This is what I hate about old cars
 

And yes, a '92 Miata qualifies as an old car in my book.

Went to replace the fuel pump last night. Long story. Upon pulling the access panel, I was greeted with this sight:

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/9362/chewed2sh5.jpg

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/5508/chewed1qg7.jpg


Tucked up in the area between the tank and body under the lip at the front there was an honest to God mouse nest. The occupants were vacant (having probably left several years ago) but the nest was still intact, full of soft bits of chewed up wood, leaves, twigs, etc. You can actually see the individual teeth marks in the insulation where they'd been gnawing away at it. Repair of course necessitated pulling the whole front cover so I could get at the area where this assembly passes through the body, and fixing it was a chore since the insulation has been gnawed away right to the base of the connector, and the wires were very corroded.

Scary to think I've been driving around like this for years. On the other hand, the ultra-low mileage that I found hard to believe at first (45k in 2004) is starting to make sense. Clearly this vehicle spent a *lot* of time parked, probably in a friggin' barn.

I decided never to get an old car again after rebuilding a 1958 Willys Jeep CJ-5 with my dad. Every time you removed something, the bolts would break, and you'd have to wire brush all of the rust off and paint everything before it went back on.

Here it is the day we brought it home. It had been sitting in a field for 15 years and had it's share of mice in it as well. Note the "Sport" Grand Caravan that towed it 50 miles home.
Attachment 214763

my cousin once had mice in his heater blower on his 91 mr2, needless to say
the blower stopped working when one of the mice jumped into the blower it self seizing it

Bump the caravan , I'm impressed with the trailor that the jeep's sitting on. Surprised it held up.

2 Transmissions later...

Joe, you think a louder exhaust would have kept the mice out? :D

i bought my miata after it sat for a long time, there was a dead mouse in the air box i pulled it out by it's head with pliers

I have to go through my 91 when it gets a bit warmer out.... with only 15k on the clock I'm sure it sat for quite a while.....

A rat made himself a home in the driver's side intake air hose in my eclass. Little bastard, it was expensive to replace the pipe he chewed through.

My dads big 3500 series chevy diesel started running like crap. We opened up the airbox and a family of squirrels and built a nest inside it, grass, insulation, pinecones and all.

happened to me but was the dash lights, whole wire got fried had to find it and replace the whole thing...its a bitch doing it to.

Haha the transmission lasted 160k, once it went we donated the van for a $2000 tax deduction.

The tires on that trailer burnt the paint on the fenders from rubbing when it went over bumps, but the trailer is still holding up fine.

man you think that wiring is bad..

you should see the 87 turbo supra I am about to sell cause everything you move a connector the harness breaks. lol

How about some "after" pics.

+1

We sold the project when I turned 16 since we needed the garage space for my car so we never totally completed it, but I'll try and find some more.

EDIT:
Here's the latest pics I could find. We tore the thing all the way down to the frame , cleaned the rust off of it all and put it back together. F head 4 cyl, 4 speed, 4 range transfer case, top speed of 40mph and even that was scary.

Attachment 214754
Attachment 214755
Attachment 214756

sorry for the threadjack, Joe

aww that sucks you never finished it. :-/

At the dealership I worked at a long time ago some one brought in a minivan that needed a blower motor....Opened up the airbox and i swear like 15lbs of cat food plus a mouse nest came pouring out.

lol... mid '90s MB C-class have disintegrating wire harnesses too... silly biodegradeable wire insulation :P

When I was younger, I never did get much 1 on 1 time with my father. He was always working and never available. When I hit 40 last year I told him that it had always been a dream of mine to work on a project with him. I asked him (he is 65) if he wanted to build a Factory5 Cobra kit with me. I figured it would be nice to enjoy his company while he can still get around and do stuff (hard to build a car when you are 85). He pretty much told me to pound sand (didn't want to spend the time to build it) !

Be thankful for the time you spent with your dad on that project...

you should have seen all the rat shit that was in my engine bay when i got my 91

I helped one of our club members install some sort of blinker modification (the one that is always posted on m.net) for the front of her car. A few weeks later she said her lights stopped working. I looked at her stuff and her headlight wires were all chewed up. I had her take the car to a shop to get the wires replaced. She had her car towed to the shop. When they popped the hood a rat jumped out from under the car (he went along for the ride on the tow truck). She got the wires fixed and a month or so later showed up at one of our club's tech days. This is what I found under her hood (of course, her shit was all chewed up again):


http://www.lightweightmiata.com/misc/miatarat.jpg



http://www.lightweightmiata.com/misc/miatarat2.jpg

thats the saddest thing i've ever heard. thanks for bringing me down

Lemme get this straight the garage left all that in there? WTF

that IS frightening
Yeah, I was thinking his car was quicker than mouse. :dunno: :D

Well, some fill there engine bay with foam to get the intake temps down... this is at least more ecologic!

We've got some fast mice down here near the border.
http://www.nonstick.com/sounds/Speedy.gif

seeing all this shit i finaly understand why i found a big ass cat under my hood when my car wouldnt run good...it was running on 2-3 cyl and i popped the hood and this cat just jumps out and scared the shit out of me (figuratively)
but the cat left a little present in my engine bay

You reminded me of a neighbor I had about 5 years ago. He's got this little compact pickup truck, 4 cyl, like a Ranger or an S-10 or something.

Anyway, we had a few stray cats in the neighborhood. One morning, Les (the neighbor) goes out, starts up the truck, hears an odd squealing sound for just a sec, but it goes away. Drives off, gets where he was going, parks, and smells something burning. Pops the hood and finds the rear half of a cat sitting upon the exhaust manifold. The front half of the cat is nowhere to be found. It was apparently resting across the serpentine belt when the engine was started, which caused the cat to be rather neatly cut in half by the power steering pulley, amazingly without throwing off the belt.

It was pretty messy under the hood. There's a surprisingly large amount of stuff inside a cat.

:)

my dad was going to sell the miata in 1999 before I got into cars. I never spent time with him since I was really little as he's had a handful of problems: krone's disease, the flesh eating virus, a liver transplant in 2000, a few trips to the hospital for things i cant remember. long story short we've built and reconditioned ours up together, (well, usually he sits and watches me piss and curse), and he enjoys the fruits of my labor. He used to autox with me for a few years and we'd share the car, but now he just spectates. We still share it, as I drive it 90% of the time, but he absolutely loves everything I do to it. Except for crashing it into a pole.

wow, yucky dude, lol
the surprise the cat left me was the worst smelling turd ever, good thing i have a hose in my parents driveway, it came in real handy

I rebuilt MGs with my dad growing up. Now, he's jealous that my project car runs most of the time.