Battery cut off switch?

Good feature to have. However mine is mounted in the boot so I have to pop it every time I want to take the "key" out. Moving it somewhere in the cabin makes good sense.

Mine is on the face of the "back seat" under where your legs would be on the passenger side.  Easy to reach from the driver's seat, but mostly concealed & can be easily concealed by some stuff in front of it.  Carey has my car right now, but would probably be willing to post a picture if interested.

JPS places the cutoff switch under the passenger seat by the seat adjuster.

Additional:   .10 cent cut off switch...a 3/4" pc of 1/4"wood dowel stuck in the center terminal of the dizzy cap and set the coil wire back over it.

However if they want to steal it they will steal it.. I "stole" the HS Principal's '64 Beetle by simply unplugging the rear tail light wire and plugged that wire to the 12v hot side of the coil, pull the light switch to parking light position ( powered the coil) push the car, pop the clutch and off we went...  Did this 3 times parking it each trip by the school's flag pole until, the Principal lost his cool.

"until he lost his cool..." - LOL - that is funny.

TRP ....Funny story reminds me of my neighbor growing up who had an Isetta. He was always bragging about his gas mileage. We started adding gas to the tank at night. Next thing he is getting 100 mpg. Then we started syphoning the gas and goes absolutely nuts. He goes to the dealer and is yelling his head off because they can't find anything wrong with it. It was also a regular Halloween prank to pick the Isetta up and put it on his front porch. Great memories. 

If you install a battery cutoff switch consider adding a 5 amp fuse (pre made fuse holders w/pigtails readily available) bridging the terminals. Keeps clocks/radio memory hot but blows if more current is applied. I installed mine near the battery with the fuse located near the switch for easy access.

My Cutoff is under the dash, within reach of driver.......

 

Makes for a little security as well as safety.

Has anybody had their speedster stolen or heard of anybody who has had their speedster stolen?   I opted not to have any cutoff switch as felt the odds maybe higher of a problem with the switch than having my car stolen (or borrowed for a joy ride).

Trahn, I count very few "mistakes" in my Speedster build, but the cutoff switch is one.  It hasn't caused me any problems, but also hasn't added any value.

Now a force field that could keep people from scratching the paint would be useful.

Becks have door locks, which I would encourage Carey to design out to save cost & weight.

I disagree, Tom.  Leave the locks in to discourage children from getting in the car when it's parked at shows.  They're irresistibly attracted to Speedsters.  Ask me how I know.

Tom wrote:  "Now a force field that could keep people from scratching the paint would be useful."

 

Here's your guy, right from Atwell's Ave. in Providence:

 

Just went over this on SpyderClub.

 

Battery cut off, in most cases, is useless as anti-theft.  As Al said, simple running light power to the coil, pull on the headlights, and off you go.

That is also why we break the fuel pump and not the battery.  Even if you do get it started (on what gas is in the float bowls) you will only get about a block... and if you don't know how the fuel pump was broken, or where it is hidden, good luck.

 

All of that said, I have only heard of one (maybe 2) of our cars getting stolen in 30+ years (both in SoCal and one was shady at best read:insurance).  If you look at the list of top stolen cars they are popular cars with parts that are easy to get rid of.  That doesn't account for the a$$hat that wants to steal something for a joy ride, but you get the point.

Any added theft devices will slow down the actual Thief but most can be made to run in 2 minutes   Alan formally educated in Joisey

 

Maybe I'm missing the point here?? My cutoff disconnects the main positive from the battery. One of these...

 

 

Its way under the dash on the firewall. The bad guys would have to run a cable from battery at the front all the way to the coil......Then bump start the car while leaving the hot coil feed in place.....

 

I know a determined bad guy could just as easy push the car on a trailer but any deterrent will discourage the casual nastys !

 

Primary reason for fitting was so that I could disconnect the electrics quickly in the event of an electrical issue....(i know from trying it that the engine will quite happily run without battery once up and running....

Nothing can be protected 100%. If you can harden the target enough to make it unattractive to the casual or even hardened thief to steal (takes too much time or is complicated) than that is about the best you can hope for.

 

Common sense in terms of where the car is parked/stored, plus what Carey suggests  and the cutoff pictured above may be the best bet. Alarms are a pain, but they are an option. Two or three layers of security are better than none or just one.

 

I guess you could always throw on one of those big honkin' frequent violator boots they use to immobilize cars with a bunch of tickets every time you park it. Tough to haul around with you though. How about a Doberman that lives behind the passenger seat and is territorial as can be?

 

 

 

 

Aaaah...I guess I shouldn't leave the key in the ignition...huh?

If a thief is determined and had enough experience, he's gonna get it. A friend's turbo RX7 (with a few "upgrades") disappeared from in front of his house a number of years ago and all he could tell the police was that he went out to check it (in the middle of the night) after the alarm went off. He reset the alarm, went to bed and in the morning it was gone. At the time, nice cars would be stolen and then loaded into containers (we're a port city) and within 12 hours were on their way to Asia for resale.

 

Hot VW's did a series of articles (4?5?6?) on theft proofing your beetle and the Doberman was the 2nd last article; the last was a Bengal tiger (the Bergs had circus performer neighbors and so kindly lent them the big kitty for the picture).

Yoda out.

 

PS- The great thing about these cars is they're unique (and eclectic) enough that there's not really a place to dispose of them.

 

 

I had a friend in high school who perfected lickity-split hot wiring pre 1949 Fords for joy rides. He'd take a fifteen cent bus ride into Compton, Long Beach, Bell Gardens, ect., and scout out movie theater parking lots for candidates. He was partial to modified coupes with duel exhausts and spun aluminum hubcaps.

 

He finished high school in the Chino Reformatory for boys.