SECURITY: for your charger

[Charger500]

Hello,

Now that I am getting close to completing my charger I have begun to think about security and really thought of a lot of things. I was wondering what you guys use if anything for your cars and what really works. (GPS, alarm systems, the CLUB etc...) Thanks!

Charger500 

[TruckDriver]

I know someone that found out he hard way "The Club" is useless. All the thief do is cut the steering wheel with a hack saw, bend it, and off comes  the club. GPS, is hidden and they track your car with a satellite.

[ChgrSteve67]

I'm going to have a lojack installed in my Charger.

It won't keep them from stealing it but I will get it back and someone will be going to jail.
http://www.lojack.com/
I gave them a call about 6 months back and they were very nice and helpful.
They will come to your car (work or home) and install it.
Low end unit was $600 to $700.

I am also going to get a VIN etching kit and mark all of the glass in the car. About 20 bucks.

Other than that probably a ignition kill switch stopping the kids from going for a joy ride.

One more....
I have also seen kits installing a release on your steering wheel so you can remove it easily.

The pro's will get your car no matter what you do to it.

[TK73]

I go for the "primer and cracked windshield" security... car looks like shit and nobody will bother it 

[Ghoste]

Don't count on it.
Anything that can locate the car is about your best bet combined with an ignition kill.  I also disable the garage door opener whenever we are leaving for a long period and add a bolt to the track of the door.  Anything that can slow them down.

[TK73]

yeah, my security isn't 100% foolproof.  Good thing is that it doesn't really matter if mine is stolen, pretty much can only go up from here...

[mikemopar]

I use an MSD box.  Kill switch is hidden.playing with the buttons
what's this one do

what's this one do

what's this one do

what's this one do

what's this one do

what's this one do

[SuBLimE 69]

I back my squad car up to the garage door.   Seems to work !  
I don't think there is really any great way to protect these cars.   Anyone with a flatbed can get it in a few minutes.   They take a few seconds to break the colum and drive away.   Lojack is great and all but check with you local law enforcement and make sure they have Lojack tracking equipment in their patrol vehicles.   Alot of departments never got the system and some have even phased Lojack out.   Hell some officers don't even know how to use the damn thing.   I have only recovered a couple cars using Lojack but it does work.   The Onstar system from GM is amazing.   That thing can tell me where the car is within feet if it's parked.   And if it's moving it can give me the direction, speed, change of direction, heck I had one Onstar operator tell me the car had a driver and passenger and how much dang gas was in the car.....simply amazing.

For these old cars i think a hiden battery kill switch is a great and cheap idea.   If you really want the car back and want to drop the $$ Lojack isnt a bad idea.   The car alarms are really a waste.....How many times have you heard on going off and ignored it ?   If the car is out in the open any flatbed wrecker can get it in a matter of minutes.

****A bolt to the garage door and disabling the opener is great advice.   If you opener is on your garage door is of cousre unlocked.   I  simple pry bar between the top panel and the top of the door jamb can pry the panel down far enough for someone to stick something in and pull the "manual back up rope"   This of cousre disables the door opener and the door will roll right up.****   

****For the bolt trick simply take a bolt and nut and run it into the rails on each side of your door (the rails the little wheels roll up, put bolt just over the wheels)   if the door is opened it can only travel as far away as the nuts are place from the wheels.   Of course you have to move these to use the door regualrly but if your out of town its a great trick.   If you have an extra vehicle park it infront of the garage !   Now they will have to move it aswell !   Anything to slow them down right !   If it is too difficult to take and becomes to time consuming most thuggs will give up and find an easier target.****

Just my   from the cop side if the house.  

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Let 'em take it!  I'm insured for 50k! 






(yeah I say that now but you know if it really happened I'd be crying like a baby!!   )

[Ghoste]

In the garage, I'm less concerned about losing the car than I am some of the other garage contents.  It's all insured but I've heard a lot of horror stories of people trying to recoup the cost of tools and such from insurance companies.

[TruckDriver]

I go for the "primer and cracked windshield" security... car looks like shit and nobody will bother it  

[4402tuff4u]

When I get mine finished and back home, I'm considering placing the Charger on stands and storing the wheels elsewhere. That's if your not going to use the Charger for awhile, like in the winter season or else it would become a real pain in the ass for my wife to do.

