lugs on each wheel some idiot comes along one night and tried to steal the wheels. He got 4 off of one wheel, and 2 off of 2 other wheels. He must have spent an hour messing with it. A neighbor saw him (2am) and thought it was me messing with my car. An hour or so later he looked again and saw the guy had opened the car and had an arm full of 8-tracks - but this time he knew it wasn't me because he could see the guy had a cigarette. So, he called the cops. When the cops arrived they found the guy fiddling with the tires again. Well he was arrested of course. I got all my tapes....but the jerk put a cigarette burn on my center console and passenger seat.

Then there was the time when right after I graduated school and was spending time at my parents home (in a very nice area of north Queens NY) I had my car in front of their house. I had a well concealed cut-off switch and a heavy anchor chain wrapped about the brake and steering wheel. The chain was secured with 2 locks. Nevertheless, some Bozo's came along at night and somehow moved the car. I don't know for sure if they started it to move it (or moved and started it later), but when the car was found in a school parking lot in Jamica Queens it was a) missing it's wheels, b) the interior had several knife stabs in dash and seat, the driver's window was smashed, c) every piece of exterior metal was kicked in or dent somehow. Later I discovered that while the engine ran fine my oil pressure guage danced around like crazy at idle - so I suspect they had a wild joy ride.

That was the final straw. I paid $6500 for the car 3 years prior. The insurance company paid $5800 for the repairs - which took nearly a year. I got the car back and immediately sold it for $6,000.

MDchanic

Those were the days, huh, Bob?

I think one of the reasons these kids today are lacking in gratitude is that they don't know the feeling of walking around the corner and having NO IDEA whether your car will be where you left it, and if so, what sort of shape it may be in, even if you were only away for a few minutes, EVERY TIME you parked it, ANYWHERE you went.

I was driving my '70 SS around the same vicinity at the same time, and I can attest to the feeling of never being sure you owned a car unless you were sitting in it (with a tire iron under the seat), or a TV unless you were watching it (with a gun under the couch cushions).

- Eric

weasel

I know this is an old thread, but thought I would relate my latest project since it is pertinent to this discussion.

My '69 442 had an ignition kill switch under the dash and a manual battery disconnect under the hood when I bought it 3 years ago. The battery disconnect is more useful to prevent battery drain than as a theft deterrent. Since I use the car as a daily driver, opening the hood to re-connect the battery isn't practical, so I seldom used it.

Then I started getting lots of low voltage starts and a few dead batteries on a relatively new battery. I must have an electrical drain somewhere but who knows how to find it. So I decided to replace the manual battery switch with a solenoid operated one. The "painless" kit is somewhere north of $100, so I bought an RV solenoid switch for about $50 and a momentary on-off-on DPDT switch at Radioshack for $5. The switch inside the car is hidden but convenient to reach. I effectively have solved the battery drain by disconnecting the battery anytime the engine is off, and have a secondary kill switch in case the dudes find the first one.

DeltaPace77

Yea, you revived a year old thread, but one that's worth keeping up. My car has a cable lock under the dash, that not only locks the hood, but cuts off the ignition. Also a Crimestopper remote alarm system w/keyless entry and trunk. Pretty nice, as a key never has to come close to the paint. For insurance, I use Grundy agreed value. Reasonable premiums, and the up front value's what you get if stolen. As mentioned, there's flat beds, but you'll be hearing about it with mine.

weasel

BTW, when I bought the car the battery was mounted with the long axis perpendicular to the long axis of the car. This put the positive terminal up under the fender making it really hard to jump start. While putting in the solenoid switch I re-mounted the battery tray as shown in the picture. Does anyone know how the battery was mounted from the factory?

MDchanic

The way it was before you messed with it .

- Eric

weasel

Well, even perfection can be improved on. The battery is now as shown in the Service Manual. Should have just looked it up in the first place.

DeltaPace77

As mentioned, if your car's desirable enough, there's flat bed's and ships to south america, and Saudi Arabia. Happens more than you might think, and not much you're gonna do about it, unless never driving it, locked up in the garage. Paper work, what the heck is paper work in these places. Know I wouldn't wanting to be chasing down my stolen car accross these borders though.