Theft Alarm systems/deterrent

[radiopilot]

Besides removing the battery cable in the trunk to eliminate any tampering in theft of the car, what theft systems
has anyone installed?

I am planning on installing a theft system in both my car and my son's which would totally deactivate the electrical system completely (except the clock and the alarm) at the same time sound an alarm if anyone 'sits' in the driver or passenger car seat to rig the ignition.

Any ideas?

Nick

[mbouse]

around here, folks merely look 'round to see what car is blatting the alarm. then they turn back 'round and go about their business. No big deal. alarms are relatively useless as a deterant.

#1 way to deter someone from breaking into your car is to leave it uninviting. park conspicuously, and leave nothing worth stealing inside.

#2 is to get one of those disconnect fittings that allow enough current for the clock and radio, but not enough for the starter. bolts right onto the negative batt terminal for under $15. if you can't get to the battery after attempting to hotwire the car....you ain't going nowhere fast.

[radiopilot]

Yeah, something like that... a device that disconnects the electrical to the starter, since when we drive the car with the top down, sometimes the car is not visible, that is the most vulnerable time for the car.

The alarm was not for the 'uninterested folks', but rather some kind of alarm you got as a cellphone buzz/call or radio beacon indicator you would carry on self to inform you someone is tampering with your car.

You are perfectly right car alarms go off and most people could care less.

Nick

[mbouse]

this is what i use (not that I am recommending this specific source)
http://www.international-auto.com/index.cfm?fa=p&pid=53

[Danno]

I keep my spider safe by intentionally (yeah, that's right, intentionally) keeping it looking like a complete pile of junk, and by keeping the interior in an eternal state of disassembly.

[mbouse]

and, how is that working Danno? sounds relatively inexpensive to install, and absolutely easy to apply.

[radiopilot]

this is what i use (not that I am recommending this specific source)
http://www.international-auto.com/index.cfm?fa=p&pid=53

Mike... Yes... this is what I'm talking about, although it seems pretty simple to fabricate a similar one, I like the version with the fuse, this is where I would tap the electrical to run the alarm system...

Danno, at one time the spider was in a similar 'theft deterrent' mode, but now that the car is completely assembled, envious eyes are now watching the car so we must prevent loose hands.

Anyway I'd like to see what you've done with your spider... give me some ideas on what to do with the '82 FI I just bought.

Nick

[Danno]

Danno, at one time the spider was in a similar 'theft deterrent' mode, but now that the car is completely assembled, envious eyes are now watching the car so we must prevent loose hands.

Yeah, your car is ridiculous. I'd be scared to even touch it without wearing rubber gloves. You really screwed up by making it so pretty! lol.

Anyway I'd like to see what you've done with your spider... give me some ideas on what to do with the '82 FI I just bought.
Nick

I knew you were looking. do you have pictures of it yet? I'm only doing a few things to the spider at any given time. Mainly I just drive it and enjoy it in it's disseased looking state. I made a sweet looking door panel out of wood and am very excited about that. The one I made was just a little too thick, so i need to go get some thinner wood and redo it, but mannn is it beautiful when on the car. I'm also doing a total custom job with the center console (custom should read "HACK") if it doesn't work then I'll have to get a whole replacement. if it does work then it will be the coolest thing since sliced bread.

there is paint in its future as well, so once the body work is taken care of that will be completed. Expect to see a LOT of pictures sometime late spring.

oh, and Nick, to keep with the thread topic, I've seriously been looking at theft deterrent systems too and have been thinking long and hard about getting one that has proximity alarms as well as ones that detect movement within the passenger area. I've even seen some pricey ones that are used on convertibles that will detect motion within the passenger space even with the top down. I'll have to do some digging on that, I think I have some stuff bookmarked on one of my computers. It's been awhile since I looked all that up, and i've essentially put that all on hold until I get a car worth protecting!

[radiopilot]

Come on Dan... the car is not as precious as you'd think plus think about the fact that it's in the hands of a 16 yr. old... Do you think he'll take care of it as we would, gosh he's still more interested in the latest Halo game for XBOX than the car.. I have to drag him out the house to take the spider out for a run on a warm sunny day. LOL

I'd seen the nice work on the door panels, problem with wood it doesn't want to sometimes do what we want it to do.
Have you tried the regular panel board with wood veneer? Seems the panel would bend and take shape better than ply, just a thought, when I redid the door panels I use fresh panel board and it's fairly flexible. I sure would like to see that console now that's something that would look great, along with wood going across the dash in one continous strip instead of the three seperate pieces... the glove box could just be a drop down box under the dash and eliminate the seperate panel panel, hinges, and lock altogether.

The new addition which I pick up this weekend is here, but I think I'll take better pics and put it on the site... I was thinking maybe taking off the bumbers both front and rear and adding an Abarth look to this one... don't know yet till I get the car in my hands.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1982-Red ... 0213501214

What do you think, or should the car stay as it is?

