What's your Bird doing this Winter?

[K.P.]

Re: What's your Bird doing this Winter?

After re-reading these posts, Arizona is starting to look pretty good for retirement!

[Shade-T-Blue]

Re: What's your Bird doing this Winter?

Until we get snow & salt on the roads,the Bird will get driven. Then come January if we have clear roads the Bird will take us to Florida until mid March or until we roads & driveway are with out snow. Last year we came home mid March & had 2 feet if snow in the driveway(900 ft of drive)Can't have that this year. You see we are not snowbirds just snowflakes.

[tonyv007]

Re: What's your Bird doing this Winter?

FOR THE PAST WEEK MY CORAL BIRD IS MATING WITH GENE'S CORAL BIRD HERE IN JERSEY. WE'RE TRYING TO HAVE A LAVENDER BIRD!

[Salprint]

Re: What's your Bird doing this Winter?

I haven't carefully read all of the posts in this thread, but I hope for those of you that are putting the cars away for the winter you remember to use some Sta-bil gas treatment in the gas tanks before shutting them down. I always used it in my motorcycles and it worked fine. Old fuel can do a number on the insides of fuel lines and fuel injection parts.

[TBird02]

Re: What's your Bird doing this Winter?

[QUOTE=DrtiBird]Chris,
According to instructions I got with one of my motorcycles (prob applies to cars too) it is more damaging to the motor to just crank and run it for a few minutes. The engine needs to be brought to operating temp for a while to burn out any moisture in the oil. Just cranking for short periods can cause condensation that harms the engine.

So, If you're gonna crank it you might as well take her for a ride!! QUOTE]

That's why I back it out of the garage and run it for about 20 minutes. It gets the engine to operating temp (watch the temp gauge) and avoids a moisture problem in the crankcase. I also make sure to park the tires in a different place (on carpet scraps) to minimize flat spots. Unfortunately the roads are snow and salt covered most of the winter. Therefore I convert to storage insurance in the winter, and can't drive it for a short drive anyway.

Anyone interested in more detail should search for "storage" " "winter" and "hybernate" and will find a lot of discussion over the last couple of years. Long lists of precautions and suggestions have been posted by me and others. Among them are use of StaBil as Joanne mentioned, to inflating tires to higher pressure to further avoid fat spots.

[00mustng]

Re: What's your Bird doing this Winter?

......ours is a daily driver....we bought it last December 29.....so this will be winter #2....The windsheild stopped a rock just after we bought it and I'm way past greiving over that....bound to be some more this winter....not going to change it until it's really bad....my bigest concern is gravel.....managed through last winter with only a couple of chips........

[gboster]

Re: What's your Bird doing this Winter?

My bird is meant to be driven all year long in Sunny Southern California.

[Dave123]

Re: What's your Bird doing this Winter?

Hey, gboster, Must be the Merlot. Mine too, all year long....even if it snows here in Florida......... :)

[theherd]

Re: What's your Bird doing this Winter?

I’m interested in why some of you store your car all winter. Is it because you don’t want to clean it when it’s cold; is it because you believe it will be a collectible car some day and you want to keep the mileage down; is it because you’re afraid the ice/snow/salt will damage the car; is it because you’re afraid of getting into an accident, etc.? I’m just curious.

[sivyaleah]

Re: What's your Bird doing this Winter?

I’m interested in why some of you store your car all winter. Is it because you don’t want to clean it when it’s cold; is it because you believe it will be a collectible car some day and you want to keep the mileage down; is it because you’re afraid the ice/snow/salt will damage the car; is it because you’re afraid of getting into an accident, etc.? I’m just curious.

For Joe and I it's a matter of convenience. We currently have 3 cars. Both of us commute and leave cars at the train station, me our new Maxima (because it's the safest of the 3), and Joe uses the 10 year old Concorde which he refuses to part with since it still runs pretty well and it holds some nostalgia for him as well which is boring to go into.

That leaves the Bird, and since we only have a 1 car garage (tho thankfully a large driveway) we've chosen to let it be the one to sit nice and warm, taking it out only on the weekends when we're actually home to enjoy it. I don't think either of us is too concerned about it getting dirty tho it sure would be easier not to have to clean it in the winter. Of course, if the Concorde starts to fade, then the Bird will be Joe's station car and will join the other Bird we see in the lot

Laurie

[Bruce]

Re: What's your Bird doing this Winter?

I put the bird away for the winter because we have two everyday drivers which handle winter conditions very well. The TBird was bought with the intention of only using it during nice weather and mostly in top down weather. The following are the three primary reasons:
1. The hardtop is never put on it.
2. It has F1 Performance tires which do not like bad weather (especially snow, sleet and ice)
3. It is stored at a heated garage complex so the other two cars can be garaged in winter

[tonyv007]

Re: What's your Bird doing this Winter?

Ray, Quite Honestly, For All The Reasons You Listed.

[DLJames]

Re: What's your Bird doing this Winter?

We store ours as soon as the first snow hits that requires abrasives to be put on the road. We have two other vehicles to drive in the winter and I work from home. I do intend on keeping this until I can no longer drive it, so we do want to keep the mileage down and avoid the rust problems. We figure about 4K miles per year anyway. (We did 5.5K the first year, only 3500 this year so far). Top just went back on yesterday (10/11).

As much as I would like to take it out when it is nice, we simply don't due to the excessive amount of abrasives and salt that is put on the roads. We live in an area of the state that simply gets a lot of snow. Our kids routinely miss 10+ days of school each year (The record was 27). When I took it out in early March 2003 shortly after we got it, the windshield got dinged by a rock. I have learned to wait until we have had several good rains to wash away the grit from the roads and the dust from the sides. Late March or early April is most likely when it will come out again and it will have the top removed as soon as it is warm (early May

I will probably buy another used one from the final year (his and hers) once we get this one paid off. Color will be Milinda's choice. That way we can spread out the miles. I don't imagine that Ford will produce another two seater T-bird again. However, I could possibly bite on the two seater Lincoln with that retractable roof if that is produced.

[Take Flight]

Re: What's your Bird doing this Winter?

To those in the Bay Area - are there ever times during the winter that you can put the top down (say the temps are in the 60's )

[Dave123]

Re: What's your Bird doing this Winter?

In "our" Bay area (Tampa Bay) It is the Perfect Time for top-down. Matter of fact, just took the Hard-top off, from the Summer heat. Time to Cruise :)