Survivor McGyver- Car

You are on a business/visiting family trip, 250 miles from home and using a rental car then a light flashes. The rental car dies, your cell phone is dead and all electronics are dead. It is mid-October with unpredictable weather. The weather could be Indian summer or an early snow, one never knows. Reminder- you are 250 miles away from you home. The terrain real dry in areas plus you will have to pass through canyon/wooded areas.

All you have is:
half pack of matches
a small pocket knife
and the car

Now it is your turn- what are you going to take or make for your walk home? Why, for what use? What would you need? Let’s discuss what can be salvaged from a vehicle. Time for you to put your knowledge and creativity to use. Share ideas, learn.

** I have changed the travel distance to 250- figuring 5-10 days travel depending on how far one can walk.

 

Walk 500 miles? Not likely in this scenario. Just wait on another motorist to come by and hail a ride to the nearest cell tower range and call the rental agency. Now if all the other cars also die and there is reason to believe that say, an EMP strike...now may be the time to start going into survival mode. I would not be caught dead 500 miles from home with just matches and a small pocket knife.I carry more than that with me to the bathroom.

 

Sea has burnt an image into my bent mind that cannot be erased. I need a drink!

 

Sadly, not only did @Seacowboys get mugged on his way to the restroom, they shanghaied him and dumped him in the middle of nowhere. He awoke to find himself next to an abandon car that had a pocket knife and a half pack of matches.

 

1st off, no water. that sucks big time. raise hood and attach red or white flag from aerial, improvise. use your silk panties if you have to. no aerial, find something for a flag mast. car is shelter. car is base. stay within sight of car. close to car (within 100 feet) gather rocks or whatever and spell out SOS in huge letters than can be seen from above. consider placing additional flags along side of road on side that approaching traffic would come from in either direction. do this at distant point almost as far as you can see in either direction, not to exceed a mile. gather wood and burnables for a fire to be built not to far away from car and close to edge of road. look for something to put water in while gathering burnables. If aluminum cans and plastic bottles are abundant consider a line of these across the road between your breakdown point and the distant flags. you are trying to get attention! plenty of burnables and green plants as well? have the green stuff close by fire for making smoke. attention getter! find a staff or club, and search out edibles within sight of car. snakes, turtles, bugs, grubs etc. be careful.

 

Damn you Moto now I've got cocola all over my screen/keyboard!! Future such posts should include a spew alert

 

Then I'd just wait a bit and the damned IRS would find me. They track me everywhere.

 

Okay, I will come back to this when I have some time but I'm going to go out on a limb here...actually just out onto the porch, that this is a SHTF situation. Bright flash and the car and cell phone die. Unless it was a bright flash from the cigarette lighter where you had the phone plugged in to charge and that somehow blew the electrical system of the phone AND the car, we aren't talking dead battery here. High altitude nuke generating an EMP is my guess.

Again, I'll come back to this later on tonight, but things I immediately think can be useful (not most useful, just useful in general) in the car:

• Assuming I can find some detritus that I can carry fuel in, I would siphon at least some of the gasoline from the tank for easing the starting of future fires. The siphon tube would come from the engine compartment in the form of a vacuum tube.
  
• Tire iron from the jack. No other weapon around, this will be handy to keep on my person
• Owner's manual or other documents from the glove box. Should be dry so the paper could be used as tinder/kindling for future fires
• GPS from the car and my phone. Even if the battery isn't "removable", I'm betting I can get it out if I have to. See these "Art of Manliness" and Instructables links:
  • Wilderness Survival Cell Phone | The Art of Manliness
  • How To Turn Your Mobile Phone Into a Survival Tool
• If the vehicle has a radio antenna (longer one on the passenger's side of the car), break it off. Makes another good improvised weapon and not very heavy.
• How long do I have? If I've got time I'd pop the hood and go to town on the readily available wires...the thinner ones (12-14 gauge). Those can be used in the future in place of twine, string or for a snare.
  
• Even longer? Using the knife, cut out as much of the upholstery from the seats (leave one for resting in until it's time to go. Using the back and seat of 3 individual seats or the passenger front and a bench back, you should be able to rig a knapsack of some kind including using the awl or punch on the knife and the 12-14 gauge wires you stripped from the engine compartment. The stuffing may be usable as tinder as well.
• ANY elastic in the car. In both of my cars, for example, there are little "bungee" type cords under the seats adding extra tension to the seat cover (seat, not back). Potentially useful if I were to make any kind of ranged weapon (think sling shot).
• Cut out the seat belts. Can be used for pack straps?
• Pull off the rear-view mirror at the very least for...wait for it...a mirror. If you can swing it, pry out one or both side-view mirrors.
• If I'm trying to attract attention, burn the spare tire.

That where you were going @Motomom34?

 

Great post @DarkLight

My kids came up with:

The seat belts could be used to fashion a pack or strap stuff to your body, plus if you got hurt you could use them to hold a splint in place. Also you could keep the fastener on and use it as a swinging weapon.

The side view mirrors the kids thought could be used as a cup/container for water. You could also salvage the mirror for a signaling device and fire starter or maybe cutting things.

** at first the youngest thought he could take the gas tank and use it to carry water in. He now knows you can't reuse some containers but I was proud that his first thought was water.

