In reading the site, I noticed that raising the car for winter storage requires placing stands under the suspension. What if they are placed under the frame on the front and rear axle in the back? Will this hurt the car?

Also, I am told that pumping up the tires for winter storage to 60 psi is what most people do. Can anyone confirm this?

Sorry, I have a nice car but I am not mechanically inclined. Any assistance would be helpful.

Looking for a storage bag that seals the car. Any suggestions?

Barry

You can place the jackstands under the axle tube in rear. The front, I place them at the crossmember..under engine. Avoid placing the stands at the control arms or otherwise any suspension point.

As far as tire inflation..I say take the tires off, coat them with protectant and store them inside. Maguires vinyl/rubber works great. Avoid the silicone based items. They look good for shows, but work like crap for the real purpose. The idea of taking the weight off the tires is to avoid flat spots in the tires over the storage period. If you opted to raise the car off ground, tires free from surface, no need to fill to 60 psi. On that note, I do not think it a very sane practice to keep a 30 psi max tire at 60 for 5 months..just my logical opinion.Sounds like trouble to me. Murphys law..

Sorry to contridict but storing the car with the front suspension unloaded is an unatural position; after all, the car is designed to have the front suspension loaded. The same holds true for the rear suspension.

Simply, it hard on the car to store it with its control arms extended, and you'd be better off to just let it sit on its wheels.

Also, whith the shocks unloaded, the shocks arms become fully extended--another unatural operating condition. Furthermore, the unsheathed shock rods will be exposed and will rust in a short time, leading to shock failure.

The more important reason for raiseing the car off its wheels is to unload the wheel bearings. Another thing to consider is wheel cylinders/calipers. They too have exposed areas prone to corrosion, so you may consider compressing them also. (Storing is a bad scene--so you are better off trying to keep the car in limited use.)

You should also grease, flex the suspension, then grease again. How far do you want to take it? It would be prudent to also power bleed/graivty bleed the brakes. (I'm sure that you are aware of it, so I'm only reminding that you need to make whatever provisions for the battery.)

It is also a common misconception that one cannot use the unibody's frame rails as support points when lifting the car. GM's engineers used redundant strenght in the frame rails because the first g-f-body involved lots of guess work in structural integrity.

Hmm...14 67 Firebirds over 17 years..never had a problem. And this in the same climate as Barry.

Natural/Unnatural..Bunch of Hypothesized BS. It works..Beautiful dissertation on theory..but just that, theory.

Have the original shocks on my 112k bird that has been stored (In Michigan) for past 20 years as I described..Still has the original bushings, bearings, and shocks....What gives?

Barry, how long will you be storing the car?
(I know the winters in the Great Whit North are too long... but not that long! Lol...)

The reason I ask is if it's only over the winter, you shouldn't have to worry much about putting the car up on jack stands, or for the most part tirepressure etc... IF, it will be in a garage, and IF you get a quality car cover or one of the storage bags as you mentioned ( http://www.vehiclebags.com/ ) then as long as the tires are inflated properly, and I would recommend changing the oil, and adding a gas additive or stabilizer and store the battery properly and you are set!

Nothing major to it, just common sense, and some preventative maintenace, and your good until next spring. (and this way IF a nice day should pop up, you will be able to sneak her out for a joy ride!)

Just something to think about.

Brett - 67 drop Top 455!

When I lived in Sweden (30 plus yrs ago...), I drove my convertible every day in winter , no storage , just driving , the best for a car....
Bjorn 69 vert

I`ve always raised my car under the front subframe and rear spring perches to take the weight off of the suspension,I especially done this for a few years when I didn`t have indoor storage,due to the amount of snow we get here,got to love those Canadian winters,EH!So my advice is if you`re storing it inside don`t bother,it won`t hurt it to sit around,keep proper air pressure in the tires and it should be alright.

Thanks to everyone for their input. I love this site.

Kindest regards
Barry from Barrie

I also drive my 67 birds in the winter..Dry roads with the tell tale white dry salt still there..20 years, absolutely no rust or bodywork on the car. The "I won't drive my car in winter because of salt and rust" is another BS theory.
As long as the roads are dry, and you wash the car as you would in summer, there is no problem. Now when you drive in slush roads, and the slush cakes up under rockers and fenderwells and frame, there is your rust problem. I enjoy driving my pristine original bird on Christmas and New Years, granted the roads are dry. 20 years, winter and summer driving, went through a frame off, complete strip of exterior paint, and NO rust through or surface rust.

So salt exposeure is okay? I'm glad that you can teach me all kinda' stuff.

By the way, I notice that you cannot make comments without a surely persona. I understand that your occupation attracts a certain personality; even so, your bagde only stretches far, PAL! Any questions?

Unlike others who just sprout off and critisize others good advice, I thought that I'de verify that what I stated was fact--not opinion.

I thought this site would be as good as any other source. Go to "features" page and select "technical information." Scroll down to "store over 30 days," and guess what?

Go polish your badge, got crap on it, and save your rabid behavior for the 9 to 5. Trust me, you don't want to bring your rabid behavior into areas where you walk on a level playing feild.

I apologise to all the good folks here, but when it time to pop a snout, it's time to pop a snout.

Natural/Unnatural..Bunch of Hypothesized BS. It works..Beautiful dissertation on theory..but just that, theory.

Have the original shocks on my 112k bird that has been stored (In Michigan) for past 20 years as I described..Still has the original bushings, bearings, and shocks....What gives?

OK, in my second paragraph, I stated

"Natural/Unnatural..Bunch of Hypothesized BS. It works..Beautiful dissertation on theory..but just that, theory"

I said it works, didn't I? I say hypothisized due to the fact I have original components on a unrestored 67 bird stored wheels off ground. So, with proper reading, I said it works, but on the other hand for me, I did not have the problems you state.

The second statement was based on another "fallacy" on winter driving which has absolutely nothing to do with you.

So you take a cheap shot bringing my occupation into this? Really read my post carefully to understand that by no means were my comments a personal attack upon you, which, in turn you felt compelled to recriprocate personal and occupational attacks. I did not make you look bad, you did that yourself.

I did not see anything that would bring Toms profession into this , where did that come from?I cannot understand what his badge has anything to do with this or his remarks...?

I agree w/Tom... when I lived in Sweden I drove top down in sunny dry cold winters , windows up , heater on, but the worst you could do was to drive it into a heated garage...as long as you leave the car outside that frozen stuff under the car will only melt as it gets warmer...everytime you park inside it would melt and be source of rust...
Bjorn