Intake Air Tube "Anti-Critter" Screen?

[OK-944]

While I drive my '87NA frequently enough that it usually is not a problem, I do very occasionally find the top of my air cleaner filter to be scattered with seeds...indicating that a rodent (most likely a mouse) has crawled up through the air intake tube.

So I'm thinking...maybe I could fashion a chicken-wire (or hardware cloth, or similar) protective screen for the end of the intake tube?

Then again, this "solution" seems so obvious to me...like this "anti critter" screen should have been added at the factory - that maybe there is a reason (like impeded airflow) that it wasn't?

[Monkey Wrench]

I think this means you need to replace your cat ;-)

[OK-944]

Ha! My last 944 was an 85.5...which I'd stored in a barn for about two years due to lots of chaos - divorce, moving, career shifts...which made it difficult for me to address some of the car's mechanical issues - and at some point early on during this storage period I'd noticed that two cats had taken up residence inside the car on the read deck area (under the hatch)...made possible by my leaving the passenger and driver's side windows open about halfway to help keep the interior ventilated.

At any rate...those two cats were extremely neat and clean, leaving absolutely no real smell or residue of any sort - so, figuring that they'd keep other critters at bay...I just let them live there until my own life settled enough to pull the car back out of storage!

[Monkey Wrench]

I had similar experiences with divorce etc, and after a couple of girlfriends I had a small female red haired cat given to me. the next summer she was learning about the outside and got in the neighbors yard with their pitbull who got her in his mouth, the owner got him to release and she couldn't walk for 6 months but after a thousand bucks and a lot of love and care she made it through that. Now she runs to my car when I get home if she's let out, sleeps with me, takes part in long conversations about car maintenance and she takes down rats and mice and a few birds.
I can't thank her enough for the psychological help. shes outlived a few girlfriends since. She goes out in the yard but checks in regularly. where I go she follows as if she were a puppy.

I can't bring myself to deprive her of the outdoors, as it gets colder she makes 3 minute trips outside frequently.. she figured out how to make my weatherstrip into her doorbell.. I had mice before in the house and it drove me nuts, Not one since I got little Ginger.
female red haired cats are not very common , most red cats are male so she's a bit rare and very special.

I had racoon prints in the light snow on my tarped over boat this morning. They already ate the seats and I just cleaned it out .. they left a huge mess because they are very dirty animals. they crap where they live. so now I find myself pounding on the sides. I might put a radio in there. That's a safe way to evict them. I just stick a transistor radio in there with country music and they cant; take that for long ;-)
The raccoons come by every evening but never argue with my little cat, they seem to just keep a respectful distance. If I had a dog it might get beat up, those things know self defense. I dont think the cat is a threat or a food source for them. coyotes are a threat and I see them around sometimes.

I have a wood pile in the tent where my porsche is. before I put it in I re-piled all the lumber and wrapped it in packages of tyvec. put it up on sawhorses so the cat can patrol around it. wood piles are magnets for rodents. I think they cats were keeping them away but I found that at one point, probably before I got the cat, a rat had burrowed under all the lumber and took strands from the tents and made a nice cozy nest under there where i had no way of getting near it.

I piled all my 2x lumber along the floor and put a nail through each end of each plank then put tarpaper down,, at last it's sort of a floor., temporary but ok.. If I drop anything into the gravel it becomes a giant search operation.. Not perfect but it's out of the rain. I can't wait to get into working on it more. I had a few other vehicles with assorted issues keeping them off the road, so I opted to try to make them all run and be roadworthy before I really settle my focus into the porsche 944. I bought it not running but I don't think it'll need all that much, some love after being not on the road for a dozen years and basic maintenance that it just never really saw.
Stayed up late watching 944's racing, Inspirational ! ;-)




maybe just a screen, 1/4" or something would be ok, I doubt it will restrict the intake very much. mice dont like biting through wire so a trick to block them is steel wool and calking or silicone, They won't chew through that. the wire used in the mesh could be fine wire. for the little you need you could probably weave your own mesh on a piece of wood with the wire wrapped around nails for the warp. use thin stainless steel wire?

[djnolan]

garden bird netting