Long term storage of cars and parts

[JosephS]

Has anyone prepped their cars and associated parts for long term storage? I thinking some stuff may stay in boxes for years. What works and what doesn't?

[RC10th]

Most of my cars live in storage boxes full of packing peanuts. Stadium trucks sit with the wheels off and stored with the cars. Buggies I leave the wheels on and they sit sideways, four of them in a tub. 1/10 pan cars side sideways as well, 4 in a tub. 1/12 I think fit 6 in a tub and touring cars fit sideways 3 in a tub. The larger or bulkier vehicles really only fit one in a tub.

[Lowgear]

Long term storage is the name of all my R/C projects.

But really though... I store everything in an obsessive manner. Nothing just gets thrown in a box. Everything is strategically placed as to not cause any damage. Unless it's a NIP flat part. I don't even stack things on top of each other. All tires for example are laid on their sidewalls as to not cause flat spots. I don't stack any on top of each other there either, and make sure there's space around them. I believe I've read that you should seal them in bags but I've never had a problem. I'm sure it largely depends in the environment they'll be in.

If I have to store a vehicle in a box, it goes in with the wheels removed of course. If the box is big enough, the wheels go in on their sides. The body is normally removed as well, and placed in a separate box. Sometimes if the wheels can't properly fit in the chassis box, I'll put them in the body box.

My stuff sits for really long stretches of time so the goal is to have whatever it is come out of storage the exact same way it looked going in. All my vintage R/C stuff means a great deal to me so it's handled extremely carefully. The downside is you use like ten times the amount of boxes though. Luckily I buy a lot from Amazon so I have a garage full of them.

If it's just well used parts or stuff meant for bashers, then just haphazardly pile it in boxes as it won't really make a difference obviously.

[JosephS]

Any sealers or such on tires?
Are the boxes plastic or cardboard? Are things stored fully temperature / humidity controlled or in attics / crawl spaces?

Are lipos pretty much toast ?

[Frankentruck]

A lot of tire preservation discussion here. I've been thinking about the 303 stuff mentioned but haven't tried it yet.

https://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=29123&p=301027

[RC10th]

I think tire degradation depends a lot on where you are and your climate. If rubber items tend to dry rot in your area it would be advisable to treat the tires. I normally clean my tires with simple green which conditions the rubber. 303 is another popular tire protestant.

I believe oxygen, sunlight and heat seem to be the things that destroy plastics and rubber etc, so if you can store them in a cool dry place and not in the attic it will go a long way to keeping things fresh.

[JosephS]

I think tire degradation depends a lot on where you are and your climate. If rubber items tend to dry rot in your area it would be advisable to treat the tires. I normally clean my tires with simple green which conditions the rubber. 303 is another popular tire protestant.

I believe oxygen, sunlight and heat seem to be the things that destroy plastics and rubber etc, so if you can store them in a cool dry place and not in the attic it will go a long way to keeping things fresh.

I'll have to keep that in mind.

[EvolutionRevolution]

Also be sure to store bottles of oil in an upright position, preferably in a box where bumping into the box does not make one of the bottles fall over, pop open, and spew its gunk all over your other bottles and tubes of shock oil, diff grease etc.

Guess who discovered his bottle of bearing oil did just that, meaning everything else was bathing in half a centimetre of bearing oil?
Also, f*** Tamiya for being the only manufacturer whose packaging for grease is apparently not sealing very well, since the bearing oil was both on the outside and inside of it. Ironically, that concerned Tamiya's anti-wear grease, which is supposed to keep dirt out of joints and the like...

[Maxell27]

This is a great thread. I am going to use some ideas from here.

[jwscab]

I've kept all my rc stuff in the basement for years. my parents basement was damp and dark. My basement is cool and dark. I have kept stuff out in the open, like on a rack, and in cardboard boxes and plastic bags. I don't seem to see any problems over the years, except some steel hardware rusted a bit here and there. The new compound tires that are soft and sticky I keep in their ziplocked bags to preserve them. I do keep most cars either hanging or off the tires in some fashion. The cars I run with modern tires I store without the wheels.

[MadZero]

I stashed a load of old cars away in various tubs & cases for about 6yrs in various locations loft, garage, shed etc & the one that fared the best was in a cardboard box with lots of scrunched up newspaper around it so obviously the key is insulation. The car has lots of exposed metalwork, foam tyres and the box had been on the floor in the corner of a cold damp garage through several UK winters but emerged in perfect dry condition despite the box itself feeling a bit damp.

