1997 neon acr coupe 2012 challenge/DD build

Remember when we were young and didnt look for cardboard or carpet or something before we got down on the gravel to work on stuff?  Kids are lucky

Yup. She pulled all the front bumper hardware like that.

Brap: ants. Easiest way to get a picture 

Alo, i figured out how to keep hardware organized and labelled when sending out for replate in bulk.

Justjim75 said:

Remember when we were young and didnt look for cardboard or carpet or something before we got down on the gravel to work on stuff?  Kids are lucky

I'm still there. For now. 

The back seat is still infested with ants. They have eaten into the foam.

Time to find a new back seat. And pull the rest of the interior before pulling it inside. 

Ima start calling this the onion acr. Cause the more i peel away, the more i cry. 

I think I can save the plastics from the interior. I think. More ants, silvefish, and a trio of mice. My wife and daughter helped over lunch. Back seat has had ants tunnel inside the foam. Carpet ruined. Trunk carpet ruined. Ant colony above the headliner i believe. Haven't pulled it yet. 

Package shelf/dash up is all thats left inside right now. Itll come out and be bombed again. 

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

Wtf. How does that even happen. 

Dunno. But ive got the creepy crawly heebie jeebies now.

Was it parked under a tree for a while?  I've seen that kind of thing happen with other bug infestations.  Wonder if there is something in the seat foam that the ants can survive on.

Its been in the carport for a couple of years now. So, yes-ish. The carport is kinda in the woods. At least right next to them.

I need to figure out how to make them deader than berkeley before bringing it up to the house.

With the interior out, I suspect another bug bomb will do the trick.   I would try to partially pull the headliner down (while wearing a face shield and gloves), in order to make sure you get the queen.  I bet she's up there somewhere.

In reply to eastsideTim :

Started a thread on the main forum while you were posting that.

I pman to pull the headliner entirely after work. And probably the floor insulation as well. Then another fogger? Anything else? Really really really don't want in the house and shop

The only other thing I can think of is to wait until you’ve seen a few days of no activity before pulling it in to your garage.  Others should have some good advice in your new thread.

I would have burned it to the ground.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Yes. Yes he did. And ive already read it once. Thanks again, seth. I meant to email you and just never did because I suck.

It took me like five months to mail it, so you're far from being at fault here. Just glad it made it. 

Everything but the dash and firewall stuff is out. And i found millions more.

How about an ozone generator?  Would that kill'em?

Im on my way to Lowe's for more foggers and ant poisoning bait. Well kill what ive exposed, wash down, pull the dash, do it again. Then maybe i can pull it in.

Edit: 

Prepared for war

Bombed.

Time to take a shower. Maybe do a real update instead of the phone ones.

The carpenter ants will chew through things to make tunnels and galleys they don't need to get food from it to chew it. The foam must have been close enough to soft wood for them to move in. 

After going through the budget, im going to have to really stretch the budget. I have 106 in recoup left. 

But, i should really only have to buy paint and body stuff, gaskets, and maybe ball joints. Other wear items too.

The acr is the front burner project now. Its time. I have the majority of parts I need. I have the desire. Its time.

Its also going to finally go to the challenge if I can make it work. Which means I had to go through many, many pages and posts on multiple forums to figure out what budget went where. And what recoup came from where. To see if I even had a snowballs chance in hell of pulling this off.

I even had a few long time competitors check my math and budget sheet and got a “good enough
seal of approval.

So, the budget as we have come up with:

budget spent: 1449.53

recoup: 894.75

what this gets us in the budget:

ACR

20191022_120427 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

a large pile of neon parts:

20191114_080156 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

and a parts car (thread here. Was going to be a challenge car but just have no desire to do it with that car. https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/2000-challenge/the-parts-car-acr-challenge-build/165563/page1/ )

20200208_204313 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

In other words, a lot of crap. That probably has more value as parts than as cars. And a lot of work.

