my old 98 vert got damp a little bit on the inside... all the rain we've been getting. As a result... as it has been drying out, the horrible stench of the previous owners cigarette smoke is rife. Fabreze masked it for a little while. The seats and carpet are old. Before I go and spend a lot of money replacing, is there a reliable method for wholesale deodorizing the interior? I don't mind getting the cloth stuff wet, soaked if necessary.

 

I smoke. An I have tried fabreeze, oxyclean, blah blah. Nothing will completly take out that smell. I have resorted to new top/carpet. The carpet is pretty cheap...only like 120 bucks for me.

Course, anyone who has found something that works, id love to know!

 

Maybe try using a very good carpet cleaner. I mean a very good one lol. Some of then are just POS's.

 

Do you guys have any professional detail shops that shampoo and steam clean? You might even need to take the carpet out and have everything cleaned underneath.

 

a steam clean could do it. We got a couple of detail shops around here, but frickin expensive. Id rather take out my seats an do it myself.

 

I might just bite the bullet and replace the carpet, and really hose -down (figuratively speaking) the seats. This car is not the keeper.

I test-drove an '07 vert with pony package. That's my target. The '98... well i don't feel like putting too much moola in it.

 

I always used my mini steam cleaner to clean my upholstery. I didn't smoke or anything, but I had a habit of monsterous spills of starbucks and soda and a bunch of other stuff. The cleaner has a little suction and you can actually see everything being cleaned up through the tube. If you add a deodorizer in the water it would probably make it all smell nice

 

you can take the seats/carpet out and steam clean them yourself (rent the little thing from Randall's)

OR...
you could take the carpet/seats out and soak them in some kind of shampoo then pressure wash it out (hold the pressure washer sort of far away from the carpet)

BUT...

im not sure how you can get the smell out of the top...maybe just like 5 gallons of fabreeze auto

 

I'm not sure why it works, perhaps its the ammonia, but back in the day I bought a few cars that were smoked in and I found thatmisting (liberally of course)the headliner, carpet and cloth seats with WINDEX takes care of the smell It might take 2-3 applications depending on how bad, but that worked for me a few times.

You should take the seats out to be sure to get the carpet underneath.

 

I know it sounds weird....but the best thing for getting odors out of any type of carpet or cloth upholstery is to use a small steam cleaner (the bissell works great and cost about $60 at home depot). In the solution bucket add really hot tap water, and white vinegar. Trust me it's the best. After a couple days the vinegar smell goes away, and it totally neutralizes the odors permanently