How to enter an iced car

Discussion in 'General Motoring' started by r2000swler, Dec 23, 2004.

  1. r2000swler

    r2000swler Guest

    I live just south of Lexington KY, and the
    last 24 hors have been interesting. Areas
    slightly to our north-west have record
    snows. We had a mild ice storm last night.
    About 1/4" of the clear crud. The local
    power utility does a good job of keeping
    trees cut back so we had no power outage.
    Feb. 2003 saw some areas without power for
    up to 2 weeks. w
    I was dismayed to dicover my 1991 Civic coated
    in a sheath of ice. I could unluck the front
    doors, but couldn't budge to doors. So I got
    the hatch up, crawled in and made it into the
    drivers seat. Since I am 6'1" it was quite
    a sight. The engine started up with no problem.
    I expected to be able to force a door open from
    inside the car. WRONG. Stuck like with epoxy.
    Crawled back out through the rear hatch.
    I couldn't get into my utility building because
    the combination lock was iced over.
    I debated pouring some warm water on the doors,
    but decided that thermal shock might crack the
    glass. So I rumaged through the house looking
    for a solution. I found the Krogar house
    version of "Lysol". 99% alcohol. So I grabbed
    both cans and went out to fight the ice.
    Worked great. As I sprayed it on, the ice
    lifted away from the door frame. I used a small
    peice of flexible plastic, AKA credit card, to
    work the alcohol into the seals. Took about 10
    minutes on each door.
    By that time the engine had heated up enough to
    loosen the ice on the windshield.
    I sprayed the seals and wiped them off then sprayed
    them with silicon. When the temps drop to 0 tonight
    I should be able to get into my car.
    The only downside is the car smells like a doctors
    office.
    Terry
     
    r2000swler, Dec 23, 2004
    #1
  2. Believe it or not, running the car and warming up the interior would
    have done you just as well.
     
    Elmo P. Shagnasty, Dec 23, 2004
    #2
  3. You dont have a hammer?
     
    Rattus the RAT, Dec 23, 2004
    #3
  4. r2000swler

    Keith J Guest

    First thing, make sure your weather-stripping is in good shape. That could
    solve your problem right off.

    When I lived in NY state, this happened to me a few times a year. Some
    people may not like my solution, but it worked. I owned an old car (minus
    remote entry)... yes I needed a key to unlock. Well, the key "flap" was
    broken in an open position and was prone to icing up. Sure no one would've
    stolen the car if I never locked it, but thats not the point. Take out a
    lighter and heat up the key. Also put the flame to the lock mechanism...
    try not to set any cloth gloves on fire.

    To open the door from that point, I'd lightly thump on the frame (NOT glass)
    and rub an ice scraper along the crack. If you can't even get a crack in
    the ice sheet, use the same lighter and melt a small hole in the ice (at the
    frame), then start peeling/pounding.

    -keith
     
    Keith J, Dec 24, 2004
    #4
  5. r2000swler

    r2000swler Guest

    The lock worked fine.
    I spary it about once a month
    with a good quality silcon
    lub.
    I had even taken the precaution
    of appling silcon to the door seals.
    In other ice events that had
    allowed me to enter with no problem.
    Terry
     
    r2000swler, Dec 24, 2004
    #5
  6. green salad, and iced tea.
    Coffee and apple pie then brandy.



    Maternity Ward Pot Luck Dinner

    If you can?t get anything fresh from the hospital, nursery, or morgue;
    you can at least get rid of all the leftovers in your refrigerator.

    1 - 2 lbs. cubed meat (human flesh, chicken, turkey, beef...)
    1 -2 lbs. coarsely chopped vegetables
    (carrots, potatoes, turnips, cauliflower, cabbage...)
    Bell pepper
    onions
    garlic
    ginger
    salt pepper, etc.
    Olive oil
    butter

    Brown the meat and some chopped onions, peppers, and garilic in olive oil,
    place in baking dish, layer with vegetables seasoning and butter.
    Bake at 325° for 30 - 45 minutes.
    Serve with hot dinner rolls, fruit salad and sparkling water.



    Bébé Buffet 1

    Show off with whole roasted children replete with apples in mouths -
    and babies? heads stuffed with wild rice. Or keep it simple with a
    hearty main course such as stew, lasagna, or meat loaf.

    Some suggestions

    Pre-mie pot pies, beef stew, leg of lamb, stuffed chicken, roast pork spiral ham,
    Cranberry pineapple salad, sweet potatoes in butter, vegetable platter, tossed salad with tomato and avocado, parsley new potatoes, spinich cucumber salad, fruit salad
    Bran muffins, dinner rolls, soft breadsticks, rice pilaf, croissants
    Apple cake with rum sauce, frosted banana nut bread sherbet, home made brownies
    Iced tea, water, beer, bloody marys, lemonade, coffee

    The guests select food, beverages, silverware... everything from the buffet table.
     
    computernewby, Dec 26, 2004
    #6
  7. r2000swler

    r2000swler Guest

    roast pork spiral ham,
    Cranberry pineapple salad, sweet potatoes in butter, vegetable platter, tossed salad with tomato and avocado, parsley new potatoes, spinich cucumber salad, fruit salad
    Bran muffins, dinner rolls, soft breadsticks, rice pilaf, croissants
    Apple cake with rum sauce, frosted banana nut bread sherbet, home made brownies
    Iced tea, water, beer, bloody marys, lemonade, coffee

    The guests select food, beverages, silverware... everything from the buffet table.
    They move to wherever they are comfortable, and sit with whoever they choose.
    Provide trays so your guests will not spill everything all over your house from
    carrying too much, nor will they have to make 10 trips back and fourth from the
    service stations.



