Useful Information

Summer 2020 Newsletter

Battery Maintenance

When your car is not being used, it’s best to keep your battery on a maintainer. A battery maintainer is safe, easy to setup and use, and will pay for itself in a short period of time. A maintainer puts a small voltage pulse into your battery to help maintain the proper level and will turn off when at its capacity. This will extend the life of your battery.

Paint Correction & Ceramic Coating

Most paint jobs on cars have flaws. With today’s products, you can work most of those flaws out of the paint finish with various products and techniques. However, paint correction and ceramic coating has been becoming a standard used throughout the collector car hobby.

A two or three stage paint correction eliminates most or all flaws in the paint. Then, you finish the paint off with ceramic coating, which offers a 2-3-year guarantee. Maintenance after the ceramic coating is fast and easy. You would use a major brand of spray on/off polish, or simply just water and a fiber towel.

Problems with old Gasoline in your tank

If you live in California, you have probably already witnessed issues with the gasoline you buy at the pump. For one, they use a lot of ethanol in the gasoline, which in fact breaks down and turns into a sticky turpentine in a short period of time. This will gum-up your carbs, your fuel pumps, fuel injection systems, not mention it will also smell bad in your tank.

To help avoid this, we recommend buying a gas stabilizer additive at your local auto parts store and adding this to your gas tank.

For those that own an older car, you have choices. VP gasoline can be purchased at many gas stations. If you live near a small private airport, you can buy “Avgas” in 5 to 55 gallon containers, which is a higher octane that contains no ethanol – and which your classic car will love!

Tire Maintenance & Inspections

It’s important to keep the proper air pressure in your tires at all times, and rotate your tires as needed. Keep your tires balanced and front end aligned. If your car is going to sit for periods of time without being driven, it’s best to get the car off the ground and on jack stands so the tires don’t get flat spot.
All tires have a date code. If your tire is 10 years or older, it’s time to buy new ones for your car. With radial tires that are 10 years or older, and driven on the highway, the tires could get hot, and you risk the possibility of the radial coming apart. If this happens, it can cause an accident or damage to your car.
 
We recommend that you inspect your tires for dry rot or cracking on a regular basis, and if you notice they are, it’s time to replace them.