removing gas smell

G

glen e

Retired Geezer
I have become the neighborhood answer man on detailing cars now...yippie...

went to help detail a Oddyssey and the idiot has destroyed the car carrying boat gas cans in the trunk and soaking the trunk liner with gas spill. Assuming it is just in the liner, and I can take it out, what's the best way to rid the smell? - it's that cheap mouse skin and not real rug...

I assume dawn and air dry? anything else I can do?
 
Lots of heavy cleaning is in order, or you might have to replace it, some odors just don't want to come out.
 
I would suggest pulling and then a good soaking. A extractor will work well. If not garden hose, power washer and shop vac to get most. When you put back in trunk put in 2 baking soda flow through boxes. They will help eliminate any residule odour. Good luck
 
In most all cases like these the padding is the culprit not the carpet as much. Pull the whole thing out and clean the metal base using APC real well. For the carpet I would use a detergent or citrus APC mixed in hot water. Wet the carpet with a hose, then scrub the carpet with a soft plastic brush, rinse with water and shop-vac real well and let dry in the sun. Check to see if its lifted the smell, as stated above sometimes the smell will not leave the carpet.

The padding is another story the gas smell MIGHT evaporate off, depends on how much gas was leaked into it and over what time. That said it might need replacement. If its just the back of the car, check a carpet store for a remnant, its what I've done with good results.
 
In my experiences with odors in vehicles, I always try to find the source if the odor and eliminate it there and work backwards to get everything the substance went through to end up at the bottom or source.

As has been already stated correctly, a really good cleaning making sure you are getting everything cleaned, and dried, and then what I like to do to insure its going to be gone is to use the Meguiars Odor Eliminator for cars, trucks, and home spray product. Just follow the bottle directions. Sometimes a 2nd spray after the 1st has dried helps too.
Anything that Sanitizes like Steam will always work better at killing those little microbes of the substance that smells.
I just finished a Detail of a 2006 Ford F150 SuperCrew XLT that had perhaps 2-3 lbs. or more of Baking Soda all over the back seat carpeting because of a funky smell, and the baking soda did absolutely nothing to remove the smell at all.
Once I removed all that stuff and sprayed Meguiars APC+ and Steamed and Extracted all the carpets, sprayed the Meguiars Odor Eliminator (as insurance), the funky odor was gone.

Good luck with this, hope you have good weather to help you dry everything before you re-install it.

Dan F
 
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