Newbie needs helping ridding truck of odor

J

jbone

New member
Hi,



Ive been a member here for a while, however, I havent been very active. Anyhow, I have a 1986 toyota pickup that I just bought. The previous owner was a heavy smoker and in an attempt to rid the truckj of tobacco stains I cleaned it with some cheap citrus cleaner. (It was all I had). Now the truck smells like citrus cleaner and I hate it. Ive tried cleaning and febreezing the carpet, and scrubbing down the entire interior a couple of times and the smell is still there. Any suggestions?? BTW what do you guys suggest as an itnerior cleaner?? Thanks!
 
Jbone, I have used ZEP High Traffic Cleaner with good results. You can get it at Home Depot. Spray that on your carpets and seats and scrub it in like you are shampooing the carpets. Let it sit for a little, wipe with a terry cloth, and then vac it up. Also I like to use Folex(found at Lowes) for the headliner. It cleans it very well. Spray some folex on a terry towel and then scrub the headliner, not too hard. A lot of the smell of cigs are in the headliner. After using those two, you should smell the truck as very clean instead of a horrible perfume. Good luck
 
I had the same problem with a '95 Toyota pickup - it spent 11 years doing daily duty for a very heavy smoker. Aside from thoroughly cleaning every surface, I ran my Bissell Little Green over the carpets and seats to try to extract as much gunk as possible. Judging from the look (and smell) of the tank afterward, I achieved some success.



As I'm guessing you'll discover though, once the scent from the cleaners wears off you'll notice the nicotine nastiness again. Repeat cleaning sessions, help, but I remember reading in past threads about the use of an ozone machine to effectively eliminate such odors. Good luck...
 
I remember Grassroots Motorsports mag had a 5.0 Mustang that they eventually changed out the carpets and maybe the headliner on because the prev owner was a smoker.



Brutal stuff, that smoker residue. :scared:
 
The headliner has come very clean suprisingly. The truck didnt actually have that bad of a smell when I got it. It just had an "old truck" odor to it I guess. But now after cleaning it has a smell of old truck with a burst of citrus, and its actually worse than when I started. Thanks for the tips, ill give them a shot!
 
MobileJay said:
Jbone, I have used ZEP High Traffic Cleaner with good results. You can get it at Home Depot. Spray that on your carpets and seats and scrub it in like you are shampooing the carpets. Let it sit for a little, wipe with a terry cloth, and then vac it up. Also I like to use Folex(found at Lowes) for the headliner. It cleans it very well. Spray some folex on a terry towel and then scrub the headliner, not too hard. A lot of the smell of cigs are in the headliner. After using those two, you should smell the truck as very clean instead of a horrible perfume. Good luck
Click to expand...



The Zep traffic cleaner or the extractor shampoo will get rid of it...leaving a fresh clean scent...Zep cleaners are pretty powerfull.......



Al
 
thanks I will have to give this stuff a shot. Ive noticed the smell slowly dissipating. Today I had the citrus cleaner bottle out and placed it in my bed and realized it was leaking which is probably the reason why it smells like that. So now I will def. attack the carpets.
 
zep is great stuff, cheap to boot at only like $7 a gallon here at my local Home Depot. I picked up the high traffic cleaner and there heavy duty shampoo. I used the following on my parents "smoked out" 98 taurus.



HOT Water, oxyclean, ZEP High Traffic with 4 oz of APC and a UDM with the carpet brush attachment and well it came clean....good luck though smoke is very hard to get out
 
Sunshine is your friend when attempting to clean out odors.



If you do not need to drive the vehicle, remove the headliner, seats, and any fabric and let them sit in the sunlight for a few days. This in itself has a deodorizing effect.



Or you can rent an ozone machine and let that kill off any smells inside the vehicle.
 
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