I'll make a long, stupid story short by saying that I now have a piece of chewed GUM (ewww... nasty!) in the air vent at the bottom of the windshield (inside the car, obviously). How do I get to that and get it out!?

More importantly - will that do any damage short of annoy me for the end of time?

 

LOL!

Tell us how it got there.

 

You may think I'm being a wiseass, but if it's stuck in there, you're only going to make things worse by trying to remove it - gum will get EVERYWHERE. So in keeping with the "you're going to think I'm a wiseass - instead of trying to remove it, try to get a sharpie or a paintbrush in there and "paint" it black instead of trying to remove it. You won't notice it, and your air will continue to have that minty-fresh flavor.

 

I have to go out and look at mine, to see how deep it is, but I would suggest when you do prepare to remove it, get the AC running through the defroster, (The defrosting vents is where the gum is right?) to solidify the gum more and reduce it's tackiness, then I'd try to ****** it out with a pair of long forcips, you can get them at model railroad / model building shops, I think they usually have 6" and 9" long sets, depending on how deep the vent it, you may be able to get it without having to take anything apart.

Of course that idea is worthless if you can't see where it landed. Good luck with that, sounds like a pain in the patoot.

 

First, to answer the question of the first person...

How did it get in there? Well... my wife was chewing a piece of gum as we were coming home from the gym over lunch. I was playing with a 3000ZX (I think?) on the road and we were both behind a pair of slow minivans. The guy I was behind made a left turn, so naturally, I dropped down a gear which brought me up to 7k rpm and I nailed the gas. Gum goes where it shouldn't... she starts to cought, and voila! It flies out of her mouth, hits the windshield, rolls down and gone. I can't see it, but I know it's there dammit!!

Now... as long as it's not going to do any damage, I can't see it so I don't care about that part - I'm just worried about it causing issues being in the ducts down there.

Oh, and I left the Nissan behind, although... that is one sweet looking car. This guy would have whooped my **** if he wasn't stuck behind the mini-van

Thanks for your replies.

 

Ah ... I doubt it's going to hurt anything down there - it's probably sitting on a flat spot of the duct work and will never move again.

The question is, when is your divorce final?

 

Outta site, outta mind! Never happened. Pass it off as air freshner. HAHAHA!

 

Are you sure it made it into a vent and didn't roll onto the ground or something? I can't seem to picture how big the vent openings are and if they would let a piece of gum go through them.

I would be most owrried about it landing in the carpet and then getting nice and sticky when the car is sitting with the windows closed in any heat.

 

Bug and Tar remover might work. No promises on what it might do to the interior.

 

Trust me, it's down there. The piece of gum wasn't huge, but it did most definitely disappear into the vent. I tried to stick my finger in there to maybe figure out where it went - but it is HISTORY...

OK, thanks for all the quick responses!

Haha... when is the divorce final... heh.

 

How dare you disrespect the shinka!

 

Picture it in slow motion. The car surges, and RLS's wife, caught off-guard, spews her gum. It follows a slow, gracefull arc even as RLS himself fixes his gaze on the flying wad. Mentally he has already calculated where it will land, and as it disappears down the vent, he opens his mouth and out comes a drawn-out "Noooooooooooo!"

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