Pardon me if this has been done before. Not in my wildest dreams did I think this would work.
The house next door to me has been vacant for some 10 years. The house itself is from 1932. It recently got sold, and my old neighbor came by to take the last of his stuff he wanted to keep. Ive been keeping an eye on the house for him, and he offered me some stuff. I took a lot of his expensive plants. The new owner is going to bulldoze the entire thing and is building a multi-million dollar Venice, California "farm house".
As I was packing up some of the last plants, my neighbor asked me if I wanted a bunch of vinyl. Heck, yah!
So we went into his half collapsed garage and was shown about 20 feet worth of vinyl. Hold on. Dont get too excited. Its termite damaged.
I took about 1 foot worth, including an original pressing of the The Beatles White Album, some unopened shrink wrapped records that the termites didnt get into, and declined the rest. Soon as I get home, I looked at all the slightly damaged ones, thought about how busy work has been, and threw them all in the garbage bin.
A few days later, I was chatting with a friend and told him the story. He said he wanted the vinyl. I said, ok. I'll grab them for you but you need to pick them up pronto because if my wife sees them, she will kill me for bringing junk home. The next day, I called my neighbor and asked for the vinyl. He then told me that he threw out most of it, but there were still some left. I said I'd takem. Next morning, I found 1.5 foot of vinyl on my front yard. My neighbor graciously put them there. Ok, cool. Called my buddy and told him they were here.
3 days later, no response. I'm annoyed now. My wife has already seen them and is on my back about it. I text my friend a short note, "from your non-response, I guess you dont want the records. Im putting them in the dumpster". His response, "yeah, thanks. go ahead". I'm really annoyed now. I was leaving for a business trip that day and I had to tell my wife I'd take care of it when I get back. It wasnt a pleasant goodbye
As I am leaving, I find another 2 feet of records on my front yard. Crap. I'm in trouble now.
4 days later, I arrive back from my business trip. I found the records still in my yard. Too tired to do anything, I left them there, over a weekend, till today. I finally had time to move them from the front to the back. Seeing them, I started to thumb through them. Saw some great titles, mostly rock, jazz, new wave and really good classical. I took some pics and sent them to another friend.
That friend advised that before I threw them away, I should put a couple into my cheapo ultrasonic cleaner. Seeing the titles in front of me, original pressing Beatles, Led Zeppelin, limited edition Echo and the Bunnymen, I decided to hand select a few, put them in a crate, threw out the rest, and started cleaning 2.
I used some previously used a distilled water alcohol Dawn surfactant mix I use to clean records. Within the first minute, the water started turning brown. In 15 minutes, 90% of the caked mud fell off. At the 1 hour mark, the vinyl was clean.
Now the test, I wiped Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band dry, put it on my turntable and tested it. OMFG, it sounds like new with only the slightest crackle. And thats not even with a final clean solution wash. OMFG! What have I done? I let my neighbor throw out 20 feet of vinyl, and they could have all been rescued!
I'm done crying. I have about milk crate worth of the records I'm cleaning now, at least I have something.
If you guys ever find termite damaged vinyl, I can tell you from experience, even with termite tunnels directly on the vinyl, they can be rescued.
My process:
I am very careful removing the vinyl from the jackets. I try not to slip them off, or touch the grooves. I just tear off the jacket. I'm cleaning all the vinyl with my dirty solution to remove the caked mud off. 1 hour. Warm water, the cleaner has a heater.
I then set them out to dry on a dish rack.
I plan to clean the pre-washed vinyl with a clean solution after. Then I will be buying cardboard jackets and inner sleeves for storage.
Thanks for reading my story.
The house next door to me has been vacant for some 10 years. The house itself is from 1932. It recently got sold, and my old neighbor came by to take the last of his stuff he wanted to keep. Ive been keeping an eye on the house for him, and he offered me some stuff. I took a lot of his expensive plants. The new owner is going to bulldoze the entire thing and is building a multi-million dollar Venice, California "farm house".
As I was packing up some of the last plants, my neighbor asked me if I wanted a bunch of vinyl. Heck, yah!
So we went into his half collapsed garage and was shown about 20 feet worth of vinyl. Hold on. Dont get too excited. Its termite damaged.
I took about 1 foot worth, including an original pressing of the The Beatles White Album, some unopened shrink wrapped records that the termites didnt get into, and declined the rest. Soon as I get home, I looked at all the slightly damaged ones, thought about how busy work has been, and threw them all in the garbage bin.
A few days later, I was chatting with a friend and told him the story. He said he wanted the vinyl. I said, ok. I'll grab them for you but you need to pick them up pronto because if my wife sees them, she will kill me for bringing junk home. The next day, I called my neighbor and asked for the vinyl. He then told me that he threw out most of it, but there were still some left. I said I'd takem. Next morning, I found 1.5 foot of vinyl on my front yard. My neighbor graciously put them there. Ok, cool. Called my buddy and told him they were here.
3 days later, no response. I'm annoyed now. My wife has already seen them and is on my back about it. I text my friend a short note, "from your non-response, I guess you dont want the records. Im putting them in the dumpster". His response, "yeah, thanks. go ahead". I'm really annoyed now. I was leaving for a business trip that day and I had to tell my wife I'd take care of it when I get back. It wasnt a pleasant goodbye
As I am leaving, I find another 2 feet of records on my front yard. Crap. I'm in trouble now.
4 days later, I arrive back from my business trip. I found the records still in my yard. Too tired to do anything, I left them there, over a weekend, till today. I finally had time to move them from the front to the back. Seeing them, I started to thumb through them. Saw some great titles, mostly rock, jazz, new wave and really good classical. I took some pics and sent them to another friend.
That friend advised that before I threw them away, I should put a couple into my cheapo ultrasonic cleaner. Seeing the titles in front of me, original pressing Beatles, Led Zeppelin, limited edition Echo and the Bunnymen, I decided to hand select a few, put them in a crate, threw out the rest, and started cleaning 2.
I used some previously used a distilled water alcohol Dawn surfactant mix I use to clean records. Within the first minute, the water started turning brown. In 15 minutes, 90% of the caked mud fell off. At the 1 hour mark, the vinyl was clean.
Now the test, I wiped Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band dry, put it on my turntable and tested it. OMFG, it sounds like new with only the slightest crackle. And thats not even with a final clean solution wash. OMFG! What have I done? I let my neighbor throw out 20 feet of vinyl, and they could have all been rescued!
I'm done crying. I have about milk crate worth of the records I'm cleaning now, at least I have something.
If you guys ever find termite damaged vinyl, I can tell you from experience, even with termite tunnels directly on the vinyl, they can be rescued.
My process:
I am very careful removing the vinyl from the jackets. I try not to slip them off, or touch the grooves. I just tear off the jacket. I'm cleaning all the vinyl with my dirty solution to remove the caked mud off. 1 hour. Warm water, the cleaner has a heater.
I then set them out to dry on a dish rack.
I plan to clean the pre-washed vinyl with a clean solution after. Then I will be buying cardboard jackets and inner sleeves for storage.
Thanks for reading my story.
