First post...Superduty

T

t platz

New member
Okay, some of you guys with "classic" or just older cars probably know what I'm talking about. I drive a 1987 VW Scirocco, and I love it. However, after driving it 30 miles to work (and even worse after driving it 30 miles home)...I feel like I need to take a shower. I've done everything I can to "sterilize" the car, but it's still just old and therefore slightly funky.



The steering wheel makes my hands feel clammy (I'll be replacing the wheel eventually), and I just sorta feel like the car stinks (it's not bad or anything...it just smells like an old car). I have noticed that it's not as bad when I have the A/C on (shouldn't be a problem year 'round in TX), but I'd like to neutralize/get rid of the "old car funk" as much as possible.



Anybody got any miracle products to recommend for getting rid of odors and treating old, slightly sticky surfaces?



Things that I have done so far: Rug Doctored seats and carpets, scrubbed headliner, dash, door panels, etc. with bleach cleaner. This was just an attempt to get rid of as much crap as possible...and the water was black, it was nasty. I do have 303 and Vinylex and plan to use them on the interior when I get around to it, but I just don't feel like it's ready just yet.



Any and all help is very much appreciated.



Thanks!



Gary
 
Arm-N-Hammer Baking Soda under the seats and they should absorb most of the crappy odors. If you've already shampooed already, then that is the next thing to do. There are tons of odor-counteractants and things you can buy from this site and others, so it's your choice. Get some EF HI and clean that car from head-to-toe!!!
 
Meguiar's makes a car deodorizer like Febreze but seems to work better and last longer than Febreze. It kind of has a new car smell to it.
 
You could also pay to get the interior "Ionized" which is supposed to help with odors. The larger dealers in your area as some detailers can do this.



I have always used the baking soda method.



Some old cars, however, have odors that come from carpet padding, seat foam, etc. It's really hard to overcome.
 
Best bet is to use a good extractor and remove whatever is causing the odor, follow up with valu gard odor terminator and you should eliminate the odor for good. I have sprayed many stinky ac vents to remove odor and once you spray it let the product work and the odor will be gone for good as long as you have removed whtever was causing the odor in the first place.



For instance on my new truck we had a situation where there were some stinky shoes put in the car on a hot day and the wife chose to run the ac instead of rolling down the windows, then every time you turn on the ac it would smell like feet in the car. I sprayed the odor terminater into the ac intake and let it run for a few min and the smell is gone. Its been a couple months now and there was no re occourance.



good luck with removing the smell
 
I have heard good things about the "Odor Terminator" from AutoInt. If you run out of options give it a shot. :up
 
Think of all the butts that have sit in the seat...Them seats hold some odors ecspecially if they are cloth.



As brad said most of the odors are under the top surface in the padding and stuffing of the carpet and seats.



I used an ionizer once for some spilled shrimp juice in the back of my last SUV and it worked well but then I had this funky ionizer smell which I did not like. I detailed the interior and used some Eagle 1 leather conditioner and the ionizer smell was gone.



You can pick up a small 110Vac ionizers at local marine stores since a lot of boat owners use them to get rid of the funky smell on boats from bilges and stale air.



Good Luck!
 
Other than introductions this is my first post at this excellent forum.

When our daughter graduated from high school we bought her a new Saab 9.3 turbo. She loved the car but always wished she had a pickup truck so she could haul a horse trailer to horse shows since we have horses. She is in her third year of grad school at Cornell in Ithaca, NY now. She has three horses with her. On the phone she told her mother how hard it is to take the horses anywhere so we decided to buy her a F250 superduty like mine.

We bought this in Mass and it looked great on the lot. Leather interior with nice leather captains chair front seats. The tailgate was a mess but the dealer told us he could get a great used one for $250.00 so we jumped on that. Dual exhaust with 3 inch stainless tips sounded really good. We paid cash and were going to come back the next weekend to pick it up after they put the new tailgate in and did a couple of other things. Well a month went by before they got the title straightened out.

Any way instead of dragging this out anymore, they simple repainted the junk tailgate and I ended replacing it with one I had at home after painting it and putting three coats of clear on it.

I clayed it and it took very little effort since they had obviously polished it. The roof was a different story. They hadn't done anything to the roof since you can't see it from the ground. I had to clay the roof twice.

It was loaded with swirls and scratches after washing it twice with a mixture of Sam's club degreaser and dawn put on with my pressure washer and then by hand.

I was going to use m105 and m205 on it but used some Meg's UC since I had a couple of bottles and wanted to try it with my shurhold.

I started with a LC orange but it wasn't cutting fast enough for me so I switched to a 6.5 surbuf. That worked great and took out stuff I thought I only could get with my rotary. Only a couple of deep scratches didn't come out and I know I could have got them if I had time. I was hurrying to get it done before we left and I still had to weld a broken latch back in, in the toolbox, and line it with carpet to keep saddles and etc from getting aluminum rub marks. I finished with a LC white and Meg's UC again. I used brown royal on the wheels and tires (love this stuff) dressed the wheels with Meg's NXT2.0 and the tires with Megs hotshine. Three coats of the hotshine to even it out and wiped it down with a mf towel the next morning. I don't like the looks of the hotshine at all. Too bright. I need to find something else.
I polished the stainless tips with 0000 and m105. That worked good although I don't have any pictures that show it. Under the hood got a couple of cans of gunk foam, I like the foam better because it hangs on a lot longer, giving it a chance to work, then a wash-down with Sam's degreaser and dawn mixture and agitated with various brushes, then gently rinsed with the hose. The trucks LSP was Megs NXT 2.0. applied with a LC black 6.5 inch pad speed 2.5. I didn't do anything to the bumpers since they had sprayed what looks like chassis black on the with no preparation at all. When she gets home I will take them off and strip them and repaint them along with cleaning and repainting anything with rust on the underside.

