Storing Cars Near Ocean

If you have first hand experience with storing a vehicle near the ocean, please share your observations.

My vehicle will be parked in a private garage (without A/C) about 1000 feet from the ocean, and will be used for one week, every three months.

I am considering a "Car Capsule," to keep rodents out, assuming that this could be a problem (?). However, I'm wondering if there is any other significant advantage to the capsule? Since a capsule employs ambient air, seems like humidity and temperature fluctuation would still be a concern.

Thanks.

 

I don't have direct experience, but I've lived about a mile from the ocean for more than 30 years, and I would never store a valuable car (or any other valuable object) in the conditions you're describing. The heat, humidity and salt will start to work on it immediately.

 

I grew up living on the ocean during the summer in NJ at my grandparents house and my parents retired and lived across the street from the ocean. The salt air, humidity and mist from the ocean is your enemy.

When I was 10 years old, I left a bicycle in the garage in September and in April when I came back, the chain was rusted and the metal parts were starting to pit. My car (75 MGB) needed a new muffler every 2 years, but that was before they started using stainless steel. Midas hated me cause I had a lifetime warranty. The metal steering wheel spokes started to rust too. My mom hardly ever drove after she retired, and her car was 3 years old and had about 5000 miles on it and the rotors were all rusted out from the mist from the ocean. She didn't have a garage and the car was always outside. Since they had an outside hose, I told her to wash her car off every day if she could and to make sure that she got the wheels too. This helped but the car still needed rotors every few years even though it was driven only a few thousand miles a year.

A friend has a condo on the beach that has a covered semi exposed garage like you would find in a shopping center, and he uses 2 covers on his car, (Panoz) and washes the car after every use. This helps alot, but he has exposed chrome springs and shocks and they are starting to pit after 8 years. One of his neighbors had an old Alfa convertible and left it in the parking lot for about 8 months, and it was totally covered in dust, and had a salty, dirty grit all over it. My old girlfriend lives across the street on the intercoastal and one of her cars (old late 80's Saab) was in good shape when she bought it five years ago, but the trunk, hood,and doors were all rusting out after 2 years, but she never washed or waxed the car.

Best thing to do is make sure that you hose off the car and make sure it is dry, put covers on it, and make sure that you wax all metal surfaces, even the ones inside the car. Also shut off the vents to keep air out. I had a metal shifter on my car and whenever I left it at my moms condo for a week, I would notice that it had a grimey grit on it and was oxidizing. I once left it at her house for 2 months with a cheap Costco cover on it, and the salt air and the sun caused the cover to get brittle and rip.

 

AC and exercise are important - speaking from experience you will may have four issues to deal with, flat spotted tires, electrical contact corrosion, mold or mildew depending on air circulation and temperature & possibly some brightwork pitting over time.

 

Tossing a few bags of silica in the interior, trunk and engine compartment will help too. Like said above, key is to keep the car washed, and use it. When not using it cover it with a good cover, and I'd even get the tire/wheel covers. If the garage is going to be left closed when you are not there, that should help a lot too.

 

all you need is to provide proper ventilation. a box fan moving air works fine. my car sits in a garage that is perhaps 400 yards from the bay. i have a fan in the window on a timer. it runs 15 minute every hour. never had a corrosion problem with anything inside.

 

what city are you in?

 

Thanks to all for the comments.

 

I live about 500 yards from the Gulf of Mexico. I keep the humidity at 45-50% and constant air moving with a fan. I have tools and cars. No issues.

aehaas
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A personal inspection may be in order!

 

I live in a marina on the water next to the Gulf of Mexico. I have an enclosed garage with a fan that exhausts the air to the outside. It is not air conditioned.

After the first year, I developed some corrosion on the window and emergency light switches, and had to replace those on my 308. I was instructed by Tim Stafford not to put the car cover over the vehicle.

The second year I put the best dehumidifier I could buy in the garage and had the maintenance personnel monitor it and empty it (I ported it to a 5 gallon container). No problems since then.

 

If you are in the south florida area, maybe ParkPlace could help ya move the car from the ocean area while you aren't in town?

