anyone else ever have this problem?

[TFI]

what do you do on a snowy day without a garage?

[HMeeder]

Stay in California (sorry couldn't resist)

[rich]

Transfer to a California school. You can get your degree and a tan while you work on your car year-round.

[Steve Frankiewich]

Shhhhhh! If everyone knew how good the weather is year-round in comparison to the rest of the country, they would all move here! We can't make it sound too nice.

[Germain]

To all those whimps in Calf, :P

Get a tarp, cover the 914 and place bricks around the tarp on the ground so it doesn't blow away. If your real anal, you could brush the snow off the car as it builds up. I've had this problem, and a tarp works good. You will need to wash it come spring, but then again I need to wash the car in the spring now that I have a garage too.

[JP Noonan]

I would suggest agans't a tarp because the wind can cause severe chaffing of the paint. a good car cover wraped up with twine would be better.

BTW my 72 came with two snow tires in the trunk...it did not come with floorpans, trunk pan, engine shelf or battery tray, and the decklids wouldn't open because the chassis rusted so much. Do NOT drive a 914 in the snow.

[MidMike]

TFI..with the price of homes in California you could have four 914's and a garage big enough to keep them all. Just buy a good car cover,then place a plastic tarp over the cover. Make it easy to get to so that when the roads dry up and there is no salt you can drive the poor thing. I went through 1 winter in Michigan without a garage.

[michel richard]

And make sure you leave the car on a hard, dry surface (concrete or asphalt). Moisture will rise from any kind of grass or earth surface and rust out your pans, longitudinals, suspension etc very quickly.

[Germain]

I kind of missed the point about car cover then tarp. Sorry I forgot that. For the hard surfaces, if you only have grass, they make wood ramps that make a good surface.

[JTB]

I drove my car year round for about 4 years. The car was great in snow with the skinny stock tires. Just make sure to wash it every week.

I stored my car outside in Connecticut for a couple of years while I was living out of the country. I put a car cover on it and then wrapped it with a tarp. Be sure to put moth balls everywhere and duck tape any opening in the car (i.e. muffler and air cleaner inlet). The car may stink for a week or so when you take it out of storage, but it is worth it. The first winter I had critters living everywhere. They were in the muffler (blew the nest out when I started it), in the engine compartment, the front trunk, and inside the car under the pedals. The car has no rust so I don't know how they all got in, but they did. Fortunately they did not do any damage, just built nests everywhere.

Just make sure to get all of the mothballs and remove the tape before you start it up.

BTW - the lids from spray paint cans work great to hold the moth balls.

John

[Germain]

The whole snow bit. Driving say in Washington with snow is not anywhere near to as bad as driving Detroit in snow. Why? Michigan is sitting on top of the largest underground salt mine in the world. We (Michigan, Detroit area) use salt on our roads to remove snow and melt ice. It works good, but kills the cars. The UP (thats the part of Michigan above the hand) uses sand like most places. Amazingly enough, they do just fine. Hopefully someday, the Detroit area will stop using salt on the roads, but until then I wouldn't dirve around Michigan in the winter with anything of value to you.