He's right thats not a cabin filter. Its a sealer that keeps seals when your switch from outside air to inside air. I had the mouse/rat problem like you except it smelled like piss in my truck. Luckily there were none in there when i turned the fan on lol.
I just took all of that crumbled old dry stuff off and left it like it is. I haven't really noticed a difference without it. I remember someone saying you could find some stuff at home depot or lowes that you could cut down and use for a foam replacement.

 

Here's a possible foam replacement solution from Wicks Aircraft Supply. I was gonna use the 1/2" stuff fer a hoodliner or some soundproofing on the rear section of the truck. It might be overkill but it should work pretty good.

DESCRIPTION PART NUMBER FOOT
1/4" INSULATION SP-250 $9.58

 

BZP, I'm wondering how much that vinyl/nitrile would smell...yeah yeah, I know, a LOT better than mouseburger for sure...but I like the idea of installing it as a hood liner and sound supressor, our trucks are LOUD!!! I've got some 3M strip caulking that would probably be good enough to fasten that stuff down and form a good seal.


I troll on the GovDeals auction site from time to time and have actually bought some items on it. I just spotted this T100 that sold pretty cheap IMO. I didn't know about it since I had not been on it for awhile.

1997 Toyota T100 Abandoned & Forfeited Vehicle: Sold Amount: $4,555.00

Bargain! (even if it is just for parts).

 

According to this installer he uses 3M #80 spray adhesive to mount the padding. Soundproofing.org is recommending 1" thick stuff. Go figure.

Did you ever fix yer firewall steering shaft seal? My thread on a cheap/quick fix.

I usually shop craigslist fer low priced T-100s and accessories. There's some good bargains out there waiting to be found.

 

That's an interesting find there man...I had a nest in my blower but the critter was gone and the P/O ruined the blower fan. So I found a nice metal blower instead of the lil plastic one that was in there before.

 

Well, I got a bunch of material today @Lowes. Took me awhile to find everything I think I need to fabricate a genuine cabin filter like the sedans have, or at least as close as I can make it. Total cost was just < $20.00 for everything. I'll post some pics of the work.

 

Here are the materials I got and what I did with them. Got all of it @Lowes.

The big package is what you typically use for air exchanger systems like the one I have in my house. In fact I will actually be able to use the rest of this piece since it is oversized for my unit and plenty left for my *T* project.


notice is states that it is good for "90 days". That's all well and good if it is being used in a house system, it should last a lot longer than that in my T since I don't drive it every day and besides, this is just a trial run for ultimate goal(re-fabbing a genuine cabin filter like the ones used in the sedans for use in my T).


The mesh looking material is a gutter strainer, found this in the section where all the gutter guard stuff is (hat tip to BZP for that advice, this stuff is *better* than that chicken wire stuff, way more flexible and easy to work with, and hopefully critter proof! The other item is a filter kit for a bagless Eureka vacuum, I am going to use that for the interior blower door flap

 

Cutting the material to size was easy: I used the opening on my blower housing as the template, then used scissors to cut the filter material. The filter material has a plastic frame backing which made it ideal for what I wanted to do. The metal gutter mesh material was easy to cut to shape with tin snips.



I used four tie-straps to the reinforce the filter material sandwich between the plastic frame and the wire mesh. I guess I could just as easily used the wire mesh on both sides since I purchased two of them but I wanted to use the plastic frame because it is rigid and will not conform to a new shape when it is bent(like the mesh will). Also, the wire mesh side is UP, which is where I believe the critters came from, although I have no idea how.




And VOILA! here it is in place. I did not fasten it in with anything yet and I don't think I will. It's in there pretty tight and cannot go anywhere since the top part of this opening is tapered, and the bottom part has a lip, so there does not seem to be any possibility of it working loose and falling down.

If necessary I will go back in later and drill some holes in the opening and tie-strap it in. I need to head back to Lowes or Home Dep. to get some thin single sided sticky insulation liner for that opening since I had to peel the old stuff off, it was falling apart just like the stuff on the flap.



I have not fixed up the inside/outside flap yet but I scraped all of the cruddy dried up old foam off of it with a wire brush. Once I get the vacuum filter in place and tie-strap that in with the factory chicken wire frame I should once again be experiencing critter-free air flowing goodness!

 

Wow you weren't kidding lol Good job!

 

mighty fine ni!@#r riggin!!!! if it only last 90 days in a house running the return air 24/7 then it ought to last a year or more in the truck. Did the critter smell finally get out after alot of scrubbin? With as big a sheet you got you could make 5 more if that one wears out. sure is alot cheaper than oem..

 

Not sure if the cracklin' critter odor is *completely* gone yet since I have a small Christmas tree farm in there, so all I smell are those. I sure *hope* it's all gone after I get it all back together. I'm really missing my A/C!.

Since the air flow through the filter material is nearly unrestricted I doubled the material in the *sandwich*, sort of like getting *double meat* @Subway . This little filter will at least buy me some time while I search for a *real* cabin filter. There are so many dozens of them, most of them square shaped, so I can take my time trying to find one that is as close to the shape I need, one that will require only a minimum amount of re-fabbing.

I'll post some notes after I get everything back together and the air is flowing again, hopefully before the holiday weekend.

 

Something to consider...stainless steel wool.

Rodent control...

I was shopping fer some stainless steel wool to put in my oil catch jar vs the stainless steel scrubbers I have in there now and came across that little tidbit.

 

Doesn't SS steel rust over time when exposed to moisture(particularly steel wool)? It also doesn't smell too good when it gets moist but I'm sure it's good critter-proofing material

 

Got everything back together about 2.5 wks ago and all is well, I'm breathing rodent-free pure mountain air again and enjoying my A/C!

 

Very cool mod! I will be doing this soon!

 

this is definitely a good one..id be having this mod on my car soon..