Don't let cars sit....cause then you gottan make a choice

[Brettmans5]

So last October i made the choice to uninsure my car and walk to work, use the bus when required, and generally bum ride when i could. Didn't think to much of it, cleaned the car out, remove the battery, put some fuel stabilizers in the tank, parked it, and walked away. I had to go into it in December to check under the hood but other than that i haven't touched it. Well earlier today my brother comes by cause he has some recaro type seats i may be interested in and wants to know if i want them and if they will fit. I was stoked, we grab a tape measure and head out to the car, unlock and open the door.........And dear lord the smell......MOLD!!!!! i am not talking a little patch here and there, i am talking all over, and a good 1/2 inch thick in spots.
seats...covered, floor....its like a forest, seat belts.....funny i thought i had a brown interior not green, roof, the roof too?!?!?!?, dash board......how the hell does mold grow on the dash?, door panels, yup...them too. I am beside myself, my brother is laughing his ass off, and the desicion is made...... fuck it, the car is toast. I knew it needed work, CV joints, a front control arm bushing, P/S belt, and a clutch.....now it is a lost cause, the interior is totalled, and i check the rust it had and the cancer is now far worse. So i got some choices, talk to a guy i know and see if he can get me a accord of the same year or so with front end damage from ICBC (our insurance people here in BC) and i could swap my front end onto it and have rebuilt car, grab what i can from the car and start looking for a new accord or save myself the time and money and trade most of my tools( i use to be a apprentice tech) for a 91 honda civic Si. My bro is all about the trade because he has a 90 Civic Si and is all about me joining the "civic nation".
I mean i got nothing agains civics, but it just that everyone has one, i mean it is hard to be original in a crowd of civic owners. Admittedly if i get the 91 civic between my brother, a few of his friends, a few of my friends, the insane amount of parts available for the civic and my coming raise i should have no problem make a nice little vehicle for myself. If i go with the rebuilding option its time consuming and i really can't do that without probably getting my landlord a tad ticked. I could go with buying a new 87-89 accord and put what i currently have for my accord into it (mainly stereo equipment, thank god i remove my face plate and sub box when i parked it) but that means trying to sell my tools and getting people trying to low ball me and such. If i trade, its a good deal, 4500 CAN dollars worth of tools for a 91 Civic Si with 186k, 5spd, power options, freash paint, CAI, 16inch rims, absolutely mint interior ( no mold !!!! :) ) etc.... etc... which would probably sell for 4500 CAN dollars.
I hate desicions....i have a hard enough time deciding what to eat when i go out to dinner....... oh well...i'll sleep on it and then make a rash desicion :)

[k-roy]

Wow that sucks. I bet the cancer has lead to a hole where moisture is coming strait into the car.

Actual mold in a car sounds odd, I have a car that was sitting in water for an hour, then it got vacuumed out and has sat for 9 months. And it does not even smell, let alone have mold in it.

[johndej]

yeah, i've seen cars in a junk yard w/ busted windows that have sat for years and have no mold at all on the inside. oh well, good luck w/ the civic (atleast w/ it you've got aftermarket options)

[Sean]

youve got mold ?? thats really odd. id try some fungicides and see if a few fungicide bombs kill it off. if so then all youll have to do is vacum.

[MrBen]

OKay now you're scaring me. When I have to park my car this October I'm gonna get a car cover and maybe leave a window cracked open.

[Brettmans5]

Yeah it seems to be a west coast thing....well BC west coast. I left the car sitting for 3 months up in Kamloops when i lived there and it was absolutely fine ( very dry climate). I think what happened is it was sealed up tight, we had some snow, it sat under the snow building up moisture, then we had sun for about a week, so it got all humid inside and voila...breeding ground for mold. Oh well, going to go look at the civic today, and the guys going to come look at my tools after that. All goes well i could have a civic by the end of the day.....but honestly i am going to miss the accord, and if i get a chance at a SEI i am going to be all over it like a fat kid on a smartie.

[Coitis1]

YOU HAVE GOT TO GET PICTURES OF YOUR CAR POSTED!!! I can't miss this. If ur asbolutely positive that u won't ever need the tools agian, then i say trade 'em. Accords are great, but if u can get a civic that is 4 years younger and dont have to spend money, it seems like an obvious choice to me.

[zero.counter]

Sorry to hear about the car...

[accordlxi2.0]

my accord sat in for about a year sealed up with snow and everything, and that did'nt happen.

[RobT5580]

Unless you have a leak you should not have a mold problem. I let my spare accord sit for 8 months outside not covered and it was fine. Also last year i stored my nice coupe on a tarp with a car cover over the car and another tarp over that and it was fine for the whole winter with snow all around and on top of the car.

The only time i have seen mold is when you get a lot of moisture inside for a period of time. I saw an Audi A6 Avant have the sunroof open last spring and the car had mold form all over the entire interior of the car. The owner was out of the state and came home to see they left the sunroof open. Needless to say the car was a total loss and was paid off by the insurance company.

[Brettmans5]

its the climate here....its really wet, its not a dry area. we get rain like 3 to 4 days of the week (sometimes the whole week). And it doesn't leak suprisingly. I spoke to a friend and the same thing happen to him when he let his mustang sit, just not as bad. I think it was just a combination of the weather, the fact it was sealed up tight, and was either in the rain, or direct sunlight. It created a breeding ground for mold. Heck my 91 pontiac firefly did the same thing when it sat but it was incredible minor compared to this. No biggie, i will look at what is salvageable from the car and sell the parts here or on ebay, and use it to fund my new car ( what ever it turns out to be).

