The Great American Classic

[JoshT]

Deep cleaning and an ozone generator for the smells. Never done it, but heard it works well.

 

[Roert42]

I did look into an ozone generator. I'm going to start with a deep clean of the carpet and seats, then go from there.


There's 20 years of chain smoking Newports and Camels in them there seats as well.

 

[Lefty]

In general I remove the seats and carpet/mat, there's always crud settled into the upholstery, careful cleaning will get it out and make even old & worn carpets / mats look better plug less stink .

I always scrub the bare floors whilst the interior is out .

Cleaning all the plastics, inside the glovebox, up under the dash board, pretty much everything air touches will hold the smell .

Don't ever use alcohol, it damages plastic and upholstery .

I looked this up. "Rubbing alcohol, also known as isopropyl alcohol, can be used to clean and disinfect most surfaces in a car's interior, but it's important to be aware of some potential risks:
Isopropyl alcohol is safe to use on most car interior surfaces, including hard surfaces, imitation leather, and cloth upholstery. However, it can damage leather's protective coating and dye, so it's not recommended for leather interiors."

I prefer rubbing alcohol because it doesn't leave perfumes or soap deposits which might smell great at first, but will in time attract more dirt and odor.

Rubbing alcohol works on Ranger interiors and fabric seats. I know. I've used them. I've cleaned the headliner too. No problem.

 

[Blmpkn]

I've heard mixed reports on ozone generators.. I've read at least once that it ended up making the smell worse.. or made the stink different.. but still terrible..

May have been dirtman? I don't remember. It was years ago that I read it.

 

[Roert42]

I've heard mixed reports on ozone generators.. I've read at least once that it ended up making the smell worse.. or made the stink different.. but still terrible..

May have been dirtman? I don't remember. It was years ago that I read it.

That was when he spilled soup down the hvac vents.

 

[Roert42]

So I spent like 4-5 hours today using my wife’s carpet cleaner machine thing to shampoo every piece of fabric I could get at without disassembling the entire interior.

The only spot I couldn’t get to was the package tray since the back window was so close.

Stripped everything out of the trunk and completely cleaned that too since there was a mouse nest back there.

Give it a few days to dry and we’ll see how it did. At the very least we got most the weird stains out.


still need to clean the vents.

 

[Roert42]

Way better now that it’s cleaned. Still need to clean the vents though.

Might be worth another round with the shampoo before I go down the path of the ozone machine.

Changed the oil for the first time since the rebuild, looked fairly clean, happy there.