Hi yall!


Musty smell inside, anyone have experience with this? It will never be a new car again (mainly because I don’t want to spend the $$ to buy new carpets from the dealer or shell out for upholstery shop, I got kids man!), so good cleaning and touch up are the options for now. I am afraid to use an off the shelf flowery or perfumy products from Home Depot, and it would probably get really annoying after a while, that’s why I was thinking the “new car smell” products.
What you guys think?

 

I think you should be kicking yourself for not taking the trip to see the car before dropping your $$$. Lesson learned so just start looking for restoration parts, many available but living outside NA can be expensive for shipping. Good luck man!

 

This is air freshener. You can hang one from the mirror and get the same effect. Does not eliminate the source of the odors, just the after-smell (for lack of a better word.) Smell will be back immediately until you clean the car completely. There's still something rotten in there.

-- Chuck

 

You're right -- give it a shot. Let us know. I'm not optimistic.

-- Chuck

 

I've used this my cars and it has done a wonderful job of eradicating (not masking) any foul smells in the ventilation system. I would imagine it would be effective in your case as well.

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No prob. Let me know how it goes.

 

I've also had decent success with throwing a few boxes of baking soda in a car for a few days/weeks and it getting rid of quite a bit of the smells. Just top up, sealed.

 

I'm guessing you used something like a little green machine for the carpets? Pre-treat the carpets for mold. Basically, pre-treat for any deep cleaning of upholstery. Get a spray bottle and spray the carpet then agitate it with a soft bristle brush. Let it sit for a few minutes and THEN use your extractor. Go back over it with just water to clean everything out.
A few options:
(Search for proper mixtures of each of these and test in an inconspicuous area)
Color safe bleach and water
White vinegar and water
Hydrogen peroxide and water

Commercial Products:
Folex

You can also try Bissel's commercial cleaner with febreeze stuff in your extractor. It's pretty decent.

If you take it to a professional, they'll likely run a commercial ozone generator in there after all the deep cleaning is done. You could do that yourself too since there seem to be a bunch of cheap ones on Amazon.