Mothball and Urine odor

[hellerc]

I recently purchased a 60 Thunderbird that at one time was infested with mice. A previous owner had used mothballs to prevent their return or to mask the mouse urine odor. I've vacuumed and aired things out both in sunshine and overnite, but it doesn't seem to reduce or eliminate the odor. The offending areas are the back seat cushion (huge nest underneath w/carcasses), carpet/underseat with mothball odor; and the sound deadener above the headliner withm urine odor.

I've tried Natures Miracle on the seat but the odor remains strong as ever after 2 applications. Baking soda on this area seems to have more effect in reducing the smell, but it still lingers. I've parked the car in the sun and overnite with windows open/closed but no relief.

Does anyone have a product they have used that ACTUALLY WORKS? There are many products that claim to work and I'm sure many thoughts on what will work, but I'm looking for someone with a similar experience and a solution.

This is a nice car and I'm not ready to remove the headliner, carpet, or seat cushions.

Thanks,

Carl

[oldford]

My folks have been in the trimming business since my Father ran it (many years) and we've found that once that smell gets into the cloth, you must replace it. One thing that we used to do for burned cars was to use an ozone generator. We would run it over night and the smell was gone and would not return. But, and it's a big but.... you must remove the source of the smell, in your case, the urine soaked cloth. Find a trim shop in your area and see if they fix smoke damage. Maybe some of the fire clean-up companies can help you.

Frank

[TexRiv_63]

Carl,

I'm afraid you will need to remove all the seats, carpet and headliner and thoroughly clean everything to make sure all traces of mouse debris are gone. Wear gloves and a good mask when doing this, that stuff can carry disease. I would check with a professional cleaning / restoration company like Frank said, it may be possible to clean and deodorize the original items and reinstall but there still may be some odor under certain conditions. I have had good results with the auto-specific Febreeze on smoke odors but I have never tried it on something like you have. Good luck!

[unimogjohn]

A couple of people told me that this worked for them. I have never used it. So it is just a suggestion. I have no financial interest with this firm or product.

biozyme urine odor remover

[Guest Earl]

Baking soda will kill that smell in pianos. It may take awhile though.

And the recipe below will work on skunk spray, so it will probably work on the mouse smell as well. That will kill the smell instantly, and it does work on dogs as well.

Skunk Smell Remover

1 quart 3% Hydrogen Peroxide

1/4 cup Baking Soda

2 tbsp Dish Detergent. The stuff for washing dishes in the sink, not something for dishwashers.

Mix the ingredients in a large bowl, because it will boil up like Vesuvius. We are, after all, making an oxygen generator. Wash the dog with this while it is still foaming, because it is the oxygen which reacts with the thiols in the skunk stink to neutralize the odor. If it sits around, it will loose it's efficacy because the oxygen boils off. Don't try to store it in an airtight container, because it will blow up. The brew also works for clothes, humans and unlucky cats.

[Bhigdog]

If you do end up reupholstering the seats it's important that the frames and springs be cleaned and then repainted.......................Bob