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]

Plastic over the top of the plywood with enough to get the edges off the ground by a few feet on each side.
Plastic on top.
Use the tarp connectors they sell at HD to fasten the top piece to the bottom piece creating a sort of bubble affect...wrapping the car up.
Roll the edges of plastic together to create as air tight a setup as possible.
The clamps are cheap little round things that you wedge from one side of the plastic to the other without ripping the plastic...they work great...kinda a pita, but once you figure it out they are great.

I like this idea. Turning my car in a ginormous pita... mmmm.... pitas... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/drooley.gif)

Seriously tho, that sounds like a good plan. Will help keep ground and atmosphere moisture out; which is a good thing 'cause it gets wicked humid around here in the fall.

And I'll probably use a combination of mothballs/dryer sheets. Mothballs and synthetic predator pee (I'm still going for that Zach (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) ) on the ground around and under the car, and dryer sheets/sprays/air freshners etc. in the interior compartments to keep the nasty smells of mothballs out. And I'm still going to set some traps here and there as added security- it's been my experience that you can never go too far when trying to keep mice out; because if one is so determined, it will get inside no matter what. I've heard adult mice can squeeze their heads down as small as 1/8" to get through a crack. Bottom line is, odors from mothballs and dryer sheets and the like will fade over time and once they do, it's open game for anything that wants to get in.

But hopefully these measures will keep them and any other nasty little critters out until I can get it back in the garage.

Once again, thanks for all the suggestions guys. Project: Mouseproofing will commence at one point or another this weekend.