What gets saved ? what gets tossed ?

2 Weeks ago today, while visiting my grand daughter,, in the hospital in another state,,I had a pipe burst in my finished basement...5 feet of water and parts floating everwhere,,,Its been too cold to work ig the garage no heat so parts were mooved inside..Big mistake..1 thing I really need help with is the guages and Tach's How do I dry them...Some all-ready have water marks on the inside of the glass...

 

Wow sorry about your luck.Hopefully the really good stuff is able to be saved.

 

That sucks man. Wish i could be more help.

 

Sorry to hear that. I hope everything is good with your Grand daughter and I wish you luck with the clean up and salvage of the things that were caught in the mess.

 

I know the feeling..Ive had a sump pump go out and not know about it for a few days..looks like your water was higher tho..good luck..have a flood sale..
hope all works out for ya.

 

Been there done that. My heart goes out to you. I hate the smell of water soaked stuff.
Just a thought for all others - if you store parts and collectibles in your house take the time to video tape them and check with your insurance agent to make sure you are covered. I know most homeowners policies will not cover this stuff unless it is specifically added into the policy. My collector car insurance does have a spare parts rider available, but I haven't looked into it yet.
Sure hope all is well with the family and good luck with the cleanup

 

Jesus Larry..! Hope everything is ok. I think your best best would be to find a nice day and maybe put some of the stuff outside to dry. In the mean time maybe get a fan or several and have the air blow over the stuff..might help

 

Dang, that looks like a headache! I feel for ya. I think a friend of mine just sent you payment for a historical document, hopefully they're not trashed too!

 

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 9"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 9"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/KRISAN%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <woNotOptimizeForBrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style> How's your granddaughter? Hope she's recovering well.

I know some of your pain. I had part of my garage shingling blown away, right over my toolbox and hardware bins. I didn't catch it for over a (rainy) week, since it was on the back side and its 300 feet out back of the house. But you definitely got a way worse problem than I had. WD-40 does displace water, and fans help immensely, but I still have rust issues and many of my tools will never look the same.

Last week, I just helped a friend fix a burst pipe at his summer home after his heat went out due to power failure. He didn't have much in the basement, he was lucky in that regard.
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A couple of years ago, after I saw a similar mess happen after pipes froze, and since I'm more than a tad paranoid by nature, I now go to my power panel and flip my well switch off every time I go away overnight. I also turn off the electric water heater cause I'm cheap.
Good luck, best wishes for your family health.

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Blow the gages out with canned air then soak them with WD-40 and let them sit for a couple weeks. My friend's shop got flooded with 3 feet of muddy nasty water with my good sawzall in it. I blew it out with air, wiped it off, soaked it with half a can of WD then let it sit in a dry place for a few days. That was 10 years ago, it's still going.

 

Gee Larry, sorry to hear about your bad luck. Hope you can recover most of your stuff. Also, Prayers go out to your family and your grand daughter's speedy recovery.

 

Maybe try putting anything delicate like gauges into a bag with some uncooked rice. Works to draw the moisture out. I've done it with cell phones and it seems to work ok. Just make sure there aren't any big holes that the rice will fall into.

 

Just a tip for everyone ( I am a Plumber) If you go outta town for a period of time in the winter, shut your water off at the main coming into your house, that way if a pipe does burst you just get the water in the line, and not a running flow.

 

Saving the gauges will depend on how they are built. It they have vinyl graphics on the face the WD-40 idea will float them right off. Putting the mildly soaked ones in a bag with baking soda or rice might help. You can also bake them at a low, low temp 100-120 degrees to dry them out. Some newer style electronic gauges aa well as one the any particles worked their way into will need to be disassembled and cleaned.

Test all before instrall to save yourself lots of headaches. If you can't a speedometer service shop should.

Good luck.

 

Get hold of a de-humidifier and run the thin in your basement for a week or two!

 

Grand Daughter is Back in the hospital,, Intensive Care,, this time. Blood work is a mess,, and her system is dehydrodrated...She is 6 years old so its a major problem with her as well as here..20 degrees outside and no furnace here..Thanks for the responce...Any one know the process as to removing glass from guages? I have a few old Wings curved glass SW with water in back of glass..Thamks

 

I heard that if you drop a wet cell phone in a jar of rice, it'll suck up the moisture
it might work for the gauges. good luck!
PS
can anyone reccommend a good metal fabricator in the Vegas area?

 

I feel your pain. Our lil dude was in the hospital last week AND we were flooded out of our storage a couple summers back. Prayers go out for your grandaughter. As for the flooding, the good side is it will let you thin some things out and simplify. You realize how much extra crap you have when something like this happens!

 

I say oil up the gauges if it won't hurt 'em. Soak 'em in Marvel Mystery - it'll lube AND clean.

For electronic parts, cleaner for that is available $7/spray can at Radio Shack.

You may want to invest in a scanner. Scan the faces into high quality TIFFs - as high as you can get. They can later be restored in Photoshop and printed onto sticker paper and redone. The glass can be cleaned, the mechanicals can be soaked/cleaned, but some of the faces might not make it unless done this way.

~Jason

 

Like Doc Watson said get a couple dehumidifiers going and some fans to move the air around.On the gauges I would start by standing them on their edges to drain until you can get to cleaning them.
Any paperwork that got wet you want to try and layout to speed up drying to avoid mildewing.

 

Tie them into the legs pantyhose to keep the rice out.

 

Now I know why the old man always used to shut the water off AT THE METER before we would leave for a trip !! Man I feel for ya as it looks like you had some cool ass shit in the basement >>>>.

 

Our prayers for your grandaughter Larry and sorry to see your flooding .

 

Update. Grand daughter is home.. Thanks for your prayers.. Finally got heat again and dehumidifiers are running.. All drywall and insulation need to come out next....Still need to dry the guages... 30 years of collecting auto related trinkets ruined or greatly damaged..Thaky all for your posts...

 

Good point, some of the vintage stuff is pretty sensitive to solvents and oils as well.