Topic: Strangest things found stripping interior?

Just stripped out a Toyota matrix for a Lemons build and got a better perspective of the previous owners daily life than I would have liked to. Makes me wonder what the strangest things other people have found are....

Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

So far, nothing extraordinary. Just the usual dead rats, 8 gallons of rats nest and olive seeds, and an ash tray full of pennies, the newest one, still shiny, from 1985.

Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

I got 2 DS games, Monster House (the house is a monster) and I think a Kim Possible or Ben10 game.

Also lots of broken side window glass that must have happened prior to me getting the car.

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Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

The TR7 had a large dessicated rat that we shellacked and tried to bribe with.  My TR250 had 5 or 6 "sell me this car!  Call me!" notes scattered around.  Back in the day it was somewhat common to find old joints and pipes.  Gonna guess those days will be making a comeback.

1990 RX7 "Mazdarita"  1964 Sunbeam Imp (IOE 2013 Sears Pointless) 2002 Jaguar x-type (Winner C-Class 2021 Sears Pointless)
Gone bye-bye
1994 Jaguar XJ12 (Winner C-Class 2013 Sears Pointless)  1980 Rover SD1 (I Got Screwed 2014 Return of Lemonites)

Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

cheseroo wrote:

The TR7 had a large dessicated rat that we shellacked and tried to bribe with.  My TR250 had 5 or 6 "sell me this car!  Call me!" notes scattered around.  Back in the day it was somewhat common to find old joints and pipes.  Gonna guess those days will be making a comeback.

I remember getting my first car when I was 14 from my neighbor.  The owner told me to just go ahead and throw away any roaches I find.

Who keeps roaches?  What did you think I was going to do with a bunch of dead bugs?

*years later*

Oooohhhhhhhhhh

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Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

A Trunk Funk Booty Bounce CD

Skip "Mongo" L.
Team DadBod

Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

When stripping the daytona interior I was horrified to find what appeared to be regular black plastic trash bags stuffed with something  jammed between the outer skin of the car and the inner unibody around the hatch area. I was sure I'd found something that a previous owner had tried to hide, smuggle, etc. Nope, turns out that's just how Chrysler did sound deadening. Literal trash bag material filled with the same stuff that makes up the under carpet pad normally under trunk carpet.

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Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

I'll have to track down the picture but in addition to a TON of golf tees and mini pencils we found and actual crack pipe when stripping out the interior of our BMW e12.  As a testament to how straight laced our team is we initially set it aside thinking it was a spent halogen work light bulb.

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Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

1) Dessicated mouse in the bellhousing of our transmission. It's buddy was worked into the floorboards of the interior (no interior parts to sell on that one).
2) Meth pipe made out of a glass bulb and bic pen. I bought it from a guy who called me "cash money" when I arranged to meet him to buy the car. He needed my cash to set up his baby momma with a new ride before he had to do some time for "some drama". I had to drive him to his buddy's house in East San Jose to pick up the title and was one of the sketchier deals I've ever made on CL. I made sure a teammate could track me (or my corpse) if something happened.
3) A giant garter belt. It might have been stretched a bit but I swear it could almost go around my waist. Not sure if it was the same donor as the pipe though.

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Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

Stripping the Electrica, we found the original, hand-drawn, engineering schematic for the car.

We've not gotten around to processing the ex-taxi Lincoln.

Duff Beer Civic (#128) -- 2014 Sebring - Class B (#1 of 7), 2016 Barber - Class B
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Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

TheEngineer wrote:

When stripping the daytona interior I was horrified to find what appeared to be regular black plastic trash bags stuffed with something  jammed between the outer skin of the car and the inner unibody around the hatch area. I was sure I'd found something that a previous owner had tried to hide, smuggle, etc. Nope, turns out that's just how Chrysler did sound deadening. Literal trash bag material filled with the same stuff that makes up the under carpet pad normally under trunk carpet.

That reminds me.  The Imp had brown sound deadening material that was packed in semi-translucent plastic bags in a size and shape that approximated a kilo brick.  I felt like I was in the French Connection as I was pulling bags of that stuff out of the body cavity.

1990 RX7 "Mazdarita"  1964 Sunbeam Imp (IOE 2013 Sears Pointless) 2002 Jaguar x-type (Winner C-Class 2021 Sears Pointless)
Gone bye-bye
1994 Jaguar XJ12 (Winner C-Class 2013 Sears Pointless)  1980 Rover SD1 (I Got Screwed 2014 Return of Lemonites)

Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

cheseroo wrote:

in a size and shape that approximated a kilo brick.

"approximated" because you have no actual knowledge of what a true kilo brick really looks like?  Sounds like plausible deniability to me.

<I am NOT a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV>

Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

n0m4d wrote:

I'll have to track down the picture but in addition to a TON of golf tees and mini pencils we found and actual crack pipe when stripping out the interior of our BMW e12.  As a testament to how straight laced our team is we initially set it aside thinking it was a spent halogen work light bulb.

I was helping a friend empty out a Corrado, and we found a teeny little Ziploc bag with a yellowish rock in it; followed closely behind by a paper key tag that said "BPD Arrest". The rock was dissolved in Brake-Kleen or similar solvent then used at a later date to accelerate a burn pile from (an un)safe distance.

Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

How about under a car?
I had a friend who owned a car that sat unused for 27 years and when we finally moved it we found a dead cat, or what was left of it under the rear end.  Since it was a Mercury Capri we call the car "Dead Cat Capri" Mercury did use the saying "The sign of the Cat" when pushing the Cougar in ads.

Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

Dead bat in the backseat of an 86 UrQuattro. I didn't find it. The owner did, I was sitting in the passenger seat. It was in my driveway.

25X Loser - Delinquent Racing - '86 Rust-Tite Merkur - 9 years (when do I get to stop?).

16 (edited by mechimike 2018-08-21 04:19 AM)

Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

TheEngineer wrote:

When stripping the daytona interior I was horrified to find what appeared to be regular black plastic trash bags stuffed with something  jammed between the outer skin of the car and the inner unibody around the hatch area. I was sure I'd found something that a previous owner had tried to hide, smuggle, etc. Nope, turns out that's just how Chrysler did sound deadening. Literal trash bag material filled with the same stuff that makes up the under carpet pad normally under trunk carpet.

We found a couple of those in our '75 LTD when we stripped it.

Not strange, but I love finding the old maps and newspaper clippings in older cars.  I have a collection of road maps going back to the 1960's that I've pulled out of old piles. 

A car I just started on I found at least a dozen LifeSavers rolls in the driver's door pocket.  They were...no longer fit for human consumption.  There was also a very large, very thick pamplet in the back seat containing detailed instructions on how to construct a fiberglass aircraft.  Considering the state of the automobile in question, I highly doubt any aircraft constructed by the previous owner ever flew.

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17 (edited by Team Infinniti 2018-08-21 07:00 PM)

Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

Not a Lemons car, I once bought a newer f150 from a tow yard with a never ending collection of crack pipes, Sweep out truck 2 or 3 , vacuum truck, another couple, send to get shampoo, have a embarrassed detailer trying to give me back 5 or 6, sell it to a EX GF, a year later she changes the carpet and headliner to find 4 more...

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18 (edited by Rich Duisberg 2018-08-23 03:23 AM)

Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

I just bought this.

http://www.motorpunk.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/motorpunk-fiat-500.jpg

It's a 1972 Fiat 500 with some saucy modifications. It lived in Rome until last year and is now in my garage, in England. There's a cruxifix hanging in it. I am not religious. I removed it. The car immediately split a fuel hose which I luckily caught before it toasted itself. I replaced the hose with a new one, which also split and left me broken down. I repaired it again, and put the crucifix back. The car has run fine ever since. The roof of my house is leaking and I'm thinking of putting a six foot Madonna statue on it to see if that fixes it.

Amen, brothers/sisters/hermaphrodites*.

*delete as applicable.

Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

Found a wooden structure in place of the left rear window regulator; I'm not talking about a chunk of 2x4, I mean this looked like it was framed up by a carpenter and about to be covered with Sheetrock. They wanted that window firmly closed, even though the long-gone $600 MB window regulator had croaked.

Possibly related to this incident was a traffic ticket issued by, IIRC, the municipality of Irvine. Basically, in about 2009 timeframe the car was dismantled in a street parking place and this won't do in Orange County. It sounded like the whole interior was strewn down  the sidewalk, which would make sense if you're trying to build a wooden frame using at least a whole 8' 2x4 (if not more) to secure a quarter window...

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Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

Ours had a rosary and cross in it and it still hangs in the rear from the roll cage for haha's   Buddy has an E30 M3 that had a smuggler's door under the rear seat It was integrated into the fuel tank.  He figured it out after a while of trying to fill his tank and it would never take a full tank.

Since been modified back to stock via VSR in Bow NH

Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

Just spoons and syringes, you know, the yoosh.

Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

Nothing too unusual. The '41 Olds had (that I recall) a metric ton of rat turds but thankfully no rats, a weird plastic pyramid snowglobe thing, an old-fashioned solid clothes iron, two cans of spray fire retardant (I didn't know this was a thing and still don't trust it), a spare driveshaft from a different vehicle, a whole set of chrome trim from a different vehicle, 2 or 3 piston/rod assemblies, an extra air cleaner... man, I should go back through all the crap we threw in my shed now that I actually have time.

Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

A friend of mine named his Valiant drag car "Stiff Kitty"... You can guess why... LOL

I beat him with two of the misfortunate felines in the cabover camper of my '56 Dodge truck. They came out with the 100s of empty beer and wine bottles.

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Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

Dudefladge wrote:

A friend of mine named his Valiant drag car "Stiff Kitty"... You can guess why... LOL

I beat him with two of the misfortunate felines in the cabover camper of my '56 Dodge truck. They came out with the 100s of empty beer and wine bottles.

Must have been a helluva Leaving Las Vegas party for those two cats.
-g

Myopic Motorsport's #888 Ceci n'est pas une Citron Thunderbird ("This is not a lemon" but a 1995 tbird w/ 93 V8 swap + shopping cart rear wing + engine mounted frito maker)
2017 Sears Pointless Organizer’s Choice
Frito Making Tbird from 2018 Sears Pointless Engine Heat BBQ - http://goo.gl/csaet4

Re: Strangest things found stripping interior?

A snake skin, as in one sloughed off  by a snake.  We currently call it Snake Car.