hi all i need some advice on how to secure my garage door and windows from crooks and theif'*.... in my garage is my 95 se which im currently working on puting my competition set up in my bonnie.. now i dont live in a area that bad but there are alot of jealous car theifs out there and some very close to me with in a couple houses down...

now i dont want to make the windows look horrible by putting big jail like bars and gates. but i want to know that when im not home that my garage is safe and so are my tools and audio equipment.... i was thinking of putting plexi glass screwed in over the windows but on the inside of the window frame so i can still put some blinds up to cover the plexi glass and make it look nice..? how does that sound.. please give me your ideas and already done projects.. this would be highly appreicated as my car was broken into once before a few months back and i dont want that to happen ever again...


(( i have a budget of $250 to safely secure my garge windows (3) and my garage door.

Plexi would have to be thick to be of any use. You can whip through it with a Rotozip bit and a cordless drill in record time.

Would an audible alarm system be in the consideration?

i have a baby monitor for sound to listen if some one is trying to get in while im sleeping.. i use a baby monitor because it automaticly amplifies any sound to wake you up .. thats why its a baby monitor.. whwn im home im not worried.. its when im out for a day or two at a time... .

do you know of a good audible system....? or maybe i should just go with a hidden camera that records... but then ill never find them if i dont know them... i just basically want to stop them from getting in period...

I dunno, Bill. I'd think that 1/4" Lexan would slow down any but the most prepared thief, especially if it were behind the regular garage door glass. I don't know of too many smash and grab thieves that carry a cordless rotozip with them. Well, actually I don't know ANY smash and grab thieves, but that'* not the point is it?

The point is, that most of this type of burglary are not planed out real well and depend a bit on easy access. I've read that statistics show that making it just a bit too difficult too gain access reduces the chances you will be burglerized considerably.

A determined burgler can find his/her way into almost any location, with enough planning.

If you can get your hands on Lexan, that would be far better, plexi breaks easy. Lexan is what'* used on the space shuttle windshield.

Other then that you would need security galss, the stuff with the wire in it.

Here'* what my Uncle did when he had his '70 Chevelle SS in his garage. He just went ahead and removed the windows completely from the garage (if this is not a option, install bars on the windows from the INSIDE of the garage). Second, he installed a metal entry door with a metal frame with 3 deadbolts on it, and third he installed a switch on his garage door to activate a air horn installed in the rafters of the garage. Needless to say, only one person tried to break in, and it was via the garage door, and they never got in as the horn sounded as soon as the door was being lifted.

Why does he do this? He lives in a VERY bad part of Cleveland.

That would certainly work and well, I'm sure, but I think it more than busts his budgeted amount for the job.

1. Motion sensor lights
2. Dog

Don't they make a security laminate that will keep the window from busting out? See it used all the time on "It Takes A Theif"

It'* always funny watching them demonstrate it too.

Yes. That'* the Lexan we are talking about. 1/4" Lexan will take a sledge hammer blow and not even budge.