Protection

[jaybird]

I never look twice when I hear a car alarm off, and I really doubt if anyone on the school parking lot does either. Seems like a waste, since by the time you find out the alarm is going off, it will be too late.

A screwdriver down the side, a knife to the top or seats, it's a chance we all take, and no alarm is going to prevent that.

 

[Nunyas]

all too true. It only serves to help keep "honest" people honest. Just like locking doors. If whoever wants to take it or damage it bad enough, there will be nothing that'll prevent them from doing what they want to do.

 

[Banjo]

[ QUOTE ]
Mine are expensive (craftsman), but unfortunately not locked up. I guess I really need to though.

[/ QUOTE ]
You don't know expensive till you browse a Snap-on catalog.
I get picked on at work 'cause I have mostly Craftsman tools, and a Craftsman box. But I think they hold up just fine.
I've used them for 10 years without any more trouble than my coworkers with the second mortgage for a set of wrenches.
But I know what you mean. As opposed to the real cheapies.

 

[DrEntropy]

I've a box full of everything from Snappy, thru Craftsman, Mac, and the rest. The boxes are Snappy (3! roll cabs) but I got two of 'em after my dealer repo'd 'em... heh.

I put together a "travel box" for herself as a Christmas gift over twenty years ago (MONOGRAMMED, even!), filled it with the "ElCheapo" stuff, and if a piece broke THEN it got replaced with Craftsman. I think 90% of the tools in her kit are now Sears /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[tony barnhill]

Drilling holes in an MG to install an alarm system that's supposed to keep high school kids from messing with the car of a fellow student who they like to harrass is just plain dumb - I don't know any other way to put it....that alarm system will be a beacon to all the guys who like to harrass you...they'll set it off so many times that nobody will pay any attention (as if the administrators would anyway)

& after its all said & done, you'll be left in the parking lot with a dead battery - & and an MG with holes in it

Keenan, I like you, but you're becoming your own DPO!

 

[JoshP]

Keenan, there is no one foolproof thing you can do to prevent theft/damage to your car. If you want to deter it, here's a few simple things: locking gas cap and a locking hood latch. Locking gas caps are fairly cheap; you can fashion a simple locking hood latch using a bicycle lock cable. Route the cable through your hood latch and around a sturdy part of the car (e.g., bumper bracket). Pull the slack out and lock it up.

If you're worried about fire...well, by the time an engine/electrical fire gets far enough advanced that you notice it from inside the car, it's too far gone to tame with an extinguisher. Just get out and let it go.

If you want to deter total vehicle theft, here's a suggestion: splice in a toggle switch in the white wire that goes to your fuel pump, just before the inertia switch. Yes, that'll allow the vehicle to be started and driven; however, it'll only go as far as the fuel that's left in the float bowl will take it. At that point, the car will quit; the thief will then want to get as far away from it as possible. You can then start looking for your car within a quarter to a half mile radius.

There's also a pedal lock device that you can use to lock up the clutch pedal.

This all sounds better than a whooping and beeping alarm that no one will give any mind to. Hope this helps you out.

 

[tony barnhill]

[ QUOTE ]
whooping and beeping alarm that no one will give any mind to

[/ QUOTE ]

...that nobody will even hera! Its going to be sitting in a high school parking lot - nobody anywhere near it except for when its first parked or just before its moved...

 

[michalotti_tr]

Personally I would forget the car alarm (unless it had a paging feature to alert me). I would like to rig up a system which would zap anyone who touched the car - anybody got any ideas?

 

[DrEntropy]

Yeah, can you say: "Liability" ?

I thought of that years ago and was told by the "legal department" it would get ME arrested if some old bro... er... lady brushed against it and went Tango Uniform beside it in a parking lot.

Still, tho... ~ZOT!~ "Whoa! **** THAT! How's about that nice Toyota over there?!?"

 

[KLUTZ]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
whooping and beeping alarm that no one will give any mind to

[/ QUOTE ]

...that nobody will even hera! Its going to be sitting in a high school parking lot - nobody anywhere near it except for when its first parked or just before its moved...

[/ QUOTE ]


Remember:

If a tree falls in a forrest and no one sees it fall, does it really fall or is it still actually up, but since it REALLY didn't fall can you hear it before it touches another tree or falls on you in fact?
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif
So what I am trying to say is nope, no one cares. I Think?

