Three Ways To Prepare A Car For Storage
The winter months can wreak havoc on your vehicle, especially if it is not designed to drive in poor conditions and be exposed to harsh chemicals. For that reason, it may make sense for you to put your car into a storage until the warm weather returns to prevent it from becoming damaged and requiring expensive and complicated repairs. Understanding some of the simplest, yet also the most important, things that you can do to maintain your vehicle while in storage can help prevent you from dealing with headaches when you take your car out again.
Cleaning and Polishing
The first thing that you should do when you know that you're going to be putting your vehicle into a storage unit for an extended period of time is to deeply clean the entirety of the exterior of your car. This will remove dirt, mud and grime which can cause staining and can also hold water against the surface of your vehicle, degrading the paint and making rust much more likely to develop. Besides washing off the surface of your car, you should also apply a generous coating of polish or wax to ensure that there is a protective layer over top of your paint job that will prevent scratching and other forms of minor damage.
Fill the Gas Tank
One of the most important things that you should do when preparing your car for long-term storage, though it may seem counterintuitive, is to fill the gas tank up all the way. This ensures that there is no empty space that could allow humidity to form condensation where it can cause rust to develop and eat your gas tank out from the inside. If you are planning on leaving your vehicle in storage for a significant amount of time – namely a period of more than a few weeks – you should also add a fuel stabilizer, which can be found at most automotive stores, to prevent your fuel from breaking down and becoming unusable when you take your car out again.
Battery Charger
Another essential part of prepping your car for storage is to make sure that the battery is hooked up to a residual charger, sometimes also called a trickle charger. These types of chargers will provide a slow but steady stream of power to your battery, ensuring that it does not die and leave your vehicle completely inoperable when you take it out of storage in a few months.