De-bugging a 1930 Fisher body ???

[Guest De Soto Frank]

So, I'm preparing to bring my father's 1930 Chevy Special Sedan home to my garage, for (evetual) restoration.

For the last twenty years or so, it has been parked outdoors, covered, but next to a decaying (dead) tree that shows signs of insect damage.

While I want to get the Chevy indoors, I don't want to bring a family of active woodeaters into my nice, dry, seasoned 1930's wooden garage...

Does anybody have a method for "sterilizing" or "fumigating" a vehicle with wooden body framing ? The interior is completely stripped out of the body, so all the framework is exposed... I really would rather not pull the remaining wood out of the body until I'm ready to actually start work on it (many months away), and even then only a piece or two at a time...

Was pondering "cocooning" the whole car in plastic and setting-off some sort of fogger inside... ???

Anybody got any suggestions ? Does body wood even get "buggy" ? ( The dead tree was an oak...)

[Guest Ken G]

To your last paragraph, alas, yes. The wooden frame of my old Rover is full of woodworm holes, not active I think, because I have not seen any adult beetles and the car has been here in San Francisco four years. The insects bored their way out through the interior leather panels, leaving holes that so far I have been unable to hide. If the beetles in the US are similar, albeit different species, to those in Europe, and if you can uncover wooden surfaces, you can tell by the presence or absence of tiny holes, and of course look for beetles. In the days of DDT, you could buy a device that you pressed into the holes and injected liquid insecticide, but that obviously required that you be able to get at all, or at least most, of the holes (I well remember the smell!). I see that something similar is available today (search on Rentokil). I suspect that modest numbers of holes can probably be filled with some sort of flow-on epoxy. With a serious infestation, the wood turns to powder.

Ken G, 1925 Rover 16/50 (San Francisco)

[critterpainter]

Call a termite control company and ask them how much to park the car in the garage of a house that they are tenting/ fumigating. That should do in any bugs.

Bill

[Guest De Soto Frank]

Ah... like "fine antique European furniture" ?

I'm figuring that the body already needs a complete re-wood... what I'm hoping to prevent is bringing "infested" wood into a "clean" structure and then having the infestation spread from the car to the surrounding garage...

Will talk to some local pest control people...

So if I cocoon the car, then started the engine ( fresh air piped-into the carb ) and let it run, could I gas 'em that way ? (boy does that sound like a silly idea, now that I look at it... )

Thanks...

[Guest imported_49packard]

Not that I am an expert at bugs-but termites must return to soil-that is the reason they put those canisters in the ground around foundations. I would suggest doing what you are proposing-if possible cocoon the car and set off a bug spray that can be purchased at any hardward store.

[mrpushbutton]

one of the big bug killin' outfits like Raid makes a fumigation bomb--there is a pill kind of thing inside a plastic cup. You fill the cup with tap water to the line on the cup, drop in the pil and a reaction starts, producing bug killing gas. The package says it will kill all insects within a 15' x 15' room, which means it be more than adequate (dare I say "over kill") in a car. We de-bugged a '36 Pierce Arrow with one of those, It worked great. You can get them at any good hardware store.

[Guest Curt Fouse]

Judging from the amount of work it took to replace all the wood in the body of my 1930 Buick, you have a big job ahead of you. If you are going to inject anything in the wood, Quik-Poly would be what I would recommend. You may even be able to salvage some of the wood that way. I was able to stabilize most of the wood in the doors of the 30 B. with quik-Poly and saved a lot of work there. I see Quik-poly being advertised again. It does work, but sure sets up fast, so only a small amount should be mixed at a time. It soaks into punky wood real fast. I had first used quik-Poly on the wood window frames of an old house, and got by with out putting in new windows. Good luck.

Curt

[rwoods]

You might want to contact Bill Cartwright at KC WOOD MFG in Willis,Va.he makes wood for chevrolet bodies and can give a lot of advice on your car.If you have to replace much wood or certain pieces you take all the sheet metal off build, the wood skeleton and put the metal back on