Regardless, I want to OWN a restored ACR neon. In blurple. With period correct speed parts. So im going to build it. Goal is on a challenge legal budget. It may not be the ultimate version at the challenge, but will hopefully be good enough for top 10 (there's a nitrous kit in the budget already. But don't tell anyone im a pansy and only gonna hit it with a 50 shot) ive been collecting data and pictures and spare fasteners and such in preparation of this. I have friends with paint booths, sandblasters, and talents. I have the desire to do it right, and right now. So im going to. Which started with a pressure washer to the whole mess. Cleaned darth nader, the acr, and the parts car with superclean and the pressure washer. Made things look feasible for a minute at least.

20200411_164023 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

and then I looked inside.

20200411_164316 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

decided that the first step would be to pull it out of the carport where it has sat for a couple of years., and get it unloaded. Easy enough, right?

So, my daughter has started taking an interest in the cars. Im more than willing to teach anything she wants to learn. She wants to help on this one, so she is!

We started by pulling the front bumper off to be able to not damage it when we hooked a tow strap up.

20200416_181452 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20200416_190343 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

next we were going to pull the seats out and get them in storage. Were going to.

We found the ant colony when we pulled the rear seat bottom. Millions of the little bastards. Big, black ants. There was a piece of beef jerky and pack of gum under the rear seat, so we figured that's what attracted them at some point. They may have come with the car when we picked it up even!

I refuse to deal with bugs. The give me the screaming heebie jeebies. So this meant WAR.

20200417_172617 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Step one was brakeclean on all the ones I saw.

20200417_083210 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20200417_083244 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Step two was a fogger inside the car in the center console area, and walk away for the night.

In the morning we drug the car out from under the carport and got all the parts out. There were more than I anticipated! Amazing amount of neon E36 M3 at my house.

20200417_130643 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20200417_130410 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

then I got to looking at what was left. Pulled the seats: the rear seats are total losses. Ants had tunneled into the foam, and not dead from the fogger. Mice had eaten the trunk carpet, and the interior carpets were garbage and infested underneath. They all came out, and got chucked into the woods for the moment. Ill load it in the truck and take it to the dump sometime next week.

20200417_132417 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

saw evidence that made me believe there may be some above the headliner and under the foil insulation in the floor.

20200417_132602 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20200417_083252 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

so all that came out. And I found millions more.

20200417_155732 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20200417_164315 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

pulled the door panels and piked holes in the tarpaper over the quarter panel cavities. Just to make sure. Then threw another bomb and a few traps in there. You know, nuke it from orbit. Just to be sure.

Today, I got out the big shop vac that lives in the shed. Sucked up all the corpses of my fallen enemies to start with. Then, got out the high pressure garden hose nozzle and purple power. Sprayed everything with purple power liberally to get the ants scent and such off everything. Then took the high pressure nozzle to everything. In every hole, nook, crannie, seam, everything. Blew all sorts of dirt and stuff out of places Chrysler forgot existed. Drilled a couple of drain holes to let the water out, and repeated the process multiple times. Finally got happy with how it was cleaning up. Pulled the dash as far apart as I could without actually pulling the dash, and tossed another bomb and traps in there.

In the process of all this, the munchkin found a mouse. Trapped and released I the woods (shes 11 and begged to save him)

20200418_155235 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

here's where we ended the day today prior to bombs and traps being deployed again.

20200418_155759 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20200418_171708 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20200418_173324 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20200418_174214 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

next is full dash removal, and dead engine removal. Hoping to get the shell stripped by the end of the week and get the engine bay, jambs, window channels, and underside sandblasted next weekend.

Outstanding! I wondered how you'd build Nader, the Challenge Neon, This, plus your other shenanigans. I'm getting tired just watching you. This car will be sweet. Just needs the application of endless sweat equity.

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

That sure is a sexy 62 Corvair sitting in the back.

And this is a sexy looking Neon for you know being a Neon and all.