Time has come for me to seriously think about integrating some security features.

Ive removed steering lock. For minimum SVA reqt im fitting a toad immobiliser to cut the ignition circuit. This si when i had the thoughts. What would stop someone knocking the handbrake off and pushing the car away????? Basically nothing. This leads me to the point - what have you done on yours that is easy and fast to operate, cheap to do but effective.


My ideas;
Hidden switch to immobilise ignition / starter.
Valve on fuel line (plumbing service unit???) to stop fuel supply (mine is mech pump) - im not keen on this as ill have to lift bonnet to operate and anyone casing the car will see this and will know to look under there.



How can brakes be locked on? How can Handbrake be locked on? Im trying to think of a way to make it inconvenient to be pushed / moved ideally without having to carry half a dozen heavy lumps of bar and locks.
Can front steering arms be locked to the suspension arm to act as a steering lock? I even thought of fitting a lock bar to the steering shaft under the bonnet to prevent it turning.

Any good / crazy ideas awaited with thanks for inspiration.

you could drill a hole in the handbrake leaver somewhere and simply put a padlock through it, , ,after all it is a locost car ?

Personally i'm going to leave my dog sat in my car, might take it to SVA see if they pass it as security.

[Edited on 17/10/05 by serendipity123]

I have a removable steering wheel - not perfect but at least if you wanted to drive mine away you'd need to plan ahead a bit

Cheers

Mark

I hav'nt got any special security features, but I make a point of leaving the car in gear as its a BEC than needs to be in neutral to start. In fact starting is a 3 or 4 switch operation :

1. Key in and turn on ignition
2. Turn kill swith to 'On' position
3. Car in neutral
4. Press the starter.

Like to think that it would confuse the opportunist car thief. Come to think about it I could also leave the reverse/forward box selector out of gear as well :-)

Phil

Vehicle wiring products do an electric fuel line valve.

at the bottom of this page

But nothing is going to stop a determined thief. In the bad old days up North when ram raiding and joyriding were common place they used to cut the hand brake cables under Cosworths and just tow them off. Best bet would be a GPS tracker, which might not stop them, but you'd get it back.

I agree with Mookaloid though a removable steering wheel is probably enough to deter most oppourtunists.
Mike

Hidden line lock in the Brake lines?

Cheers

Fred WB

Id just leave the steering lock on. Simple and effective.

Or a stoplock. I have seen ppl put a bloody great motorbike chain lock through the wheels and wishbone. With locking wheel nuts this is it a hard way.

TBh these v=cars are soo light anyone can lift it and put it on a trailer.

I've always thought of mounting 6, 3-position switches on the dash that need to be flipped to the right "combination" to start the car. When the car is started, they could be "messed up" again to create a lock once the car is shut off. All it would take is a bit of wire and a relay to hold the circuit once the car is started. There may even be some switches that can be automatically switched back to neutral with a voltage pulse when the car is started. With 6 3-pos switches, that gives 729 combination possibilities (not too great, but certainly enough to deter the casual thief)

The added benefit is the "cool factor" when you've got to flip 6 switches on the dash to specific positions to start the car, but inconvenience wise, it's obvious.

Another good fix would be just to fit a regular car alarm (motion only within the car, or vibration/shock sensor) This certainly would be easy, but not really locost.

Just get a cat 2 imobiliser, £50-60. Starter and fuel pump circuit. With all black wires should keep most people away. These cars don't get stolen much as they are so easy to identify even if numbers changed etc.

For the cheap and mecanical fuel shut off, doesn't the fuel line run through the transmission tunnel, could you fit a mechanical valve there so you don't have to lift the bonnet?

You can get much cheaper alternative immobilisers than the cat 2.

Didn't a company years ago do a lock that went over the handbrake lever and the gear stick to lock the 2 together, that would stop people from letting the handbrake off.

Not very locost but, you can get full cat1 alarms for £120 off ebay that have build in Immobilisers and you can get adjustable proximity (microwave) sencors for them so should people get close enough to the car or lean over they give a warning, and then after repeated warnings go into full alarm mode.

don't get ultra-sonic alarm though - no good in an open car

as another ultra-cheap deterrent - i have one of those tiny red halford lamps fiitted into the dash and wired between the always live fuse and the main ignition fuse -

result - when the igntion is off you get a flashing red light as it earths through the (dead) ignition fuse. when you turn the ignition on - it switches off - not bad for about £2 !

you could leave my wife in the car.......

I also like - and use - the removeable steering wheel idea - and a hidden cutout switch to the starter solenoid. Cut-out to an elecric fuel pump (if you have one) is also good as they will get 200 yards and the car will just die on them.

Bottom line though is if they want it they'll have it

Why not have a hidden switch that needs to be turned (say under the seat) along with the standard ignition. Or to go executive a numeric laptop keypad, with a bit of control software you could have a 6 digit code that needed to be entered to start the fuel pump .

Also as stated above how about a cheap visual deterrent. Like a flashing LED.

Or if made easy, put the car into reverse gear, then remove the gearstick. It would confuse and even if they tried to push, they would not get very far!

Isn't it a shame though that there are scum in the world that force us to have to put protection on our cars in the way of alarms and immobilisers . Also just out of curiosity, what if there is a theif reading this thread?

[Edited on 17/10/05 by Tim 45]

"what if there is a theif reading this thread?"

There's paranoia for ya lol,

It wouldn't be so bad if it was only when there parked. Some p*ss artist jumped on the back of our car on Friday night and hung onto the roll bar whilst at a set of traffic lights.

For some reason he didn't fancy fighting some1 wearing a helmet! and prompty got off!

My old peugeot 406 has a keypad system where I have to press my PIN number in to start the car. could this be adapted to fit in a locost, I bet they would cost nowt from a scrappy.
Kipper.

i've got a removable steering wheel, which stays on for most of the time, as it's usually supplemented with an 11mm chain, with a monster padlock, put through the front wheel, and then through the wishbone.

for times when it'll be left somewhere not so public, though never for very long, the steering wheel gets chained in with the front wheel too. it also means i've always got somewhere to fasten my helmet if i take it with me.

incidentally, i've found it's hard work, but possible to drive with the steering wheel removed, but you'd not break the steering lock in the same way
tom

the peugeot key is programed to a seperate ecu so would (or may not cost too much) but alot of time to fit! !
hire my wife (shes going very cheap at the mo )
should make it very safe!
put a brake line lock in it (like you would use for locking the fronts up to burn up the rears !!

[Edited on 17/10/05 by ch1ll1]

Personally, I wouldn't leave the Indy around anywhere dodgy for any length of time. I reckon most opportunist thieves wouldn't have a clue how to drive it anyway. On a BEC they'd be looking for 1st gear or reverse like on a car gearbox. Even if they managed to get it started, you'd probably find them at a junction or set of traffic lights having stalled it and trying to get it going again. Even if they did manage to master the art of BEC driving in a short space of time, you'd only have to search within 50 miles, cos they'd have probably run out of petrol.

Even if they managed to get round all the above, with a network of builders and kitcar owners available at the click of a few buttons, I'm pretty sure we'd be able to track em down after a while.

Does anybody actually know of anyone whos had their kit car stolen?

only heard of porsche replicas geting nicked (I have a spyder replica btw)

my feelings - we all built our cars to our own originaility - so therefore design security in with the same concept. Anyone after mine would have to get past 3/4 layers of security !

This is what they do in South Africa, looks blooming dangerous to me! Not sure about using it in a locost though?
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