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OT: inside of car stinks...sit for 13 years

M

mmidlam

Member
My 1984 diesel escort sit for 13 years and mice made it their home. I have vacuumed everything and now what. I think the heater ducts will have to be removed and washed. What about carpet and seats? I am thinking about removing the seats and steam cleaning the inside.
 
50/50 mix of vinegar and water destroys the enzymes in urine that create the smell. Soak the upholstery and carpet with it.

I used an ozone machine to eliminate the smoke odor from my truck. They do work, but don"t know if one of the ozone machines will eliminate the urine smell. Ozone is very hard on vinyl, so if you do use one, don"t use it very much.
 
Will that 50/50 mix of water and vinegar get rid of the urine smell in wood? I have a room in my rental that the urine penetrated thru the rug to the wood floor. Do you use some kind of enzimn to rid the odor?
 
I have found over the years of working on classic fords,that mice will build a nest under the back seat. Have you removed it? Another place is in the headliner.
 
Remove; seats, door panels, carpets, headliner, heater duct, anything fabric or soft or open to pests. Then wash and air completely.

Harold H
 
Harold H has the sure way.

I'm in the process of restoring a 72 GMC C20 pickup. After trying everything mentioned and still having the tell tale trace smell of rat pizz I ended up gutting the entire cab and starting over.

It now smells like fresh paint and new upholstery.
 
I have a old 89 chevy pickup i use on the farm that the same way,i never have been able to get the smell out. I'll try the vinegar thing, never heard of that one. Years ago when i worked in the oilfield we all used trailers or mobile homes,those would set some times and would get mice in them.the place we rented them from had some kind of stuff they would spray them with that got rid of the smell.i dont recall what it was but it was supposed to be the stuff they would spray to get rid of the smell where a dead body had lain for a while.it did the trick but ive forgotton the name of it. ive got a neighbor who is big into rebuilding/restoring old cars. he swears you cant get rid of it unless you just strip everything and start over. he probably has 15-20 cars in his barns and goes to great lengths to keep mice out.
 
I had the same problem in a '94 Ford ranger, you cannot get that smell out unless you clean every place they have been or nested, its that simple, I literally took the entire interior out of this truck to eventually get rid of the odor, I mean the dash, right up to the firewall, steering column disconnected, took the instrument cluster out, these are easy to work on, at least, but I tried without doing some of this, no way, you have to get rid of every source and look everywhere for it, when I finally got it, found a nest in a cab corner under trim, odor kept coming back until I removed and cleaned everything. The pet store has a odor eliminating spray you can use, and believe or not rain will neutralize it too, weird, had heard of this, tried it with some pieces I was replacing, so what the heck, stuff reeked, not after one rain. Other thing is if you do not get that odor gone they will come back every time, use dryer sheets, works well, they have never been back and the truck still sits in the yard as an unfinished project.
 
This might be too severe a situation, but when I was in used car sales, if a car had smoke odor, or any other odd smell, we filled a dish about the size of a coffee cup saucer with fresh coffee grounds, laid a slice of apple on the grouds, put the saucer on the trans hump and let the car sit for a couple of days in the hot sun with all the windows closed.

It usually worked. The only exception was a car we took in trade from a fellow whose personal hygene was such that the office gals sprayed the customer waiting area with Lysol after he'd occupied the area.
 
mmidlam........used to clean "rentals" whose odor would bring tears to yer eyes. We'd burn some powdered yellow sulfur (garden store stuff) inna shallow flower pot type water dish. (or use a glass ashtray) While you might not want to buy a 1-lb box of sulfur, you could probably buy 1-oz from yer pharmacy. ........clean eyes Dell
 
My Dad and I removed the interior and hauled it down to the local car wash. Soaped it, rinsed it, and let it air dry. It worked for us, but was plenty of work.
 
For the wood floor, I would use straight vinegar or a 50/50 mix of water and bleach. Give it time to soak in. I'm always cautious with bleach because it can damage fabrics, plastics, and you.
 
There is a product you can buy at auto parts stores that will absorb odors. I can't remember the name of it but it looks like white rocks in a net bag. My brother had a problem with cats pissing on his car and stinking it up and one of the auto parts reps he works with told him about this stuff. He(the rep) had a hunting cabin that someone had broke into and when they went there some buzzards had taken up residence inside and had crapped and puked all over the cabin and they tried everything to get the smell out. He found out about this odor absorbant and put a pack of it in each room and left it in the cabin for a week. When he returned the odors were gone. When this stuff gets weak, you set it out in direct sunlight all day and it rejuvinates it. My brother got it at a Bumper to Bumper auto parts store. I will try to find the name of it. It works really well.
 
Gosh that is going to be tough. One of my renters used the entire dirt crawl space under the kitchen for a cat litter box. I threw a pail of barn lime in there which helped some. And it seams to be getting better with time but has a long way to go to satisfy me.
 
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