Mouse 1, Top 0

So I've been collecting the parts to finally get the convertible top assembled onto my CMC, and tonight I spiffed up the bows and painted the little "flippy levers" at the bottom of the bows where they mount to the body.

I also put shrink tube over the bows, rather than painting them, and wanted to try the fit to make sure the movement would be smooth with the material against the shrunk tubing, so I wandered out to the back garage where the top was stored and brought it in to the shop.

Imagine my surprise when I found that a mouse had chewed three holes into the material, each about the size of a Tennis ball!!

Damn Rodents! |>(

Always plant lots of baited traps around the garage especially near openings such as the garage door. I had one eat half of the rubber engine compartment seal. You should see what they can do if they get into your interior, I haven't had the pleasure of this experience yet but know someone who did.

I'm ready to park the two Jack Russell's out there to let them start earning their keep!!

Now grind the rest of the top material and spread it all over the yard / grass that way at least the rodents will keep the grass trimmed

Aaarrrrgggghhhhhh!!!! 8>(

Current speedster project came with a new Bernie Bergman 1903 stroker engine ...Since it had been sitting 8 plus years , I decided to pull the fan shroud, it didn't surprise me to find a mouse nest that looked like a Holiday Inn. Further investigation lead me to a couple of more rodent has beens, things were looking more and more grim so I decide to pull the heads where I found a baby mouse skeleton that had made a one way trip down memory lane by way of the intake manifold and past an open valve where it expired on top of the piston!

Sorry to divert eveyone's reminiscence's of expired rodents, but I wanted to ask Gordon where he got the shrink tubing for the bows from.

Hadn't thought of doing that before and it sounds like a brilliant idea.

Back on topic - living next to cornfields we get a lot of mice and have used an exterminator to come and set traps. This bloke then comes back later to retrieve the traps, hopefully with a full load in each one.

Well, one time he came to get his traps and when he picked one up that was in the basement a dead mouse fell out. This 'exterminator' jmped about two feet in the air and almost peed his pants! He then confessed to my wife that he was in fact scared of mice!

Thanks in advance for the info on the shrink tubes.

Cheers,

Jim

Jim, I like your accent, are you from the old country?

I had a labrador retreiver chew a 4' hole in my garage drywall once, trying to escape his kennel, but no mice troubles... you guys got off easy LOL.... btw, he finally made it out by breaking the plywood panels out of the studs they were fastened to... he proceeded to chew open a 50lb bag of fertilizer, eat a few very nice fishing rods, and some other miscleanous items. thank god he was smart enough not to eat the fertilizer once he tore open the bag.

anyway, I'm curious what this shrink tubing is etc... I have no idea what you all are talking about when referring to it.

Heat shrink tubing is used to waterproof electrical connections and splices. It is a hollow tube of black rubber looking material and comes in many diameters and lengths. You cut off the length you need and slip it over the wire (or top bow) and apply heat from a heat gun or some other source. It shrinks in diameter at about a 10/1 ratio and insulates the wire and seals out moisture.

George's description is absolutely correct. Shrink tubing has been used in the Electronics business for years, starting out in the Space program. It isn't often seen in home hobby or automotive stores in the larger diameters - they usually have something less than 1/2" in diameter and typically 4 inches long (a 'la Radio Shack or Home Depot).

I was looking for a roll of tubing about 3/4" Inner Diameter BEFORE shrinking and much longer to cover the length of the bow with one length, and I found some 3M FP301 Heat Shrinkable Tubing at a local electrical supply house (the places where electricians buy their supplies). It is 3/4" ID and the roll is 25 feet long and costs about 80 cents per linear foot. You need a good heat gun for this particular stuff - the minimum shrink temperature is 200 degrees F, although there are other versions that shrink at a lower temp, I just didn't happen to find them and just used a LOT of heat from my gun.

I would NOT recommend using a propane torch to shrink this stuff - the torch temp is not all that controllable and you often will burn a hole right through the tubing 8>(

I cut it an inch longer than each bow end (although it doesn't shrink in LENGTH when heated, only in diameter) and then trimmed it to 1/8" longer than the bow after shrink, and the holes for the mounting bolts are easily cut out with an Xacto knife or something.

BTW: Other uses I've successfully tried: Covering the length of my wiring harness, and to nicely weatherproof an electrical connection (like in a wheel well for tail lights) I slip on a little larger diameter piece, make the light connections (either slip-ons or soldered), apply some clear silicon caulk to the connections, slide the shrink tube over the caulked connections and then shrink it - the connection is then impervious to ANY moisture. Later, you can still more-or-less easily get the tube and caulk off if need be.

Gordon

Now all I have to do is get a new top....Arrrrrggghhhh!

Gordon,

I'm so sorry to hear about your new top!! I lost a tan hartz cloth TR6 top that same way, now I keep the "good stuff" in the house. Of course, once it's on the car and outside again, the same stuff can happen. And if you get a cat to stop it, and it inevitably breeds and you get more and they eat you if you fall and break your hip all alone . . .

So, maybe it's kind of a good thing . . .

The winter before last we had mice in our house. I don't know why I think this, but I thought that this was unusual for an almost new house. By whatever means, more than one of the little devils found there way inside, so I immediately began setting traps in the most likely places. I also called our exterminator to see what he could do for us. He suggested, after surveying the mouse turds scattered in various locations, that he thought we had four of them(?!?). He proceeded to put down "stickey paper" which smells like peanut butter but has a deadly grip for the unsuspecting invader. Low and behold, 24 hours later we had caught four mice and that was the end of that.

