yep I know the air chambers are good but considering what you get they are very expensive for a few sheets of plastic and a fan.
just wondering if anyone has made thier own version from say getting a normal fan and chopping up/adapting some of the garden gazeebos and such like that are currently been offloaded at garden centres/ some superstors,which can be had for a fraction of the price with twice the covering.At the end of the day all you're trying to do is create a type of greenhouse effect for the car over winter.
other issues are what do people put down on the garage floor, some people swear by putting old carpet down.
as for the waxoil well I want to get my car done but don't want to do it if it can cause water trappage with the damp air at present.
Nic,
I have the underside of my Fulvia 2c checked over every year then treated with waxoil where necessary, sometimes there are areas that don't need it applied such as areas that don't receive any direct spray. Waxoil, Dinitrol and many other similar products are water dispersants so you don't get moisture trapped as you used to do with underseal, although waxoil do there own underseal these days which also disperses water.
I don't think it would be anything like as easy to achieve the same performance, or anything like the construction of the commercialy obtained air chambers using the materials you are contemplating, for starters they may just be sheets of plastic but they are seriously heavy duty, completely taped and stitched unlike your usual gazebo, you also need something to hold it up, in my case a fiberglass pole framework backed up by blow up air panels in the roof to improve rigidity, you need heavy duty zips sewn in, with heavy duty 12v motors to run the fans, and a transformer to drop to power from mains to 12v.
I bought mine after I had to put my 2c into storage after moving to a place with no garage, Storage was costing me £97 a month and an inconvenient 15 miles away. shortly after I managed to get a concrete lock up that sweated like you wouldn't believe.
At the time about 10 years ago my Air Chamber cost me about £350, and they're not a lot more than that now, so it paid for itself in a matter of under 4 months.
Erecting it was hard work as it really is heav duty, effectively it's a sealed box including the floor being stiched in; first I painted the concrete floor with an epoxy paint to seal it from any damp, I normally have opened out cardboard boxes on the floor, but that's to catch oil drips.
Without a doubt if I hadn't have had the airchamber she would have rotted away very quickly even though she was out of the rain and snow.
I always used to put an old carpet down on the garage floor which if nothing else makes it much more comfortable to stand on if you're doing any work!
I hadn't put one down in my latest garage which is now brick and drier than the concrete, this was after the very bad winter we had this year, it was ok inside the airchamber throughout the cold weather but when everything started thawing out after the ground being so deeply frozen, I had condensation inside the airchamber, which meant I had to open the airchamber take the Fulvia out then dry the floor, something I've never experienced before!
So I now have a carpet on the floor in the hope that it will keep the temperature up a bit so the inside doesn't sweat, or if it does, soak up the moisture so that I can then remove it and dry it.
Over the past 10 years I've had 3 new fans from the supplier at a reasonable cost, so all in all it's cost me less than £40 a year over it's life up to now, which obviously doesn't included to cost of the electric to run the fans, it still has lots of life left although the main door and zips are getting a bit tatty, a small price for keeping away the damp from my pride and joy.
Another added bonus is that it keeps myFulvia nearly dust free, something that you can't achieve even in a garage, without an airchamber.
Most important though is NEVER put the car away wet.
Yes, you might be able to make one cheaper, will it be as good or better, or as cost effective over it's life,? I doubt it.
Brian
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