Mold...
 

Figured I'd post up here since this is likely a somewhat widespread issue.

My car sat outside for a little less than a year before I bought it. Here in the NW its warm and rainy for 9 months out of the year.

With 2 bad door seals and the hatch sill rust I posted about earlier, you can imagine what became of the interior.

Heres the problem: I've ripped most of the interior out and wiped the surface(s) down with straight bleach, but the smell remains because there appears to be mold that has formed in very hard to reach places (i.e. around & under the fuel filler neck). Attached to the filler neck is a line that seems to travel down somewhere under the car. It appears under the car the the same line (or one similar?) also has mold on it.

Just wondering if anyone has worked magic to take car of similar issues.

The obvious steps have been taken: Dry out, bleach whats reachable, bake in hot summer sun with minimal ventilation.

I want to do work on the interior but cant even go inside it without feeling like I have a hangover.

Thanx in advance.

You are on the right track. You will probably end up taking it almost completely apart to get rid of all of it. Its just time and patience...don forget to pull the carpet and replace the matting underneath..it smells horrible with age anyways but its probably growing mold too...and check the climate control stuff too...they can get pretty nasty..

Thanks for the encouragement! Ripped out most of the interior = everything but dash. All the carpet and padding underneath is long gone. What sucks is that I need to pull the dash, and in order to do so I need to spend a large amount of time with my head in a dark nasty foot well in order to figure out how it all comes out. Thats a project for another day though...

I've been wondering if there is some sort of chemical that I could evaporate/pressurize inside the car that would kill the mold spores in places I can't get too. This stuff sucks.

Not too sure about the easy chem stuff..my dad used to use lysol spray in his truck when his seals went bad...it did ok, i just hated the smell of lysol...as far as removing the dash its not too complicated as long as you have a ratchet, an extension, and a flex attatchment. Just pulled one from an 82 and it only took me about an hour and a half by myself..and it was the first time I've ever removed one..

I suppose I should figure out where all the bolts are and go from there :lol:

Once thats out I'll be interested to see what the mold situation is underneath that area.

I wonder what would happen if I ran a dry ice machine in there for a long period of time. Time to have some chemistry fun :)

Lol I think it was like 8-10 bolts..not sure since I was slightly buzzed and just kinda cruisin..but it wasn't too bad..

Brake clean kicks mold's ass!


Afraid to say you really need to strip the entire interior. Take it all the way to a shell. Mine was the same way. I actually was able to salvage the carpet (not the rear hatch dry rotted). I stripped everything out. Used a power washer and Purple power on the carpet. Then followed up by scrubbing Tide cloths wash stuff in with a brush. Power washed the crap out of it again. Carpet smells good. Of course the seats were ripped and foam bad. They got recovered.

When you get the instrument panel out you'll have to take the air vents out and wash them real good. I put them and the wiring harness in the kitchen dishwasher.

Lemon juice works well for getting rid of the smell. I would try a very strong citrus cleaner and then wipe everything down with just lemon juice.

Never thought about lemon juice :) here is a thought...not sure if it would work, but what if you load a humidifier with lemon juice and put it in the sealed chassis...t he acid will probably eat up the seals inside the humidifier after a while, but It may put enough of the citric acids and stuff in the air to creep into the tight spaces...

That might work yeah. You can also try fog bombs or an ozonator machine but those are expensive.

I've looked into ozoning and I'm not convinced it will totally work. It will get rid of the visible stuff and obviously the smell, but I doubt it would put an end to the spores.

I like the brake clean idea!!! I might just have to go out and get that going!! My uncle was telling me about a time he was using brake clean, he sprayed some in a Styrofoam cup to take it over to another bench. By the time he had walked over to where he needed to be, the bottom of the cup was gone. Yeah, it'd better kick mold's ass.

I've also been thinking about what kinds of chemicals I could get away with putting in a humidifier ... :egrin:

I've also been toying with the idea of extreme heat. Maybe rig up a few heat lamps in there. I feel like there aren't many organisms that can survive 150º-200ºF for extended periods of time. I guess it would have to depend on what conditions allow the spores to stay dormant.