The next time Steve, our exterminator, stopped by for his quarterly spray cycle I asked him how he knew it was four. He admitted in his gentle southern drawl that he really didn't know how many there were. If there are any lessons learned here, it's that my exterminator is modest and he knows his business.
Hoss

I have little round divits in my yard where the grass is torn away.....it almost looks like something hatched out of my yard? Anyone know what this could be????

Usually skunks, digging for grubs.

Or the dreaded mole invasion

The local squirrels like to crawl in the air intakes around here. I've found their hidden feast of acorns more than once when changing the filter element. Hard to believe they can get in that small tube.

Another ex-Speedstah ownah in Rhode Island had my top bows powder coated as well as the roll bar and bumper mounts. Nice and shiny smooth.

BD

Steven, get your club up a little higher.

This is what I use for mice, moles, spiders, bees, flys, parakeets, toes, or any thing else that catches his eye.

Jerome

FYI, most rodent damage on autos is covered by your car insurance. Funny they won't tell you until you ask, and sometimes you have to ask twice. Eddie

Since we got an insultingly rediculous quote for installing a new bathtub ($1821 just to connect it!!) and I decided to install it myself (yes, it came out leak-free...) I decided that, since I saved all that money, I would treat myself and Pearl to a new Stayfast top from VS. If it arrives in time for the Southward migration, I'll install it here. If not, I'll shrink-wrap the car and trailer it down South and install it there.

In the meantime, I'm getting all of my sails out of that garage, putting them in a big Rubbermaid storage tub and putting them in the house for the Winter. Chewing up a top is one thing, but chewing up $2000 sails is another!

gn

Just a note that rodent damage is not covered under a homeowner policy

Jerome - That "shop kitty" doesn't look hungry enough to be interested in rodents.

We had the issue with the rodents (and petrified exterminator!) and i bought some of the ultrasonic units and must say that we have never had any issues since. I will also now be using the scented dryer sheets as an added precaution.

One thing I have noticed since moving to Michigan from the UK is the apparent suicidal tendencies of wildlife. Perhaps this is a phenomenon peculiar to Michigan, where the skunks, squirrels, deer and a host of other creatures feel that their existence is so wretched that they have no other alternative but to end it all under the wheels of the next UAV (urban assault vehicle) that comes hurtling down the road.

Do other states have an abundance of roadkill? I am not talking about the odd corpse here or there, but a considerable number of mangled remains that could only lead one to question that this is indeed just an accident.

I just returned from a trip to the upper peninsular, and there are even more roadway up there than in and around Detroit.

Certainly, I have never had more wins in roadkill bingo since moving here to Michigan.

Jim.

PS Yes, Dan, to answer your question - I am from the old country - if your old country happens to be England!

Jim:

We get a lot around Eastern Rhode Island - skunks, opposum, racoons and quite a few deer, along with large flocks of waterfowl. The same goes for Central Massachusetts where Chris lives.

I was fortunate a while back to work a computer show at Walt Disney World at the Dolphin Convention Center. We had a few days of booth set-up so we were getting up and out just before 6am and heading for the center. It is amazing how much road kill they have within the confines of the park, but they have a small army of Disney vehicles and people scurrying about, scooping up the flattened critters and spiriting them away before the guests see them and spoil their vacation.

We were also on the monorail approaching the terminal at the Magic Kingdom one evening about dusk, and we saw a small herd of deer, maybe 8 - 10 of them, feeding along the canal between the Kingdom terminal and the Grand Floridian hotel. It's really amazing how much natural wildlife there is in such close proximity to everything at the parks.

gn

Jim, Tennessee seems to specialize in skunks on the road kill scene. We also have opossums and occasional deer as well that draw their final breaths by the roadside. I hadn't considered the suicidal possibility, but maybe, being Appalachia, the animals would rather face the headlights by night than Bubba and the blaster by day. I guess that mostly applies to the deer or at least I hope it does.

Gordon:

Is it true that Bambi met her fate that way?

Sorry Bob, but the story is more seedy than that. Bambi had forsaken her family and friends, including Thumper, and moved into the woods of ill repute. There, she hustled many a buck (hmmmmmm!) until finally the fates caught up with her and she was stricken with a STDD
(sexually transmitted doe disease) which proved to be fatal. Few came to mourn her and she now lies in an unmarked grave outside the Disney Studios property.

Bambi recently expired after meeting up with my 2002 Volvo VN eighteen wheeler at 75mph
The force of hitting the deer was unbelievable considering the truck weight of nearly 80,000.
It took out the fiberglass nose, windshield, radiator, AC and a lot more.

Beth,

He doesn't eat 'em, he plays/tortures them. When he was a stray living around our house we had absolutly zero squirrels, chipmunks, moles or mice. You must bow to the power of Ghost the Desructor!

Jerome

Tell me, John, if you had kids, did you ever tell them bedtime stories? I hope not.

Alan, that's a lot of damage for one deer. Glad you are okay, old buck.

Bob, I relied heavily on story tapes and kept the editorial comments to a minimum. I was pretty good at funny voices though. BTW, did you hear that somebody got the goods on Santa and the tooth fairy also? Santa's pockets were so full of quarters, nickles and dimes that nobody could hear the sleigh bells ringing.

Just a small note of correction. Bambi is a he, not a she.

You ever heard about Randolph the brown nose reindeer? Rudolph stopped too fast!

RonL, another common myth exploded.

So, RonL, was Bambi a 4 speed or a 5 speed?