Yup I got one, but if I told you where I would have to kill you. 

MS wrote:

The car thief won’t care as he winches it onto his trailer.

Now.......if it also had a self-destruct mechanizm too......
 

6sal6

hum the claymore is a nice touch, I hadnt thought about that.

I actually built an alarm system years ago that energized things with a hopped up "T" coil.  A cop friend suggested that I would be smart to not use it.  It was a VW so I asked what he thought of a 12 gauge in the trunk with the muzzle at the glove box door.  He also suggested I not do that....no fun at all.

BB1

When I used to live somewhere where car theft was a bigger concern, I would just remove the coil wire and bring it inside with me. Still won't help with the tow truck scenario, but would stop the average car thief.

I've heard that a coil cut off switch and hood lock work ok.

Bearing Bob wrote:

I've heard that a coil cut off switch and hood lock work ok.

How do you fit a hood lock to a 65 model, without there being big nasty pins and clips?
 

I've contemplated a line lock on the brakes.  Honestly if I was to road trip it I'd want a hell of an alarm and a boot or four on it. 

Bearing Bob wrote:

@RV6 uses a pistol barrel cable lock.

Big nasty pins and clips were stock issue on the 69 Mach 1.

Are you able to give some more details on locking a hood on a 65/66?

The pins and clips look ok on a 69 Mach 1, but not a 65/66 in my opinion.

Toploader wrote:

MS wrote:

The car thief won’t care as he winches it onto his trailer.

Are you saying that a car alarm makes no difference?

Pretty much.  When you hear a car alarm do you look to see who'd stealing a car, or do you think "turn your stupid alarm off idiot.  Man that's annoying!"  I think car alarms were a lot more effective when every new car didn't have one. 

The thing about criminals is that they are actually usually fairly smart.  They'll find a quick way around just about any anti-theft device.  Remember The Club?  Worked great until car thieves figured out that all they had to do was cut the steering wheel and yank it off.  Older cars with metal in the wheel would be harder, but that's what a cordless sawzall is for.

Getting an engine running in an old car like this is extremely easy.  I've done it a half dozen times in junkyards to verify that an engine ran and didn't make any terrible sounds before buying it.  I never had the keys and never used the ignition switch.  Column locks would make it harder to drive, but there's way's around those too.  When you don't care if you damage stuff to get the car all bets are basically off. 

So it is about making it a harder target, but honestly the car itself makes it an undesirable target.  We look at these cars and think they are cool, and car thieves probably do too, but they also know there's no money in them.  Not when the Honda or Toyota next to it has thousands of dollars in crash parts on it that raise no suspicions when sold to unscrupulous shops.  Car theft isn't about stealing a car and making it seem legit with a VIN and title from a "clean" wreck so it can be sold whole for a big payday.  Its about chopping the car up and making money off the parts. 

Most car thefts today are crimes of opportunity. Keys left in the car, stolen purses, etc. Most of those guys don’t know how to drive a manual transmission. The rest are hauled off on the rollback. I have a hidden switch but only because I had the neutral safety circuit from when the car was an auto and I couldn’t bring myself to just twist the wires together.

I watched a documentary on auto thieves a long time ago. There was one guy that was a car thief that started working for insurance company's. He said they would steal an expensive car. They would strip a lot of high price parts off it. Next they would drop the rest of the car off some where police would find it. Insurance company would total the car and sell it at auction. They would buy the car at auction cheep, put it back together and sell it legally with an 'R' title.