Rodent proofing the B-body

Now that I found my SD card from my camera I can finally show you all what I did to prevent a fire from breaking out in my Caprice again. As a lot of you know I have had a problem with mice getting into my 9C1's HVAC housing since I bought it. What started out as a minor annoyance of having to clean out the blower every now and then escalated into a fire. While I had the car torn apart to replace the melted and burnt parts (and upgrade to auto climate control) I went ahead and permanantly addressed this problem. My previous fix was to install the cabin air filter mod, which I did buy but never installed.
The "fix" itself is pretty simple, the difficult part is getting to the intake part inside the dash to do it. You could probably do this under the cowl, but if the box is out of the car it's much neater. I used a piece of steel gutter leaf guard from the hardware store and cut it into a box shape. Once tested for fit I riveted it into the box. So far it's been in there for 2 months and I am happy to say nothing has been living in my car



And what your dash looks like when you almost have this thing out of the car:

That looks sharp, but can you clean it once it gets all "linted" up? Is it something you can reach once installed?

Oh and would love to see your auto climate control in the Chevy dash. Bet that's sharp!

I did that once when I bought my 9C1 to clean out the nasty mouse poop smell. I will say you either want to remove the windshield or discharge the AC and remove the evaporator to get the box out.

Damn rodents,no sense of decency!

My 95 wagon had the heater & the fuel tank sender destroyed by rodents. Hope it doesn't happen again.

FYI - for any car that's been stored in the presence of rodents, keep an eye out on the vehicle wiring as well. I recently saw rear O2 sensor wiring insulation that had been chewed down to the metal by the vermin.

Mouse traps with PEANUT BUTTER work wonders as mouse destroyers, in my experience.

That sure does get them, I use to have those all over the engine in this car before I permanently evicted them.

And to follow up on Mike's questions (sorry it took so long!):
Yes, it can be cleaned.  You have to pull the cowl off and open the access door on the passenger side, you can get a vacuum in there to clean it.   It's been in there over a year now and I have no complaints. about it.

And here's a shot of my climate control:

That looks nice Dave, but just a warning, mice can, and will eat through that metal mesh. Flippin' little determined boogers have sharp teeth. Just keep an eye on it.

I thought I had the mice beat with my air filter set up.... Nope they chewed through the filter media and wire mesh backing. So I riveted a heavier metal mesh to the fire wall then put another filter over the opening. That was not the answer either. Some expanded steel, or perforated steel will be next.

Thanks Mike, never seen them eat through mesh before, but now I have something to check on this winter. I checked this past fall and all was clear in there, maybe the burnt plastic smell is keeping them away now   

Ugh, burnt plastic is a nasty smell.