2007: Decontamination Project

In August 2005, the Cobra was contaminated by an unknown substance to which I have a severe toxic reaction. I had to stop driving the car, and put it in storage.

Backstory

In early 2004 I suffered a chemical injury which eventually led to the sale of my house and disposal of all of its contents.

I moved the Cobra (which had been in a detached garage) along with my tools, trailer, tow vehicle and other equipment to a hangar at a small airport in Vermont.

Unfortunately, there was another substance in the hangar, one to which I became extremely sensitive. By the time I realized the problem, the substance had contaminated everything there, including the Cobra and my van, trailer, tools, equipment, and some other things I'd stored there, including a really awesome computer I'd built just a few months earlier.

I had the Cobra cleaned by a detailer, but the cleaning failed. Worse, via my shoes, clothes, and hair, I inadvertently contaminated the place where I was living, and then the next place, along with everything in them - clothes, books, computers, kitchen utensils, etc. - before I understood how potent this stuff was or, rather, how sensitive I was to it.

That's why I didn't run the Cobra at all in 2006. I was terrified of contaminating the place where I am living now.

More details here and here.

Note: I should stress that no one else I know has ever reacted at all to the substance which permeated the hangar. It is clear that my earlier chemical injury, suffered in 2004, had damaged the tissues in my body so that I was susceptible to becoming sensitive to this substance. This sort of problem is quite common among those who have suffered a chemical injury.

Decontamination

Here's a synopsis of recent events:

In late June 2007 I bought a new Toyota Tacoma pickup. This was the beginning of the process; it gave me a clean, reliable tow vehicle that I hoped would also allow me to safely transport things I needed to get rid of from my storage units.

The week of July 9th I began to organize for the decontamination of the Cobra. I bought a bunch of painter's coveralls, booties, head socks, and respirators to protect us from the toxic dust and keep it off our clothes. I also put a charger on the Cobra's battery (it was in a storage unit in Wilder), picked up a drop hitch and ball, and got my Tacoma wired for trailer brakes.

On July 12 my nephew Amos got his driver's license. He and his license would play a key role in the "rescue" of the Cobra.

On July 16 Amos and I hooked up the trailer to the Tacoma, loaded the Cobra on it, and headed to the shop of my friend, Michael Fridmann, in Wellesley, MA. There, clad from head to toe in painter's coveralls, we began to strip the Cobra of every bit of fabric: seats, carpets, seat belts, as well as other things that would be difficult to entirely rid of dust, like the heater, weatherstripping, and insulation.

The next day we completed the process, and bolted the bare aluminum shell of the driver's seat back in so we could drive it. We then took it to a detail shop nearby, where we jacked the car up on jack stands and removed the wheels and tires, the transmission tunnel, the dash, the driver's seat shell, and other parts that would make it easier to clean.

The detail shop spent several days on the Cobra, first blasting behind the dash and other nooks and crannies with compressed air, then pressure washing every surface, inside and out, then scrubbing with brushes, then washing again.

When we went to pick it up the following Tuesday, I was amazed. It looked brand new (aside from the paint chips and dings it had picked up over the years) and was sparkling clean, inside and out. To tell the truth, I'd never really believed in my heart that it would be possible to totally decontaminate it, but they'd done it. Stunning!

Amazingly, by wearing the protective painter's clothing, and when were done, discarding them and immediately showering and changing into fresh street clothing, we'd managed to avoid contaminating the Tacoma, Michael's home (where we stayed overnight during the project) and, as far as I could tell, anything else.

I'd already decided that the Cobra was never going near that contaminated trailer again, so Amos and I took turns driving the Cobra and the Tacoma home to the Upper Valley. He was absolutely delighted to drive the Cobra - less than a week after getting his license!

I was in heaven. Finally I'd gotten my beloved car back, and I had a wonderful new tow vehicle to boot. I began to get ready to take the Cobra to an event scheduled for July 30 and 31 at my all time favorite race track, the magnificent Mont Tremblant in Quebec.

All I needed was a trailer, and my friend Gary Cheney offered to let me use his old open trailer. I just needed to drive down to North Hampton to get it.

I'd already decided to sell my trailer. All I needed were some photos.

Here was my downfall.

Since the trailer has a wooden deck, which I felt was probably impossible to completely decontaminate, I didn't want the Cobra near it ever again. To facilitate the sale of the trailer, on the Thursday before Mont Tremblant, I went out to where the trailer is stored to take photos of it. While doing this, I handled the tie-down straps and the ramps, in order to get better photos.

And that was my mistake: unlike the days when I was working on the Cobra, getting it ready for decontamination, I didn't wear painter's coveralls, booties, and respirator. I thought that since the trailer had been outdoors for nearly two years, the rain and wind would have washed most of the noxious dust off the ramps and straps.

But I was wrong. Not only did I re-injure myself while setting up the trailer, but I contaminated the cab of my new Tacoma, and also brought some contamination home to my apartment.

I had the Tacoma cleaned by a detail shop on Saturday morning, but that failed. I drove down to Gary Cheney's to borrow his trailer, but after 20 minutes in the Tacoma on the return trip my symptoms had escalated to the point where I couldn't deny the fact that the Tacoma was still - badly - contaminated.

This was devastating. I realized that if I carried on and picked up the Cobra, I'd almost certainly re-contaminate it, too. I turned around and went back to Gary's and unhooked the trailer. When I explained the situation, he invited me to ride up to Tremblant with him.

As it turned out, we both had a great time. We enjoyed each others' company on the drive up and back. Gary got to run his fabulous Indy Car on the equally fabulous Mont Tremblant. And I got to ride in and drive several excellent cars on my favorite track.

What's next? I borrowed a HEPA vacuum cleaner from my housemate and vacuumed my apartment, which seems to have helped a bit. She's also loaned me an air purifier to try. I'm going to go over the apartment with the vacuum again today, more thoroughly, and hope for the best. Last resort will be to call a cleaning service with experience in dealing with toxic contamination problems.

On Monday I'm taking the Tacoma down to Massachusetts to Details, Etc., the magicians that did such a great job decontaminating the Cobra. I hope they can work the same miracle on the Tacoma.