I'm thinking of a ignition kill switch and a pad lock on the garage door. The pad eye for the padlock would be anchored to the garage flloor. I'm also  counting on my dog in the warm weather season who is not friendly at all with strangers and finally I'm counting on my neighbor that owns a 71 Cuda who is a disabled cop and always home to keep watch.

[kab69440]

A simple hotwire run from the 440 that powers your welder, clamped to the undercarriage in a not easy to see location will keep anyone from stealing the car. What they don't know will definiitely hurt them.

[Ghoste]

Unless they survive and sue your ass. 

[Old Moparz]

First thing I thought of, since your user name is Charger 500, is what year car do you have? I ask that because 1969 & older don't have ignition locks, & you can basically drive off with the car with a screwdriver. My '69 Satellite has the ignition in the dash, & when the key snapped off in the door when I went to lock it once, I still managed to get home to New Jersey when I was in NYC. I opened the trunk to get a screwdriver from my toolbox, undid the retaining ring that holds the ignition in the dash, pulled out the keyed switch, & used the screwdriver to start the car. It was that simple, & I had the spare key at home.

If you have the car somewhere where you are going to be away from it, the more deterrants you have the better. Making the car harder to steal, or doing things that will slow a thief down, will make them go to a different car. The flat bed thief will take it easily, but only if they can access one end of the car. A combination of anti-theft devices, good insurance coverage, keeping it out of sight & hard to get to when not in use, & GPS to recover it if it were to be swiped, are the best you can do. If someone wants something bad enough, they'll get it. Of course all the deterrants won't help if you're car-jacked.

[defiance]

I pulled most of the lock mechanism - including the manual lock things - out of the door entirely; left only they key-to-lock portion.   Then, I put in an actuator for electric door locks, and put the actuator above the little bar going across so that it's nearly impossible to reach it from above.   So, slim-jim is probably not 100% impossible, but they're going to be darned surprised if they try

I then installed a viper alarm.   6-billion rolling codes... Not uncrackable, but somebody's going to have to have some high-end equipment to get it.   Nothing I can do about an organized, prepared, hardcore theif like that...   But anyway, the alarm itself is underneath the seat - under carpet -   instead of under the dash, so they won't find it easily (have to cut carpet or remove the seat).   Also, for wiring, I took brown and black paint and 'oversprayed' the wires from a distance; gives them a nice rustic 'old' look, so they don't stand out.   Then, I removed the old tape from the existing harness where the alarm wires were running, then re-taped them with the alarm wires mixed in.   Also, no crimps, everything is soldered - not only for reliability, but also because a soldered-heat shrinked connection can MUCH more easily be hidden than a crimp connector.   For the fuse, since I was replacing the old fuse panel anyway, I installed an 'inline' fuse back behind the fuse block.   You can take every fuse out of the block and not cut off the alarm.   You have to take one screw out of the fuse block and slide a segment of it out to get to the fuse to replace it, but not a problem, I think.   So, unless they figure that out, the only way to cut power is to cust power *to* the fuse block; making it undriveable.   Plus, there's a small backup battery installed beside the unit anyway - Not a long-term solution, but if someone manages to disconnect power, it'll still run the alarm for a good 10-15 minutes.   Also, the power feed wires have diodes on both ground and positive (which will prevent reverse voltage on the supply), and zener diodes between them, (which will short itself and blow the supply fuse if actuated by overvoltage, leaving the alarm on it's backup) so none of the old 'reverse the battery wires' of 'put 100 volts into the battery cable' tricks will have any effect.   The alarm itself has shock, glass impact, door, trunk, hood, and voltage change sensors - as well as starter disable (and remote start, keyless entry, etc... but those aren't really 'security' ).   Finally, when the alarm is actuted, it sets off 3 different sirens located at different spots throughout the vehicle - one under the hood, one wedged in beside the gas tank in the undercarriage, and one in the interior (not so much for audability as annoyance    ).   Plus the horn.   As a note, the alarm itself wasn't that expensive; when you pay for an alarm, you mostly pay for the install (which is very time-consuming and requires a good bit of technical knowlege of the vehicle and alarm).   Myself, I worked in an alarm shop that did relatively good installs... but the standard pro alarm install wasn't up to the standards I wanted for this car (as you can see above), so I did it myself - and even with my background, it still took a couple of weeks of afternoons to get it done.
Anyway, that's about as good as you can get for alarms, I think.   Yes, I'm a gadget freak   But it's good enough that no one is going to be able to easily steal the vehicles contents (breaking a window will make a lot more noise than some glass cracking , and I'm pretty confident that the only two ways to take the car are 1) with some major high-tech support - and I expect the people with that kind of hardware are going for the escalades and other high-return vehicles, or 2) with a towtruck.   So, as my final means of protection, anytime I park anywhere, I give conscious thought to parking in places where a towtruck would be suspicious, I ***NEVER*** park illegally, and I always park with the wheel turned all the way to one direction or the other.   Since I'm rarely in a location with parallel parking, I try to park in heavily populated portions of the parking lot where a towtruck would have trouble getting, and I pull front in first, so if they try to tow me out backward, they'll pull my 'turned all the way' front end into the car next to me   