 

I honestly can not see where I would be traveling with so few items, but:

The back seats of many cars have a clear plastic vapor barrier attached to them. I'm not sure exactly what their job is, I just know that I've seen it in many cars in the wrecking yard. I supposed that could be used to gather morning dew/rainfall, ect. Like others have said, many things in the car would make decent fire starter material. Before I took off on that long of a trek I would wait a bit and see if any one turned up with a possible ride. Add to that pretty much everything @DarkLight said, unless of course the IRS found me as well..

 

I'd have to go a lot further than 250 miles from home to have a possibility of snow in October. And out here there's a town about every 20 miles. But ok. I'm assuming EMP since you threw in the flash of light and dead electronics to go with my dead rental car.

I'd take that pocket knife to the seats and liberate them of some cloth, headliner too. The seat belts would be coming out too. Cloth and headliner rolled, belts used as a sling... like the sling on a yoga mat. If it has a tire iron, that comes with me too. Under the hood, wiring harness, strip that out, can use it to tie up things in a pinch. Paper air filter, windshield wiper hose, and windshield wiper bottle if I can get it out of there. Take the rental paperwork and book out of the glove compartment... they'll burn nicely. Pull the dipstick, wipe it off with a bit of cloth, do that a few times until the cloth is soaked in oil. Put the oily cloth in the plastic bag that the car rental paperwork comes in, can use it for a slow burn fire starter later. Pull off the mirrors from the sideviews, yank the rearview mirror too. Bust the headlights and take the glass.

I'll come across a C store or house or someone within 10 miles and will be able to score at least a couple of water bottles to help me on my way. If not them, plenty of windmill driven stock tanks along the way. Paper air filter can clean out the debris, not sure what I'd boil it in though. There's nothing metal on the kind of cars you'd rent these days. So best thing I can think is to put it in the windshield wiper bottle (assuming it's that opaque plastic and not black), cover it with the broken glass, then angle the mirrors so they're putting the sun on the glass on top of the water container, and sit back and see if I can get it to cook. Probably not but it'll entertain me for a while anyway. If not, at least it's well water. Can sleep on the headliner and use seat covers for some blanket at night.

And hope like hell it WAS an EMP, because otherwise the rental company is going to chit bricks when they get that car back....

 

Do NOT break the headlights out! That is your water bottle, and cooker. Most newer headlights, have a release or two, and the whole headlight assembly pops out, this is so you can replace the bulb that rides inside., and is accessed from the engine compartment side. It is I think, all glass. Fill it with water, and boil it in fire. The inside should be clean, because it is sealed by the bulb assembly. Mirrors for signalling, and concentrating sunlight for fire, or just heat. Seatbelts, and seat back material would make a pack. The seats themselves contain a flat set of springs to sit on. Take them, (assuming you can get them out, as they would form a lightweight, ready made fire grating, for cooking. If I want oil for oil soaked rags, a whack at the oil filter will give me all I want. (I ain't coming back and I don't care about saving the environment right now.
If I really needed to carry more water, I could use the spare tire. It would taste like crap, but it would hold several gallons of water by removing the valve stem valve, and pour water into the valve stem by pouring it down a wire. It will cling and follow. Then replace the valve stem valve and it is water tight. It could be rolled easier than carried. (Stick and hoop was an old child's toy).
Being made of felt, the headliner would fall apart quickly if laid on, but with a few wires, it would make a fine shade/tarp if angled to shed water. It could be a light weight cover as well. The truck carpet would do better for a ground cloth. Remove the trunk lid or hood, if you can. It would make a fine sled for any gear. Use the tire iron, and dismount one of the stereo speakers. Split off the magnet (four rivots). With the magnet, the steel tire iron, and a piece of wood to float them on, you have a compass. Reach up under the hood, and grab the windshield wiper hoses, you can suck water from places you can't get your lightbulb canteen into. (Rinse them as well ad you can, and boil them if you can). Bring the keys, they will make arrow heads if necessary and they don't weigh much. Lower the spare tire and try to release the lift cable that secures it. Most of them are about 6' or so( enough to slide out the tire and release it) it would make at least a half dozen snare wires when un twisted.
The whip attenea is your roasting skewer for cooking.

And of course, you should take the car door, so you can roll the window down if it gets too hot....

 

@Tully Mars's post made me think of the airbag. I have never personally seen one but could it be cut out and used as a tarp? I think they are a plastic material.

I wondered about the air filter and it it could be used to filter water. The seat padding also. Not sure if they would be toxic but I think if you clean them enough they may work. Is the windshield washer bottle toxic or can it hold liquids?

At @kellory I never thought to use the headlights as cooking/water carriers. I like the antenna skewer suggestion and the hose use for sucking water. Also I think the roof rails could be used as a weapon plus a hobo stick or cane.

All the suggestions on the wires are good. So many uses.

 

Light the car on fire if I could that would bring someone, if not look at the pretty lights until they burn out.

 

I would be very careful messing with the air bag. Usually with the right tools they will come out pretty easy, and not sure how the fried electronics would play in this, but you DO NOT want that thing deploying in your face while trying to remove it. Just my

 

You know I haven't looked at a headliner since I installed one on my 79 Trans Am.... it was fake leather. Went and took a look at my Camry which is new. Man I forgot everything has gone to crap on cars now... and those headlight covers are plastic, not glass. That's why they cloud over. I forgot about that.

 

I just replaced the bulb I'm my work truck headlight, a few days ago. It was glass, so it must vary somewhat.

 

Headed to go tap on my headlight...

my headlight covers are plastic so are the new Dodge trucks.