Well, giving my dad's garage back to him this week..., Need advice on semi long term outside storage Options

[dbgriffith75]

My /4 2.0 is far from done. It needs rust repair and a lot of other shit done to it before I can even get back on the road of painting it and getting it put back together.

But next Monday I'm going to have surgery on my shoulder. Some months ago I tore the tendon on my rotator cuff, which has stopped this resto in its tracks because it doesn't take much working before it hurts like a bitch. So for some time now I haven't been able to do anything with it.

And after the surgery I'm expecting my arm to be in a sling for 6 weeks, with a total rehab time of 4-6 months following that. So I decided that this week, I'll get the hoods put back on it, store some of the interior parts in a mouse free environment, and get it pushed back outside so my dad has his garage while I'm healing up.

I just want to make sure I'm taking the proper measures to ensure that mice don't run rampant through the car (AGAIN!) while it's being stored outside. So here's what I'm thinking:

I've got some OSB plywood leftover from a remodel job I did earlier this year. Since the car will be on grass, I'm going to lay the plywood down and roll the car on top of it. I may even tack the sheets together with some 1x or equivalent to not only seal the seams from underneath, but to also help keep them from seperating when I roll the car on top of them.

I've heard that mice are deterred by the fresh smells of dryer sheets, detergents, car freshners and febreze type sprays. I don't know if that's true or not but I'll give the car a good once over with probably a combination of one or two of these throughout the interior and the under the hoods. Maybe even place a few traps so that if one of the little bastards does get in there, hopefully they won't last long.

I've also got a tarp big enough to cover the whole car and then some, so I'll lay that over top of it and then use whatever I've got laying around to weight it down the complete perimeter of the car to hopefully keep the mice from slipping in between the gaps. That will also help keep strong winds from grabbing one corner of the tarp and working it to the point that it eventually flies off.

Obviously my main concern here is the mice, because after all the nests I've cleaned out of this thing while tearing it down, I don't want to have to do that again. And I realize that if one of the little bastards was so determined, it could just chew through the tarp or from underneath the plywood; but I don't have any place inside I can store it for the long term.

And by the time I get it back in the garage, it's going to be winter, so I don't expect it to be totally mouse free by then; but I'm trying to do everything I can to minimize the little bastards' chances of getting in there.

So aside from what I'm preparing to do, does anybody have any other suggestions for me? Thanks. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[dbgriffith75]

moth balls? large cat?

Didn't think of the mothballs. Thanks for the reminder. And the closest thing we have to large cats around here are the tomcats that wander in from time to time, but Helmet (my dog) does well to keep them out, so I don't think that'll do me any good.

Suggestions?

Plastic is cheap. Lay a plastic drop cloth over the plywood. This will block ground moisture that will go through plywood.

Put in some dessicants to attempt to keep air moisture under control. Won't do much if your area has high humidity, though.

Mice will get in. Get predator urine (or synthetic) and spray on the outside perimeter as a deterrant. Don't spray inside, or the smell will never come out of the car.

Zach

I like the plastic idea. Didn't think of ground moisture. Good thinking as even that can assist the rust in continuing to spread. Not that I'm not doing anything about that. I did buy a couple spray cans of rust converter to at least slow it down if nothing else while I'm healing up.

Dessicant won't do any good around here tho- it gets wicked humid in the fall.

Good thinking on the predator urine. I think I'll go for synthetic tho- I just don't have the time to chase cats and snakes around in an attempt to get them to pee into a jar for me. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Seems it would be more sanitary that way, too... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Thanks for the tips guys.