Long story short I put the 914 away for the winter in a Car Jacket last october. Have never been sure whether a Car jacket is a good thing or not. Desiccants can be put inside to hold moisture down and I've chosen to do that in the past.

Well....just before I put it away in October, in fact AS I was putting it away the fuel pump took a crap and was leaking gas all over. I cleaned up all that I could and zipped it into the Car Jacket.

When I took the car out in March to address the fuel pump issues the interior smelled of heavy gas. Seems fairly normal but after airing it out and getting the pump replaced the interior kept smelling like gas. When I decided do a good cleaning on the interior I finally noticed two things......the dash pad had a white-ish discoloration along the front edge and when I went to clean the interior vinyl liner for the targa top I noticed this. it was what appears to be a very oily residue....fuel distillates.

Air in the bag so heavily concentrated with fuel fumes that they evaporated and left only the sticky fuel residue?

Anyone ever seen this before? And should I question the use of a Car Jacket?


Steve


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eww, and dangerous

You had a balloon full of fuel gases?
I would not ever use that on an old car.

I prefer fabric softener sheets laid all over the interior spaces
I also previously put two or three cookie sheets around under the car filled with moth balls.

these tips drive the rodents away.

I now have two barn cats...so I have no more rodent issues

Yeah that’s my thinking now too but I was trying to just keep the humidity level down to prevent surface rust in addition to protecting from mice.

Volatile fuel vapor in that space should have evaporated cleanly again with out any residue. That is the whole idea behind the distillation process. There should not be any residue on things like the glass (if they were clean to start).

If I had to guess the fuel vapors condensed on those vinyl areas and pulled out the plasticizers that were in the vinyl and that is what is sticky... there is a risk the vinyl could dry out and crack.

Maybe Mark could share some wisdom on vinyl?
@Mikey914

i had that on on some fuel hoses on my race car, bottom of fuel cell was weeping due to a bad cork seal, sticky residue around the seal. Replaced the seal no more problems.

i noticed in the carbs , when using race fuel from the track (101 or 98), the leftover fuel was evaporating and leaving a sticky residue, the 91 crap pump gas around here leaves a much less sticky residue... i always thought it would be the other way around.

possibly....
Insulate the garage this year.
Add a de-humidifier
fabric softeners and moth balls.

Keep the area ventilated regardless of you decision.

Rich

Well, there had to be an excessive amount of fuel exposure to it condensing as it did.
The good news is that you will not have a rodent problem.

The vinyl will absorb the vapor and the only way you want to get rid of it is to air it out. The vinyl is soft and trying to wipe it may damage the pattern.

You can try a fan to move air through the cabin with both doors open. You may have discoloration, and it will not clean off as it’s the pigment in the vinyl faded from the exposure. The only way to “restore “ it is to use a vinyl dye. SEM makes a good product.

Do make sure you have good hoses up front and throughout the entire system, you don’t need a fire. If you have ethanol in the fuel it can affect some of the older hoses.

needs air flow..