Back to the alarm issue, yes having proximity alarms (mostly novelty) are good but it's really not any different than the blarring alarm most people ignore... I just want something that alerts me privately that someone is sitting in the seat (illegaly or tampering) and I can get out there and either scare them off or call the police.

http://www.asianwolf.com/item.jhtml?UCI ... ID=1057682

http://caraudiosecurity.com/shop/produc ... /5093.html

http://www.samitoelectronics.com/sensor ... ensor.html

The above alarms are what we're talking about, problem with this is sometimes thieves really don't care anymore about the
alarm and will continue to 'hack' the car until they steal it.

Nick

[Danno]

new car looks great. I say leave it alone unless you find things that totally bug you. I see this is missing the boot; doesn't it figure? lol.

I personally hate the bumpers, but don't yank them off until you have your front lights in hand. If they are in good shape, just shine them up and leave them alone until you are sure you want to ditch them. If I were you i'd give this one to my son, and keep the other one. lol.

[rlux4]

Radiopilot; My vote is to leave it as it is. But I admit I'm prejudiced. Your '82 is very similar to mine (the red one with the trunk up in FiatS2000's pictures in the Feb 17/08 SoCal Run thread in Fiat Spider Events). I didn't know it about myself, but turns out I'm kind of a purist. I like the looks of the Spider, bumpers and all. Even though I've seen some awesome modifications, Hal's silver V8 stretched car being a stand out example, I still want my car to look stock. I envy you, you did a gorgeous job on your son's car, so you're in a position to have it both ways!

[radiopilot]

I don't know what I'll find till I get the vehicle but I'm inclined to redo the interior similar to my son's since it's more plush and I know I've been the only one on the leather... plus what do I do with 20+ more yards of this material (I bought the entire roll for emergency repairs).

I like the F.I. engine as opposed to the carbuerated one for reliablity (?) and economy, we'll compare that on a side by side basis with my son's car.

Back to the issue of alarms, here is exactly what I'm talking about...

http://www.samitoelectronics.com/AL838SRsystem.html

Will order two of these units and install them and test them out.

Nick

[Danno]

plus what do I do with 20+ more yards of this material (I bought the entire roll for emergency repairs)?

You, meaning not a shop, did those seats up, right? What do you think your time and materials are worth for that? If it's a lot less than the cost of new seat upholstery from the vendors I bet someone (someone like ME, i mean) would be interested in helping you recoup your costs.

Also, I have a roll of cheap vinyl that I would consider sending you if you do your new seats up, perhaps making two at the same time would cut down on the amount of work, etc. If you ever think you might be interested just send me a PM.

[radiopilot]

You, meaning not a shop, did those seats up, right? What do you think your time and materials are worth for that? If it's a lot less than the cost of new seat upholstery from the vendors I bet someone (someone like ME, i mean) would be interested in helping you recoup your costs.

Dan, I reupholstered the seats myself after I found out how much it costs to actually have someone here in Savannah do the work ($800 per seat), the 'send your seats' to Tony's in LA was going to cost me $1500.00 for complete reupholstry (front and rear seats, dash, shift and radio consoles - they do a beautiful job by the way and would recommend them for those not wanting to venture into what I'm doing) plus shipping to and from LA to Savannah, plus the cost of boxing/crating these items (sic).

Now I spent total of about less than $300.00 for everything for the interior, including the carpets/veneer/hardware, etc.

Now take a look at the upholstry at the catalog places and see if you find a difference/quality...

This is why I will redo the upholstry in the new car, if you'd like I can send you the upholstry of the new car after I remove it (seems to be in excellent shape from the pics).

I also will make a new boot as well to match the seats for the new car as I have all the patterns cut ready for the next project, etc., so essentially it'll be a duplicate of the effort I did on my son's spider.

Dan it's not so much the materials it's the labor that is intensive, it took me 2 months of non-stop weekends and every free time I have (I work fours day a week, drive 6 hrs from Savannah to Jupiter, Florida on Sunday night, then reverse the process on Thursday evening), so you can see this is not something I can do in a hurry, if I take the seats off the new car it will be sitting for 1-2 months of inactivity.

Nick

[radiopilot]

Well I picked up the spider in Panama City, Florida... drove it home (425 miles), I know most would have towed or trailered the car home but after having all the maintenance files (1" thick folder) since this car was bought by the PO (now an 82 year retired sailor), having discussed the original 79277 miles (car shows it) I decided to go for it and take the chance.

Well the car was sitting for a month under cover and had not started since today, she fired up nicely and ran the trip without a single problem whatsoever, she handled very nicely and other than a small rust bubble on the passenger door she is body perfect. The interior is clean but showing some wear, all consoles and dash are original (no dash or console caps), the carpets are new recently replaced from IAP, the tires are new (less than 200 miles on them), everything electrical works, and the suspension is tight, the steering has some play but overall a very good buy. All original manuals, stickers, etc. from Fiat were in the glove compartment, including the Fiat spider shop manual.

I will of course change the interior to match the work I did on my son's car. Since I have an extra buckskin convertible top I will install it soon and take some pics of the car and post them.

Nick