Sure, none of this is foolproof.   But it makes sure that anyone who tries to get the car is going to have a ***LOT*** of hurdles to cross, many of which will consume a lot of time or grab a lot of attention.   

[Old Moparz]

Hey defiiance,

You may want to delete how you can find all your "hidden" theft detterants in your car. 

I wouldn't go into that much detail.

[defiance]

Well, I'm not really that worried about it to be honest - I'd be highly surprised if someone read my post who happened to be nearby, able to identify me and/or my vehicle, willing to steal my vehicle, and able to execute such a plan.  Even with the info I just gave, someone would have to set off the alarm for a few minutes to get it, get it disabled, so so in such a way that the starter disable is bypassed, hot wire it, and get away.  I don't believe the car is ever in a location where someone could do that anyway.  So, I'm willing to accept the small additional risk if it will help someone whose car may be exposed to more high-crime areas than mine.  A lot of these little tricks are pretty simplistic, only take a few extra minutes to do, cost nearly nothing, and as a whole can notably increase security.

[BigBlockSam]

ignition kill switch 

[andy74]

Well, I'm not really that worried about it to be honest - I'd be highly surprised if someone read my post who happened to be nearby, able to identify me and/or my vehicle, willing to steal my vehicle, and able to execute such a plan.   Even with the info I just gave, someone would have to set off the alarm for a few minutes to get it, get it disabled, so so in such a way that the starter disable is bypassed, hot wire it, and get away.   I don't believe the car is ever in a location where someone could do that anyway.   So, I'm willing to accept the small additional risk if it will help someone whose car may be exposed to more high-crime areas than mine.   A lot of these little tricks are pretty simplistic, only take a few extra minutes to do, cost nearly nothing, and as a whole can notably increase security.

man,did you use to be a car thief?you have the most detailed fool proof alarm ive evn heard of!! great job,Andy

[chargermick]

I read an article that said that 80% of stolen antique and classic cars are stolen from their owners garage or driveway. At first I didn't believe it, but if you think about it , yeah maybe. When I take the Charger out, I'm either sitting in it, next to it, or it"s in my line of sight. So, yeah I think most cars are stolen from the owners home. Similar to you guys that put a bolt through the garage door rails, I just drilled a little bigger hole and use a good padlock instead of a bolt. I also have a hidden kill switch, but after reading this post I'm considering Lojack.

[Rolling_Thunder]

yeah - im insured for about double what i have into it --- let them take it as Chris said...    other than that i have a gun and some very mean relatives

[TK73]

I also have a "backup system" (i.e. "recovery") in case the car is ripped off.  Gas guage reads 1/2 full when the tank is bone dry.  Car is out of gas and the guage says there is fuel.  Car dies, left on road side...

[694spdRT]

My Charger is in a secured building with motion detectors, heat detectors, and all entrances are wired. You will have less than 2 minutes to get my car started(after the kill switch is found) and out the door before the sheriff will be waiting in front of the fenced in gates.   

If that still don't stop someone then the insurance will have to "kick" in I guess.

[d72hemi]

I also have a "backup system" (i.e. "recovery") in case the car is ripped off.   Gas guage reads 1/2 full when the tank is bone dry.   Car is out of gas and the guage says there is fuel.   Car dies, left on road side...

I had this very same built in security "system" built into a 85 pherd ranger I bought ($100) because it would not start (O2 sensor, and tune up) and could not get to run for 2 months afterwards (lots of snow= not much time working). I found out when it says 1/3 of a tank it means empty!