I am looking at a set of really nice seats to buy that are covered with suede material for my fiddy Buick. Now for some ungodly reason, the owner of these seats had him in his garage, and it seems his two dogs had some really nice beds. I really want these seats, but before I purchase them I want to be confident there is some way to get the dog smell out of them without having to tear them apart and reupolster them. Hell, before I do that, I will just recover mine. Upfront thanks for any help!
You can mask the odor, but you cannot completely eliminate the smell without tearing into them, has been my experience. No matter what you do to the surface, the smell has no doubt creeped into the cotton, foam, or whatever was used to stuff them with. Good luck!
Natures Miracle; It's an enzamatic formula that actually eats the odor causing bacteria. Can get it at Tractor Supply and it works very well.
Smoke some cigars - nothing smells better than cigar smoke and leather (at least that's what my wife says) There is a product called Ozium that is supposed to destroy odors - I had some luck when de-funking an OLD mildew/mold smelling saxophone case - but since I couldn't really treat the mold/mildew directly (it was in the padding under the velour lining) it didn't help as much as I wanted it to. It may do a good job with the dog smell as that should only be on the surface and not into the padding? dv
I live in mold country and my Jeep Cherokee sat for about a year with the windows rolled up tight. Suffice it to say, it STANK! Standing mold stains on the seats and carpet, headliner, seats, you name it. I used a very mild bleach solution to wipe everything clean, steam cleaned the whole interior, and febreezed the crap out of it many times over two months or so. In the end the smell was completely gone! I'd give it a whirl, I'm willing to be the smell will dissipate rather quickly.
Just about any carpet store has chemical enzimes and also available at walmart that will get it out. There isone especially for dog odor and they work. After treatment the frbreeze will keep them nice
Don't laugh, but this worked for me with a truck that REEKED of cigarette smoke: Peel an apple, stick about a dozen whole cloves in it, roll it in fresh coffee grounds, and put in on the floor of the car on a piece of tin foil. Close the doors and let it sit a few days. You may have to repeat 3-4 times for really bad odors.
without extensive treatment to ALL the fabric and underlayers they will still stink at times....toss em QUICK!....just like rat piss....very hard to eliminate! especially in a short time...
1. what geemann said - stuff works well 2. real leather/suede? - after Ike I had to clean 2nd/3rd row seats [leather] from m'moms vehicle that got left behind. Saddle soap & hot water.....but then I sat them in the Tejas sun/100 deg weather to dry. 3. Fabreeze works ok, but doesn't eliminate. Only deadens...you have to keep applying,and I get sick of that smell too. 4. A furniture dry cleaning facility/recovery company [Service Master - Hobbs Rd. in League city] has equipment/chemicals available for such. ....hey, I still need to get by an d see what you have for heaters....and remind me to get your headliner bows back to ya. Didn't end up needin' them. thnx, Ed
pressure wash using lemon water/id try any of the above that the other guys suggested.what about diluted kitchen cleaners,duno what you guys have over the pond,id steam clean the basterdshappy christmas
Ex boss of mine that used to rebuild salvage cars used cut up apples to get the smoke smell out of cars that had interior fires. After changing the interior of course. The apples soak up the smell.
Here's another suggestion I just remembered. When we have funky smells in our car that we need to get rid of, we just leave an order of McDonalds french fries in it overnight with the windows rolled up. It cures EVERYTHING.... Mebbe you could seal up your seats with a couple of orders of fries and then give 'em the sniff test. Don't leave the bags or greasyness in contact with the suede though... dv
OK, this here is the out of the box suggestion. Admittedly it is not practical for most situations for reasons that will be obvious, but it worked. The problem was that I had a high end car with a very expensive 100% leather interior. The leather had gotten moldy. Everywhere; every nook and cranny. For those of you who have seen this type of interior, there is leather everywhere, on each little bit of interior. It was not the smell, there was little if any mold odor, but the appearance was awful. I had tried cleaning the mold off using conventional methods but (1) was an onerous job - even disassembling some items, it was impossible to get to everyplace and (2) the mold kept coming back!!! I called an anesthesiologist friend of mine and asked him for a couple cans of ethylene oxide. This is a gas that is used to cold sterilize items for surgery. (Most surgical instruments are sterilized in an autoclave, using steam at high temperatures. But there are some items, for example certain electrical leads, that cannot withstand heat. A means is needed to sterilize these items at lower temperatures.) He gave me two cylinders of the gas - they were basically the size of a large butane refill cylinder. I placed a cookie sheet on the floor, and quickly pierced each can with an awl, placed them on the sheet and shut the door. Yes, of course the windows were closed LOL. I left the car that way for a couple of days and then opened her up and let it vent. All the mold was dead. The remaining residue cleaned up easily. But since the little bastards were dead they did not reappear, and never did. This is an extreme example as ethylene oxide is not commonly available or something you should fool around with. But it did work - the inside of that car was 100% squeaky-clean sterile.
don' laugh but i've done this to several factory sets of cloth seats - saturn, vw, ford - take the seats & spray them down real good with simple green (soak them) let them sit for about 1 hour - crank up your pressure washer & adjust the spray to its widest pattern - start at the top of the seats & spray them down good (until you quit getting soap out of them) the seats will have to sit inside to dry out - it usually takes about 2 weeks for them to completely dry - doing this will clean the seats so well that you'll think they're not the same seats
My daily driver's former owner had a big dog so I know that smell. That cheesy butthole stink! I've hosed the interior with Febreze, dusted the whole thing with Carpet Fresh, wiped down the entire interior with Simple Green; nothing has worked so far. It gets worse in the heat. Jesus, couldn't she have given that damn dog a bath once in a while?
Your local GM dealership, parts dept, or your local auto detailer will be able to supply you with an odor neutralizer bomb that they use in used cars, to eliminate smoke odor, puke, etc. It's a spray can, and can be used either in short bursts, or as a total release. Put the seats in a extra large garbage/leaf bag, load the bag up with neutralizer, seal the bag and let sit for 2-3 days. When thats done take them out and air out in the sun for a day, and enjoy! Works great! (They even have some that will renew the leather smell)