    Roast Leg of Amputee

    By all means, substitute lamb or a good beef roast if the haunch
    it is in any way diseased. But sometimes surgeons make mistakes,
    and if a healthy young limb is at hand, then don?t hesitate to cook
    it to perfection!

    1 high quality limb, rack, or roast
    Potatoes, carrot
    Oil
    celery
    onions
    green onions
    parsley
    garlic
    salt, pepper, etc
    2 cups beef stock

    Marinate meat (optional, not necessary with better cuts).
    Season liberally and lace with garlic cloves by making incisions,
    and placing whole cloves deep into the meat.
    Grease a baking pan, and fill with a thick bed of onions,
    celery, green onions, and parsley.
    Place roast on top with fat side up.
    Place uncovered in 500° oven for 20 minutes, reduce oven to 325°.
    Bake till medium rare (150°) and let roast rest.
    Pour stock over onions and drippings, carve the meat and
    place the slices in the au jus.



    Bisque à l?Enfant

    Honor the memory of Grandma with this dish by utilizing her good
    silver soup tureen and her great grandchildren (crawfish, crab or
    lobster will work just as well
     
    r2000swler, Dec 26, 2004
    #7
  8. I would clean the seals with rubbing alcohol or some type of cleaner. Then I
    would apply a silicone spray or lube to just the stripping. I don't know
    which is better but I would think that it would work.

    Additionally if I was experiencing that type of ice problem I would consider
    a car cover at night. Hell large sheet of plastic might work just as well
    draped over the door and certainly on the windshield to help prevent
    scraping ice in the morning.
     
    computernewby, Dec 26, 2004
    #8
  9. r2000swler

    Jeff C Guest

    That was a forged post by a USENET vandal known as "hipcrime". Dippy
    hates USENET, and especially it hates news.admin.net-abuse.email, so
    it wrote a piece of abuseware known as "newsagent" that allows it to
    forge supercede posts and force follow-ups to flood NANAE with
    thousands of "WTF" posts such as yours.

    What to do about it is simple. First, look at the headers of a few
    forged posts, and filter on the commonly identifiable elements. Lately
    dipy's been abusing news servers in northern Europe. If you subscribe
    to a service such as Supernews, the filtering is already done for you.
    Second, if you feel you NUST reply to a dippyspew post, look very
    carefully at where the post will be sent before you send it. This will
    ensure that you don't accidentally pollute another group thus doing
    dippy's vandalism for it. Third, now that you're immune to this id10t,
    join in the defense by posting a message similar to this one whenever
    you see a dippyspew in your newsgroup. The more people who know about
    dippy, the less damage it can do.
     
    Jeff C, Dec 26, 2004
    #9
  10. r2000swler

    halo2 guy Guest

    Damn...I have been using newsgroups for years and never came across
    something like that.

    I currently access groups through my Outlook program going through Comcast
    which uses giganews.

    Even though I have been using computers since 1982, good old Commodore and
    Radio Shack junk, I hardly understood a word you were saying. But thanks
    anyways.

    Dave
     
    halo2 guy, Dec 26, 2004
    #10
  11. r2000swler

    SAC 441 Guest

    I keep a can of common de-icer in a spray can for situations just like
    this.By the way,DE-ICERS contain methanol,which is a type of alcohol.You
    essentially did the same thing as a spray de-icer chemical,although your
    way was slower and more difficult.The only advantage of a spray de-icer
    is that it is faster and covers more area quickly.
     
    SAC 441, Dec 26, 2004
    #11
  12. r2000swler

    r2000swler Guest

    I have several cans of deicer and severl gallons of alcohol (I go
    camping and use it for a small stove) in our utility building, but it
    too
    was a block of ice. I don't like keeping flamables in the house, but
    since Lysol is 99% alcohol, we have decided that De-icer is no
    more of a risk, and smells much better.
    It has been 4 days and it still smells like a doctor office.
    Our two cats hide wehn we get home after ridign in the car.
    I guess they don't like doctors offices!
    It is going to get up to 50 next Friday, so after changing the
    valve cover gasket, don't ask, just don't bother with aftermarket
    parts, we are going to wash and wax the Civic with a tuff silcon
    based product a friend from further north used. She swears that
    ice won't stick to this stuff. This I have to see!
    Terry
     
    r2000swler, Dec 26, 2004
    #12
  13. r2000swler

    r2000swler Guest

    I tried a heavy silconized cloth back in 2002 when we had several
    inches of ice.
    It took 5 of us to remove the cloth. It was HEAVY.
    We get this nasty stuff once every couple of years, and given rarity,
    Lexington more or less shuts down.
    I am going to install a 500 watt heater, with smoke detector shut off,
    to try an avoid 15 minute warm up times. I hope that this will allow me
    to
    warm the car up, melt the crude so it just falls off.
    Terrry
     
    r2000swler, Dec 26, 2004
    #13
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