YOU DIRTY RAT!!

[jgerock]

I'll let Marshall Lytle fill everyone in on this little creature we discovered yesterday.

[penth2o]

I'm almost thinking about getting a couple of outdoor cats for that reason.

With what I spend on mice poison & moth balls & vanilla extract I think the kitties would pay off.

I hate those bastards. Is that a rat. I have never seen a rat. We have little field mice 2 1/2 inches long.

Edit: I just seen the tail. That is a rat isn't it? How big is it and how big do they get?

Kill em all...

[jgerock]

Joel - I think it was about 8 inches long (body only - tail not included). Massively petrified, so it had been inside the trunk of this car for a while.

There were also some live mice inside the trunk when we first inspected the car last weekend. Yummy!

[skipsfcr]

EWWW! I hate those nasty bastards. I've got an elderly lady customer who purchased a Mini Cooper because she wanted something "youthful". She lives in the country (not all too far from me) and lets the car sit too much. A big rat like that nested up in her engine bay during the extended downtime and caused about $1K in damage.

[M3M3]

that little guy was one of the residents of my recent acquisition...now named the mouse house.

what is mouse house?

1985 Euro 320 sedan

m50 conversion

h&r springs

billy sports

e30 m3 interior

and a bunch of other upgrades.

it sat for 1.5+ years outside, dead. jim and i dragged it out of the driveway it was in and winched it into friends enclosed trailer. dumped it in my driveway yesterday. spent some time cleaning it today.

before

after

it does not run (or even turn over), yet.

just what i needed...another project!

more pics at

http://s397.photobucket.com/albums/pp59/mblytle/85%20euro%20320/?start=0

[jgerock]

Miss Mouse cleaned up nicely! Hope you can get her running again.

[02Les]

I'm almost thinking about getting a couple of outdoor cats for that reason.

With what I spend on mice poison & moth balls & vanilla extract I think the kitties would pay off.

I hate those bastards. Is that a rat. I have never seen a rat. We have little field mice 2 1/2 inches long.

Edit: I just seen the tail. That is a rat isn't it? How big is it and how big do they get?

Kill em all...

Don't ever come to India Joel. They have them everywhere here. Some of them are big enough, if you put a saddle on them you could ride away!

Why can't they clean this place up?

The apt I am in at the moment overlooks the "beach". It also has open drains alongside the road that everyone throws their trash into. At night it is crawling with rats. Ugh.

[SteveJ]

that little guy was one of the residents of my recent acquisition...now named the mouse house.

I'd name the car- Chuck E.

or maybe Willard.

:^)

[M3M3]

ooooo......forgot about that classic willard movie!

if i get it started and it's a beast, then willard..

if i get it started and it's fun/cute, then miss mouse..

:-)

[BradInPA]

Nasty rat, but beautiful car after you got it cleaned up!!

[jgerock]

Now that there seem to be additional issues with this car, Susan and I are suggesting you re-name the car: Miss Fit

Or possibly Ratatouille

[M3M3]

like the ratatuille! the car is like the little chef's meals..a blend of many things.

found out who built it down in norfolk area 10 years ago. a pro who has done dozens of m/s50 conversions...and found out that a track friend of mine was the owner at the time. geez..small world.

[M3M3]

so in between storm preps today i thought, what the heck, i will make minimum effort to start ratatouille. dropped freshly charged battery in it, checked cleaned all the fuses and relays, checked coolant and oil, then stuck key in ignition and turned.......

s l o w l y turned over. tried again. turned over a little faster. tried again. fired and settled to normal idle! holy crap! the rat works! lots of belt squealing and pulley bearing noises (not unlike a bunch of PO'd mice), but it ran. alternator not working though.

funniest part was the wierd popping noise from the back of the car after it started. i opened the door and looked back. the snow bank behind the car was covered in a shotgun pattern of acorn shells and straw like stuff. i guess there had been another mouse nest in the muffler!

drove it out the driveway, turned around and reparked it the other way around to confuse the neighbors.

ok, must focus....time to get back to work on the interior of the 02. dang e30 distraction.

[jgerock]

To quote you: "You done good Grasshopper".

[Anschauer]

Good for you and she shined up purty!

My daughter (23) apropos of nothing, suddenly blurted out yesterday, "Daddy I'm thinking of joining the Coast Guard."

Very proud of her anyway, prouder still if she decides to do it. Told her to find a recruiter in Danbury CT or White Plains NY.

(ex-Master myself)