From someone who knows
 

First thing to do after you bring that barn find home. Buy, borrow or otherwise secure an empty shop vac (must be empty to start).
Remove the seat(s).
Bounce them around on the garage floor.
Vacuum up the 1,000,000 mouse turds off the garage floor.

Re: From someone who knows
 

Shop vac must be empty? Wow that's a lot of mouse turd:)

Re: From someone who knows
 

Must improve your gas mileage tremendously!

Re: From someone who knows
 

Next vacuum the ratsnest out of the radiator....

Re: From someone who knows
 

Don't clean out the exhaust pipe, why?, because I like to see the acorns and various nuts get blown out on first start up.

Re: From someone who knows
 

glove box do not forget the glove box. The rodents love to live in there.

Re: From someone who knows
 

I found a rat nest in the frame of my 49 last week. I killed the rat several months ago but never could find his nest until last week. I don't know how I will get it out.

Re: From someone who knows
 

Leaf blower

Re: From someone who knows
 

Just the opposite, leaf sucker (the old shop vac again).

Re: From someone who knows
 

A word of caution about using a vac to clean up mouse or rodent debris, Those little buggers can be carriers of some nasty diseases, so you don't want to put that stuff into air circulation with a vac. I would check with the Center for Disease Control to see what they recommend, or Google it. Your local county extension service may be able to shed some light on the issues for you. Possibly wetting the debris 1st with a disinfectant, then using a wet vac, or possibly use HEPA filter in the vac. No matter how you do it, check with the experts first. My field of work is safety.

Re: From someone who knows
 

I see now that the title of my thread should have been: From someone who knows his car has not had live rodents in it for a long time.

I was actually wondering if I had exposed myself to the Hantavirus by cleaning out all that crap yesterday. Thing is, I had been driving the car and working inside it lying on the floor and being in other contorted positions inside the car with those filthy seats still in there over a period of years actually, so if I was going to get sick from it, I had had plenty of exposure.

I was trying to be facetious in my thread, as it is quite common for old cars to have mouse homes in them, I thought it would ring a familiar note with some of the members.

After the last post, I did some research about Hantavirus and was happy to learn that the virus doesn't last very long (maybe a week, not a month probably).


Here is some information from a paper on the web about Hantavirus infection.

How long can Hantavirus remain infectious in the environment? - The length of time
Hantaviruses can remain infectious in the environment is variable and depends on conditions,
such as temperature and humidity, whether the virus is indoors or outdoors or exposed to the
sun, and even on the rodent’s diet (which would affect the chemistry of its urine). Survival of
the virus for 2 or 3 days has been shown at normal room temperature. Exposure to sunlight
will decrease the time of viability, and freezing temperatures will actually increase the time
that the virus survives. Since the survival of infectious virus is measured in terms of hours or
days, only active infestations of infected rodents result in conditions that are likely to lead to
human Hantavirus infection.

So now, I don't worry about the mouse crap I cleaned up, but it is something to know about for all of us who might never give it a second thought.

Re: From someone who knows
 

During the winter of 2010, I began to work on my latest collector car; a 1948 Lincoln Continental Coupe. This car sat in tall wet grass for about 6-7
years. The usual nesting of field mice. The worst had to be the headliner,at
least 10 pounds of nesting, droppings, new born infants. Didn't bother to
clean , just razor knife the perimeter and dumped it in the dumpster. Let it "airout" and wrapped it tight and stored in dry area for future reference!

Re: From someone who knows
 

When I started on my pickup it had been parked in a field since 1968. It had the usual mouse houses under the seat, in the glove box, the heater and the exhaust system but, the one that got my attention was in the bell housing. The cover for the starter drive was missing so I assume that is where they got in. I sprayed everything with bleach and let it set for a few days prior to removing the debris.

Re: From someone who knows
 

under the intake??....thru the oil fill.....Mike

Re: From someone who knows
 

MMM roasted acorns. Been there.

Re: From someone who knows
 

Man, I've removed many intakes, filled right to the top with mice nest, there in nothing in the world that will rust things up as much as mice piss, I've seen them rust holes right through the main oil pipe. Wouldn't you like to have white one in a cage at home? Walt

Re: From someone who knows
 

If you borrowed my shop vac to do that, I'd be mighty pi$$ed off. Go buy yer own shop vac!

Re: From someone who knows
 

How about have them geneticly manipulated to prefer Mazda :D

Re: From someone who knows
 

There was mouse turds an inch deep in my 38. Took almost 2yrs for the smell to subside after a very thorough cleaning... :(

http://fordbarn.com/forum/attachment...1&d=1443628061

Re: From someone who knows
 

Old cars are small potatoes in comparison to what mice can do in your motorhome!
I was having work done to my motorhome in a repair center and within a week mice moved in and mice droppings were found in every closet and draw. Droppings everywhere from the bed to dashboard. I finally got them out by setting traps and poison bate.