[JosephS]

I stashed a load of old cars away in various tubs & cases for about 6yrs in various locations loft, garage, shed etc & the one that fared the best was in a cardboard box with lots of scrunched up newspaper around it so obviously the key is insulation. The car has lots of exposed metalwork, foam tyres and the box had been on the floor in the corner of a cold damp garage through several UK winters but emerged in perfect dry condition despite the box itself feeling a bit damp.

It sounds like you tried various plastic tubs and settled on cardboard insulated with paper, is that about right? What kind of floor was it stored on? Were there problems with a plastic tub?

[MadZero]

I stashed a load of old cars away in various tubs & cases for about 6yrs in various locations loft, garage, shed etc & the one that fared the best was in a cardboard box with lots of scrunched up newspaper around it so obviously the key is insulation. The car has lots of exposed metalwork, foam tyres and the box had been on the floor in the corner of a cold damp garage through several UK winters but emerged in perfect dry condition despite the box itself feeling a bit damp.

It sounds like you tried various plastic tubs and settled on cardboard insulated with paper, is that about right? What kind of floor was it stored on? Were there problems with a plastic tub?

Well it wasn’t a scientific trial it’s just how it worked out due to a series of moves involving some temporary storage in various locations. For the most part it was a concrete floor of an uninsulated garage that the various containers were on and I found that the plastic tubs (with lids) that were touching the floor had moisture on their inside surfaces but the cardboard box stuff with scrunched up newspaper in was dry inside. I assume it was a combination of insulation & slight ventilation plus probably a bit of luck!
That said if I was forced to store my rc cars in a cold damp space again I think I’d seal the car in a plastic bag, surrounded by scrunched up newspaper inside an airtight plastic tub. The air in the newspaper would keep it insulated & the plastic tub keeps it water, mouse & insect proof too.

[JosephS]

I stashed a load of old cars away in various tubs & cases for about 6yrs in various locations loft, garage, shed etc & the one that fared the best was in a cardboard box with lots of scrunched up newspaper around it so obviously the key is insulation. The car has lots of exposed metalwork, foam tyres and the box had been on the floor in the corner of a cold damp garage through several UK winters but emerged in perfect dry condition despite the box itself feeling a bit damp.

It sounds like you tried various plastic tubs and settled on cardboard insulated with paper, is that about right? What kind of floor was it stored on? Were there problems with a plastic tub?

Well it wasn’t a scientific trial it’s just how it worked out due to a series of moves involving some temporary storage in various locations. For the most part it was a concrete floor of an uninsulated garage that the various containers were on and I found that the plastic tubs (with lids) that were touching the floor had moisture on their inside surfaces but the cardboard box stuff with scrunched up newspaper in was dry inside. I assume it was a combination of insulation & slight ventilation plus probably a bit of luck!
That said if I was forced to store my rc cars in a cold damp space again I think I’d seal the car in a plastic bag, surrounded by scrunched up newspaper inside an airtight plastic tub. The air in the newspaper would keep it insulated & the plastic tub keeps it water, mouse & insect proof too.

That makes perfect sense to me know. The cardboard and paper are both vapor permeable so as the air dries so do the contents, like old houses were built.
Now that you mention plastic bags, i remember that I own a vacuum sealer. I think I may try that out.

[JosephS]

I stashed a load of old cars away in various tubs & cases for about 6yrs in various locations loft, garage, shed etc & the one that fared the best was in a cardboard box with lots of scrunched up newspaper around it so obviously the key is insulation. The car has lots of exposed metalwork, foam tyres and the box had been on the floor in the corner of a cold damp garage through several UK winters but emerged in perfect dry condition despite the box itself feeling a bit damp.

It sounds like you tried various plastic tubs and settled on cardboard insulated with paper, is that about right? What kind of floor was it stored on? Were there problems with a plastic tub?

Well it wasn’t a scientific trial it’s just how it worked out due to a series of moves involving some temporary storage in various locations. For the most part it was a concrete floor of an uninsulated garage that the various containers were on and I found that the plastic tubs (with lids) that were touching the floor had moisture on their inside surfaces but the cardboard box stuff with scrunched up newspaper in was dry inside. I assume it was a combination of insulation & slight ventilation plus probably a bit of luck!
That said if I was forced to store my rc cars in a cold damp space again I think I’d seal the car in a plastic bag, surrounded by scrunched up newspaper inside an airtight plastic tub. The air in the newspaper would keep it insulated & the plastic tub keeps it water, mouse & insect proof too.

That makes perfect sense to me now. The cardboard and paper are both vapor permeable so as the air dries so do the contents, like old houses were built.
Now that you mention plastic bags, i remember that I own a vacuum sealer. I think I may try that out.