mildew

[dennis frey]

i just helped a buddy of mine pull out his c3 which had been in storage for 18 mos while he was in iraq. covered w mildew inside. can anybody tell me how to remove it and how to get the stink out of the car w/o guttin it? thanks. d.

[Mike McKown]

Guess nobody else wants to take a crack at it.

I've been through this drill. Never been successful with eliminating entirely the mildew smell once it gets in the fabric but I have made it tolerable by:

1. Shampoo the carpets and all soft cloth fabrics with foaming carpet cleaner.

2. Clean the vinyl with vinyl cleaner. Star-Brite makes some good stuff.

3. Lightly spray the interior with Ozium. It is made to deodorize hospital

rooms. Remove the seats and seat backs and spray on the jute backing.

Star Brite and Ozium can be purchased at Wal-mart in the automotive section. Fabreeze also does a good job. They have one for home use and one for automotive.

I've not done it but a box of baking soda under each seat might also help.

[Dick W.]

Re: Guess nobody else wants to take a crack at it.

Mike, I would add one thing to your post. Once everything has been cleaned take everything that you can possibly get out of the car outside when the sun is shining brightly. It will help kill some of the mildew odor. Ozium will do a wonderful job, and like you suggested, keep a box of baking soda under the seat, probably for ever. Keep the air moving inside the car as much as possible. If you have access to a small dehumidifier to put inside the car, that would help also. When you shampoo your carpets use a fabric softener also to keep the carpet from becoming stiff when it dries.

Lotsa Luck

[Larry S.]

Re: mildew

Well I had this problem with my 1967 Deville Cadillac last year. What I did was to vacum as much of the stuff off as possible. I then purchased lysol mold and mildew cleaner and scrubbed every thing I could. Agin I vacumed the car out completely. I then closed every thing up and set a houde dehumidifier in the car and let it run for a couple of days (dumping it as needed) I then went to a pet store and they have a odor killer (its meant to eliminate cat urin smell) and wiped ever thing porus with it.The car still has a slight odor to it after its been closed up for a couple of weeks.

Good luck.

You know there is a machine called an ozoneator,It is used in the duct work of homes that have caught on fire to remove the smell left in the duct work from the smoke. I just could never find anyone who had one.

[Mike Cobine]

Re: mildew

this was just on the alt.autos.corvette. Here is what was posted there:

man, these guys think you want to take the expensive way out. Here's what
we do at my detail shop for mildew.

1. go to any car care store and buy a product called "Odor-nox." It's
manufactured by a company called "Professional Car Beauty." Here is a link
to the site where you can order online: http://www.prowax.com/perfumes.shtml
It's about half way down the page
2. Get your carpet wet, with a carpet shampooer if you have one, if not just
get it wet and use a wet/dry vac to get the excess water out.
3. spray odor-nox from a bottle on EVERY square inch of the carpet. Spray
until the odor nox is in puddles. This ensures that it gets entirely down
to the pad. Odor-nox not only destroys the odor, it has an ingredient that
kills mildew, and leaves an apple scent in the car for 3-4 weeks.
4. use the wet-dry vac to suck up the excess odor-nox from the carpet, but
leaving the carpet quite damp.
5. park it in the sun with the windows rolled down for about 4 hours.

Hope it works for you! If you can't find the product, post again, and I can
have some shipped to you.

Rick


You can also check the Yellow Pages for Carpet Cleaning and stop in to see one of these guys. They use the power vacuums and shampoo machines, but you can get by with a Rug Doctor and upholstery attachment. They will have the mildew killing solutions you can buy and use in your set up. Or have them do the car. With hurricane damage, we had a guy out that cleaned carpets where the water blew past the doors in and dampen the carpets. Two days later they smelled like an outhouse at Watkins Glen on a NASCAR weekend.

For $45, the guy came out and cleaned the one area and the entire other room since it was older carpet and the clean spot would be too obvious. The guy who did it was into Corvettes and said he used his equipment on Corvettes often.

He also mentioned the smell is as often in the seats as the carpet, due to body sweat soaking into the leather seats.

Good luck,
Mike