I apologize for no before pictures but the only reason I have these is because my wife insisted I take some pictures to show Sonya, our daughter, how much work I did to the truck. We didn't have any sun for three days so no sun shots. Really sorry because I wish you could see the difference.

I am anxious to try Leatherique Rejuvenator Oil and Leatherique Prestine Clean.

Also, after all I have heard I am dying to try BLACKFIRE Wet Diamond

One other thing. How do you polish a diamond plate aluminum toolbox? It looked bad and I ruined a wool pad and a LC orange on the rotary with m105. I ended using 0000 and m105 to just a half way degree of success.

Really sorry I didn't document everything but they were never meant to shown on the internet. Since I'm new here I wanted to post something.

All afters.

superdutydetail7718.jpg


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superdutydetail7723.jpg


Just after daylight the morning we left for Ithaca. 579 miles one way, 10 hours of driving.
mg7729.jpg
 
Hey Ron... Welcome to TID and nice work on that truck! I know how much work that is, because I've done many of those! Now that I've gotten old, I just do Vettes... Why? Because I've gotten old!!!:biggrin:!

The truck looks great!:Dancing Dot:
 
Seriously nice job on the truck! About a 1/2 acre or so of sheetmetal, isn't it? :scared: Busy grad student with a shiney, black truck... I'm thinking you're gonna be busy every time she comes home. :biggrin:

Ron-M said:
One other ting. How do you polish a diamond plate aluminum toolbox? It looked bad and I ruined a wool pad and a LC orange on the rotary with m105. I ended using 0000 and m105 to just a half way degree of success.
Click to expand...

I keep some 8" Schlegel & Meg's wool pads for nasty jobs. Last one was polishing diamond plate. I used a 7" backing plate which allows the edge of the pads to form over the edge of the BP making the sides of the pad usable in that application. I smeared metal polish on and let 'er rip with wool and a rotary. When the pads turned black I stuck on a fresh one and kept going. It was really surprising how clean the pads came out of the washer after that abuse!

All I had on hand for that job was Meg's Aluminum and Mag Wheel polish.. paste. The whole job probably would've been easier if I had an aggressive liquid on hand. Once the pad became impregnated with polish I rarely had to add more. By that time they were almost black and needed changed. It took a lot of hand wiping to remove the residue but they came out like a mirror. I've since used P21S / S100 polishing soap and figured next time that'd probably be the ticket for diamond plate.

TL
 
Luster said:
Hey Ron... Welcome to TID and nice work on that truck! I know how much work that is, because I've done many of those! Now that I've gotten old, I just do Vettes... Why? Because I've gotten old!!!:biggrin:!

The truck looks great!:Dancing Dot:
Click to expand...

Thanks Bill, I appreciate that.

I know about old. Next Bday will be number 68.
 
TLMitchell said:
Seriously nice job on the truck! About a 1/2 acre or so of sheetmetal, isn't it? :scared: Busy grad student with a shiney, black truck... I'm thinking you're gonna be busy every time she comes home. :biggrin:



I keep some 8" Schlegel & Meg's wool pads for nasty jobs. Last one was polishing diamond plate. I used a 7" backing plate which allows the edge of the pads to form over the edge of the BP making the sides of the pad usable in that application. I smeared metal polish on and let 'er rip with wool and a rotary. When the pads turned black I stuck on a fresh one and kept going. It was really surprising how clean the pads came out of the washer after that abuse!

All I had on hand for that job was Meg's Aluminum and Mag Wheel polish.. paste. The whole job probably would've been easier if I had an aggressive liquid on hand. Once the pad became impregnated with polish I rarely had to add more. By that time they were almost black and needed changed. It took a lot of hand wiping to remove the residue but they came out like a mirror. I've since used P21S / S100 polishing soap and figured next time that'd probably be the ticket for diamond plate.

TL
Click to expand...

Thank you TL.

She is really working her butt off with studying and tests. I know what I'm in for next time I see the truck.

Thanks for the tips on polishing aluminum diamond plate. Just how did you use the polishing soap with the rotary? I have never used polishing soap.
 
Wow

Looks great bud that's for sure, hardest color to keep that way also. I have a new crew cab It's a long way around them things.

I have also found that if you a good wash routine that will help in marring of the just polished as well. Get a grit guard and some good soap and good mf wash mitts you will have a winner for sure.:clap::clap::clap:
 
bmw5541 said:
The truck looks great Ron. I'm sure your daughter loves that way it looks.
Click to expand...


Thanks Barry.

She about flipped out when she saw the truck. Since we got back home we have got several e-mails from her telling us how much she loves her truck and how proud of it she is.
I wish she was closer so I could keep it up for her.
 
Thanks Bill.

I tried to explain to her how to wash and keep it clean but I know what it will be like next time I see it. Thats all right I'll just do what ever I need to do to make it look good for her.
 
Thanks Bill.

I tried to explain to her how to wash and keep it clean but I know what it will be like next time I see it. Thats all right I'll just do what ever I need to do to make it look good for her.
 
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