 

Anything you store near the Ocean will be eaten away by the salty air.
You need to store your vehicle and valuable in an air conditioned place that is also humidity controlled.
Your A/C will take care of the humidity most of the time, but if it is simply thermostat controlled, there are times when the outside temperature is low and the A/C will not kick in.
That is when you need a de-humidifier to help remove the humidity in the room.

 

In Florida, in the afternoon the air above the land mass heats up and rises. This sucks air in from the ocean to fill in for the air that rises over the land. The air coming in off of the ocean is cooler (that's why the rich people, before there was air conditioning, built those big houses on the rise above the beach). That air is obviously full of salt, and if the water is whipped up, the amount of salt in that air is huge. That is why you want to keep the car out of the salt spray and morning dew.

I grew up 2 miles from the beach in Palm Beach and later on, my mom had condos on the beach, at her first condo the car was outside and exposed to the spray and mist, and the second one had a garage under the building, also right on the beach.

The car she had that was exposed to the salt air and mist had countless problems with the electric stuff. The switches on the power windows and everything that had contacts in it like the cruise control and things like that were always giving her problems. No matter how much you wash the car in those kinds of situations, things under the hood and everything that is electrical are going to be a problem. Washing it does nothing to get rid of the condensate that forms at night on the inside of the car and if that condensate is full of salt you are going to find rotted metal in addition to electrical problems if the car sits out at night.

The car she kept in the garage under the building didn't suffer nearly as many problems since the mist from the ocean and the dew in the morning didn't condense on the car. Keeping the mist off the car was the key. Once you do that I don't think that a car bubble is worth anything. The air isn't moving that much in the garage anyway. Most of these garages right on the beach don't face the water, they face away from the water, so the afternoon wind doesn't penetrate the garage. If you are 1,000 feet from the beach your garage might face the beach, which would be a bad thing. Also, if your garage is designed to have flow through ventlation, that is, is open to the east and west, that's a really bad thing. If the side facing the beach is closed it will be a lot better.

The idea of "keeping air moving" around the car is a bad idea in that environment, with the high salt content in the air, you are just adding more salt to the equation. The most important thing is to keep the car dry, keep the dew off of it, and keep it out of the direct sea breeze and mist, and by putting it in the garage you are doing all of that.

The best thing to do if you have a car that you want to keep nice, is get a place to park the car that is two or three miles inland. If you can afford a beach condo, then spend a few more bucks to park the car where salt isn't going to cause a problem.

 

I am currently storing a 550 in my garage a few miles inland from the beach. I have read this thread and was concerned about moving car to ocean front garage. However, I just went to ocean front place and the temperature in garage must be 20 degrees cooler than the garage it is currently being stored in. Can anyone give me some insight as to which garage is better for storage? I plan to get a dehumidifier for beach place. So options are: hot as hell a few miles from beach vs not hot at all and dehumidified on the ocean

 

Absolutely correct. 2nd house about the same distance from Tampa Bay where I stored my 65 restored 356. Air circulation, dehumidifier( set at 45% with hose set to take overflow to the outside), rodent protection, tire inflation > driving values, inspection every 4-6 weeks for rodent droppings (never had any). Irish Spring soap shaving worked great. 1/4 to 1/8 bar on top of ea. tire,then shavings spread underneath car. 2 car covers both must allow circ. (inner soft, outer more substancable ). This car sat for years. Only mistake was not paying any attention to break fluid level & they did freeze. Yearly leather care was done with leatherique. Tire pressure levels ck'd every 3 mo.
Never any issues with salt, rust, paint,leather,glass or interior.
The bubble you mentioned would probably be a step above & deemed favorable.

 

When storing cars indoors near the water, highly recommended to do it in climate controlled
conditions (A/C and ceiling fans).

Batteries on reliable trickle chargers and fuel stabilizer. Never heard the trick about putting soap
on top of the tires but that's a good one too.

Not really necessary to cover a car in climate controlled storage. In most cases, these covers
act as dust magnates and they have a tendency to serve as ovens as everything inside the car
gets baked. Same with these bubbles. Short term perhaps but not necessary, don't do it.

Also, moisture absorbers inside the cars is a terrible idea. I've seen these things remove all
of the moisture from inside cars turning perfectly good leather into crunchy Doritos in days.
Again, not necessary.

 

Thanks for the suggestions!