Let me say first that I love both of my E bodies and wouldn’t trade them for anything. I do not have a truck and trailer at this time. I drive the car which is not a show car but a nice driver to car shows. The issue I have is that with a full size spare tire there is very little room left in the trunk. I carry a tool box and a small amount of spare parts with which takes up more of the free space. One time I considered installing the factory luggage rack but changed my mind due to cost. So I was wondering if anybody out there has come up with creative ways of creating storage space for traveling to car shows in our E bodies?
Storage Space for car shows
- Thread starter BriceRoad
- Start date
rklein71
Well-Known Member
I had read that the engineers were told that the E-body trunk had to be big
enough to fit two golf bags. That is about all they will fit.
enough to fit two golf bags. That is about all they will fit.
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Cuda Hunter
Well-Known Member
Chryco Psycho
Well-Known Member
A friend had a metal cooler painted to match his car & would sit the cooler beside the car , it was striped & decaled to match .
Cuda Hunter
Well-Known Member
Cuda Hunter
Well-Known Member
All three of those items sound like good ones.
70chall440
Well-Known Member
Just go with what many of the new cars have, a can of tire sealant, that and a 12V compressor should get you home. Might sign up for AAA as well "just in case".
Drivun
Well-Known Member
I need trunk space and a good spare on the Hot Rod Power Tour long haul so to clear my wilwood big brakes I bought a 17 x 4 Vision Wheel from Summit and had Discount Tire mount a skinny 135/80x17 temporary spare on it. Diameter matches my 295/35/35 rears but it’s half the thickness of normal spare so I can stack folding chairs etc above it
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Thank you 70chall440 and Steve (Drivun). Two excellent suggestions. I am going to look into both of them. My car has 15X7 wheels so I try to find a 15X4 wheel. I am already a AAA member. I have driven my car as far away as 500 miles so AAA is definitely a good idea. I like the small compressor idea too. I think my fiancé has one that she doesn’t want. Thanks to everyone who responded.
Drivun
Well-Known Member
Phil, give serious consideration to a proper spare vs a compressor. Slime can’t handle a gash, and a Compressor can’t overcome a damaged rim. A split rim leak and a faulty jack left both myself and later my daughter waiting HOURS for AAA. There is value in being self sufficient.
70chall440
Well-Known Member
For me it would depend on how much and how far I drive the car. I do prefer a full size spare over the other options but it does take up a lot of room. That said, I don't go very far in any of my classic/vintage cars so it isn't a big deal.
On the other side how many side "gashes" have you had and how many times have you "curb shot" your classic car? Sure it can happen but so can so many other things you cannot pack for. Hell I have driven thousands of miles in cars without even knowing if the vehicle had a spare (figured it did), point being its all about calculated risk and of course there will be those who worry about everything but you need to do what is good for you.
On the other side how many side "gashes" have you had and how many times have you "curb shot" your classic car? Sure it can happen but so can so many other things you cannot pack for. Hell I have driven thousands of miles in cars without even knowing if the vehicle had a spare (figured it did), point being its all about calculated risk and of course there will be those who worry about everything but you need to do what is good for you.
Drivun
Well-Known Member
It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when. If you take your car outside of the city you are taking a risk of messing up your day( and your spouse’s)...esp on a weekend. The OP says he drives up to 500 miles to an event, and carries spare parts. Seems like more use/risk than a Sunday coffee car.
We have 11 vehicles - 8 collectors. We drive them. ...two of them 3000 miles in a ten day period every year. In the last 3 months while on road trips I’ve had a 3 pc rim inner seal go at Road Atlanta, a tire shred in Virginia on i95, a fallen rock bend a rim , and a bad jack 60 minutes before a competition start time.
AAA took them 5 hrs to get a common 15 inch truck tire on a Sunday...tire shops aren’t open on Sunday anymore. They never found someone to help with a jack. We handled it with a passerby’s jack and the other two with our own skinny spares as recommended.
If you don’t drive your car or take it outside the city it doesn’t matter. If you do, a man once told me you can always make more money, but you can’t make more time. A thin spare seems a wise investment.
