I bought a '85 Westy last summer and after a bunch of sitting around I
finally got a chance within the last few weeks to get it back on the road.
It has been sitting since '97 and when I bought it, it reeked of mice pee.
I have since taken everything apart in this Westy from the fridge to the
seats, etc. and have washed almost everything to try to get rid of this
smell.  The last thing I had to do was the thing I dreaded the most.  They
had built a nest in the front heater box.  This was were the worst of the
smell was coming from and it got worse whenever you went down the road
because air would blow through it.  I had to take the entire dash apart
yesterday just to remove all of the mouse crap that was in there (the blower
fan worked great).  What a mess!  I wiped everything down the bleach and
water.  It smells much better in the van now (I have one of those pine trees
hanging on the mirror), but what a bunch of trouble to go through just for a
few small furry creatures!  I am going to put some poison in the van now to
hopefully keep this from happening again.

Now on to the cat story.  After cleaning the van from top to bottom several
months ago (I did everything but the heater box) I had back hatch open and
the sliding door open during the day to try to air the thing out.  I went
out at night to shut everything up.  The next day I needed something out of
the van and when I opened the hatch a cat shot out.  Apparently he was in
there the day before and got caught when I shut the doors.  I looked in the
van and didn't see any place he had made a mess.  A couple of days ago I was
cleaning up in the van again and found it.  The cat had pooped right in the
floor under some papers that I had on the floor.  I also have a nice layer
of cat fur on all of my seats now (I had just cleaned them before this!).

So now I have cat and mice hatred:)  The moral, keep mice out of your van if
you can.  They can cause you more work than if your van actually had
something bad mechanically wrong with it.

Thanks,
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
http://www.vanagain.com
Phone: (856)-327-4936
Fax: (856)-327-2242