 

[R6MGS]

[ QUOTE ]
If you want to deter total vehicle theft, here's a suggestion: splice in a toggle switch in the white wire that goes to your fuel pump, just before the inertia switch. Yes, that'll allow the vehicle to be started and driven; however, it'll only go as far as the fuel that's left in the float bowl will take it. At that point, the car will quit; the thief will then want to get as far away from it as possible. You can then start looking for your car within a quarter to a half mile radius.



[/ QUOTE ]

My white MGA has one of those.....I know it works good cuz I've 'tested' it many times. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hammer.gif

 

[jsneddon]

[ QUOTE ]

& after its all said & done, you'll be left in the parking lot with a dead battery - & and an MG with holes in it

Keenan, I like you, but you're becoming your own DPO!

[/ QUOTE ]

Not to mention the fact that you have a car in pieces, with many many variables to work out after getting the engine running. To add to the already hard uphill battle you are adding an alarm to a questionable electrical system that you have no understanding of.

I would highly recommend that if you absolutely MUST install this alarm that you do so in a couple of months AFTER you get the car running and drive it to sort out all the OTHER problems. Adding another variable to the equation is just asking for trouble at this point.

The kindness and patience that your LBC friends are offering you will wear very thin if your buddy drives all the way up to your place again, can't get it to run, and it turns out that it was because you added an alarm.

FOCUS!

Back in the day I drove my TR3 to high school every day and people found it very funny to push it somewhere else in the parking lot. I just brushed it off and we all had a good laugh. From the bits and pieces we've heard from you I'm not entirely convinced that the problems you had were related to vandalism anyway. The average teenagers in HS are not going to even know where your fuel pump is let alone your carbs. Even if it was vandalism, adding an alarm is just going to give people a challenge and add fuel to the fire.

 

[KLUTZ]

[ QUOTE ]



Back in the day I drove my TR3 to high school every day and people found it very funny to push it somewhere else in the parking lot. I just brushed it off and we all had a good laugh.

[/ QUOTE ]


What ever happened to the good ole fasioned WEDGIE!!!!!

 

[DrEntropy]

That was COLLEGE, Paul.

 

[kennypinkerton]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]



Back in the day I drove my TR3 to high school every day and people found it very funny to push it somewhere else in the parking lot. I just brushed it off and we all had a good laugh.

[/ QUOTE ]


What ever happened to the good ole fasioned WEDGIE!!!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

Textile manufacturers make a much better product these days, making a full wedgie removal almost impossible, and painful now for both the wedgie giver as well as the reciever. Now, swirlies, threats, and overbearing personalities are the norm. Occosionally backed up with various random illegal weapons, and traveling in large groups.

 

[jsneddon]

[ QUOTE ]

What ever happened to the good ole fasioned WEDGIE!!!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

The Art & Science geek crowds I ran with were above all that. We were more of the "generate rotten egg gas for 3 days in the false bottom of a locker during the State Education Inspector Visit" kind of pranksters.

 

[sparkydave]

If you want to drive your car to the HS, then you can almost bet that it will get messed with. I drove our secondhand 1988 Pontiac 6000 to school, and it got keyed. Why? Because the truckload of flunkies (one of them the guy I shared my locker with) apparently decided my car was nicer than theirs. I agree with all the others, the car alarm won't do squat except leave you with a dead battery. If anything, it will probably encourage them. I took the bus to school after I had to repaint the keyed door, even though I was senior.

I guess I'm fortunate in that I work for a relatively small company where I'm pretty well known, and many people know that the Midget is my car, so I don't have to worry about it getting messed with.

 

[kennypinkerton]

I rode the cheesewagon all the way through 12th grade! I kept my car at home, and usually only used it to go out on the weekends, or drive to a friends house.

 

[KLUTZ]

Worst thing that ever happened to one of my cars in High School was to my 1975 Gran Torino. My Ex, who worked at Dairy Queen at the time found out I dumped her for her best friend, (now my wife) and I was at her place of work at the time.
Came back to the car half hour later, and the ENTIRE outside of the car was covered in whipped cream. Seems she had friends too.

 

[Nunyas]

eh... I guess I've been fortunate. never had anyone vandalize my HS car... but I did have my sister's friend back into my first truck which was canary yellow the year after I graduated.... but that was an accident, and her insurance picked up the bill to repair it.