We have 11 vehicles - 8 collectors. We drive them. ...two of them 3000 miles in a ten day period every year. In the last 3 months while on road trips I’ve had a 3 pc rim inner seal go at Road Atlanta, a tire shred in Virginia on i95, a fallen rock bend a rim , and a bad jack 60 minutes before a competition start time.
AAA took them 5 hrs to get a common 15 inch truck tire on a Sunday...tire shops aren’t open on Sunday anymore. They never found someone to help with a jack. We handled it with a passerby’s jack and the other two with our own skinny spares as recommended.
If you don’t drive your car or take it outside the city it doesn’t matter. If you do, a man once told me you can always make more money, but you can’t make more time. A thin spare seems a wise investment.
Sounds like good advice. I am going to start looking for a 15x4 rim that has the correct bolt pattern.
Last year on the way to Carlisle my friend was on his way to pick me in his ‘66 Dart and it broke down. No spark. The car was on a very rural road in western NJ near Route 78. First we tried easy stuff like the ECU. Then I went to a local auto parts store and bought a meter to trouble shoot the problem. Turned out it was the pickup coil in the distributor. Nobody stocked that part. So we called AAA to get towed home. After two hours they still hadn’t shown up. I got on the phone and they said the driver went to our location and we weren’t there. We were on a County Road and I forget the 3 digit number but they dispatched a truck to sane County Road number but in Massachusetts. We had to wait another 2.5 hours from them to show up and then an hour ride back to north Jersey and then the 2.75 hour trip to Carlisle. Not fun at all. Definitely, the worst service I ever got from AAA. They should have let us know they couldn’t find us. If I didn’t call back we would have been there all day. All together we lost almost 6 hours on the side of that road.
This year I plan to take the car to Carlisle and Ohio. If I can’t find a smaller spare I will go with the full size spare and just deal with the small amount of space. Thanks again for the advice. One thing that worries me is if I did have a tire problem even on a weekday would someone even stock a 15” tire that would fit my car? Probably not.
Last year on the way to Carlisle my friend was on his way to pick me in his ‘66 Dart and it broke down. No spark. The car was on a very rural road in western NJ near Route 78. First we tried easy stuff like the ECU. Then I went to a local auto parts store and bought a meter to trouble shoot the problem. Turned out it was the pickup coil in the distributor. Nobody stocked that part. So we called AAA to get towed home. After two hours they still hadn’t shown up. I got on the phone and they said the driver went to our location and we weren’t there. We were on a County Road and I forget the 3 digit number but they dispatched a truck to sane County Road number but in Massachusetts. We had to wait another 2.5 hours from them to show up and then an hour ride back to north Jersey and then the 2.75 hour trip to Carlisle. Not fun at all. Definitely, the worst service I ever got from AAA. They should have let us know they couldn’t find us. If I didn’t call back we would have been there all day. All together we lost almost 6 hours on the side of that road.
This year I plan to take the car to Carlisle and Ohio. If I can’t find a smaller spare I will go with the full size spare and just deal with the small amount of space. Thanks again for the advice. One thing that worries me is if I did have a tire problem even on a weekday would someone even stock a 15” tire that would fit my car? Probably not.
Drivun
Well-Known Member
You’ll have no problem getting a 15 x 4 from summit racing. Figure out the diameter of your current 15 inch rear tires so if mounted on the rear you don’t mess up your differential. Then get something like a 165/175 70/75/78 x 15 to match your diameter. I use tire rack to get specs on diameter and rim width requirements. Then get the cheapest tire that matches your size needs. I have done this on my 66 better where the 15 inch combo had to fit in the fiberglass enclosure under the gas tank. And yep...I’d hate to find a suitable 15 inch tire in some of these rural locations.
enjoy Carlisle... I’m headed off to Ford Carlisle tomorrow!
enjoy Carlisle... I’m headed off to Ford Carlisle tomorrow!
They were advertised as the smallest trunk in the industry.
I heard that as well many years ago. I always wondered if it was actually true. Not that it was the smallest trunk but that it was advertised as such.
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