[88accordalltheway]

Dude, i feel so bad for you, i guess god had something against you. I say, just get some noses plugs and clean the f**k out of it or redo all of the inside. DO NOT GET A CIVIC cause then youll be like everyone else and their mom and their dad and their uncle and their grandma and their... at least sick with an accord of any type if your going to get a new car. Good luck making your choice!

[Project-LXi]

I had an 86 bronco II sit in my yard for 2 years, and it had a similar problem.

[mykwikcoupe]

next time try a "dry-z-air" unit. It will prevent the moisture buildup due to climate. If its that bad then youve got a water leak someplace. Sorry man

[my86dx4dr]

nah that happends i seen it happen on my aunts/uncles old chevy that blew a hg
he wanted me to take the deck out one day and i opend the door
the whole thang had whte/green growing everywhere, and we figuerd out why

when it gets cold out and the car sits, it gets condensation(sp?) inside, then it heats up and back to cold then back to hot, then it gets real humid inside
and then you get mold

im affraid my car might get moldy since my heatercore went out and my floorboard is SOAKED and we had to disconnect it so now i have this water sitting there , till i pull the interior and wash it and let it sit in the sun for a few hours,

[blazin3gen]

YOU HAVE GOT TO GET PICTURES OF YOUR CAR POSTED!!! I can't miss this. If ur asbolutely positive that u won't ever need the tools agian, then i say trade 'em. Accords are great, but if u can get a civic that is 4 years younger and dont have to spend money, it seems like an obvious choice to me.

:werd:

sucks about your luck man

[Brettmans5]

I was informed by some one that those silica things that come with computer parts and other things would have helped along with bounce dryer sheets.....oh well hindsight is 20/20. I am borrowing a friends digital camera soon to take some shots.... Its a sad day....i still really want a accord and if i sell my tools instead of trading i could get a 89 SEI. There are 2 for sale here in Vancouver for $3800 Can. , the only problems is both are automatics...but aside from that they are in pretty good shape.

[Rendon LX-i]

i lefted my car sitting 5 months with a car cover never mod inside. still clean the way i always have it. smelled good to. idk wtf going on. post pics gotta see this

[Brettmans5]

AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!! ...i hate flakes....the deal was already to go, tools for the civic and at the last moment he backs out, because his friend tells him that my tools suck. HE HAS NEVER EVEN SEEN THEM!!!!!! But i had the last laugh, he bought a impact gun from Canadian tire, a cheap impact gun, and he was using it on the non-impact sockets he also bought from canadian tire.....you can guess what happen :) , yup broke the socket, and as a added bonus the impact gun broke too. I laughed my ballsack off, and he was like well its under warranty, no if you read the warranty its not, see the fine print where it says " improper usage will void the warranty".
so I feel better. still trying to figure out what to do about the car situation, but i still have no need for wheels so i can continue to foot it for now.....
oh still no camera....mold is still growing though :)

[Badboy2005]

My car molds all the time...course its sitting 24/7 but i have a sunroof and that leaks alittle...also i think my antenna thingy is leaking. My mold isn't even as close to as bad as your sounds though.

[DanLXI88]

Let it grow and turn the car into an exhibit or science project. Tell all the kids in your neighborhood you have swamp thing growing in your car and charge them all $2.00 to see it.... LOL j/k :) That really sucks man mold KILLS fabric. You could still salvage the plastic parts and sell them or just reuse them in another 3rd gen.

[NotFast]

thats weird, my car has been sitting since october, checked on it in february, no mold

[Brettmans5]

ok pics are finally in... theres also pics of the outside too... http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4287115885&congratulation_page=Y

[AQcz]

MOLD!!!!! i am not talking a little patch here and there, i am talking all over, and a good 1/2 inch thick in spots.
seats...covered, floor....its like a forest

lol

Saw the pics, thought it was worse but that is bad

[k-roy]

DAMN!
Thats pretty bad, its gotta be your climate.

[Vanilla Sky]

i bet $100 i have a worse mold story...

back when i was like 5 years old, our place burned... the water they used to dowse the fire was nasty-assed river water... since all of our windows were busted out, everything got boarded up... when we came back in with the fire marshall, there were mold spores 4 FEET tall in the living room... not to mention all the food in the fridge that had sat there for 3 days... fun shit, and the irony out of it all is the refridgerator cause the fire... eh, at least we were insured...

your mold isn't bad at all... just clean it out... fix your leak, rent a steam cleaner, bomb it, and drive it around for a few hours with the windows down on an incredibly dry day, with the AC on

[Low Tek]

i bet $100 i have a worse mold story...

back when i was like 5 years old, our place burned... the water they used to dowse the fire was nasty-assed river water... since all of our windows were busted out, everything got boarded up... when we came back in with the fire marshall, there were mold spores 4 FEET tall in the living room... not to mention all the food in the fridge that had sat there for 3 days... fun shit, and the irony out of it all is the refridgerator cause the fire... eh, at least we were insured...

your mold isn't bad at all... just clean it out... fix your leak, rent a steam cleaner, bomb it, and drive it around for a few hours with the windows down on an incredibly dry day, with the AC on

I agree, nice and clean outside for the most part