Moth Balls

[jmoffo]

In November I acquired a beautiful, original 1976 Cadillac Coupe DeVille that was MOTH-BALLED in a garage. The car is near perfect except for the smell that lingers inside. I have aired it out...I have placed containers of coffee grounds inside to absorb the HORRENDOUS smell, and am still getting that nauseating smell when I get inside. Now that the nice weather is upon us in NJ...what else can someone suggest I use to elliminate this nasty, old smell!!!

[Lydia]

Re: Moth Balls

I suggest you try Meguiar's Odor Eliminator. It's fairly inexpensive, so you might want two bottles, depending on how bad it is (isn't that a fairly big car?). You just spray it on all carpet and cloth anywhere.

Here's the link to it on Meguiar's website. You might be able to find it locally too. I've seen it at part stores and Home Depot.

http://www.meguiars.com/?car-odor-elimination/Car-Odor-Eliminator

[jmoffo]

Re: Moth Balls

Someone else suggested it. I know moth ball smell is one of the HARDEST to remove. UGH! The car is ABSOLUTLEY gorgeous (If you love Caddys from the 70's) but that smell even sticks to your clothes when you ride in her! I will see if it works. YES, the car is BIG!

[Coupe]

Re: Moth Balls

Try baking soda. Buy a few boxes of it and open them up and set them on the floor, front and rear. Leave the windows up for a few days. It might work.

[Lydia]

Re: Moth Balls

I bet she's an awesome car! I like the old Caddys.

If the odor eliminator from Meg's doesn't work, I was going to suggest what Coupe said. Hopefully the odor eliminator will work, though. Like you said, the odor from mothballs is one of the hardest to remove. Good luck with it and let us know how well it worked!

[BlueZero]

Re: Moth Balls

You could always try an odor bomb if all else fails. Check out the Deodorizer section of autodetailingsolutions.com.

Good luck!

[jmoffo]

Re: Moth Balls

Will the odor bomb hurt the leather?

[BlueZero]

Re: Moth Balls

Will the odor bomb hurt the leather?

Not sure, never used one. I would call Rick from autodetailingsolutions.com, I bet he would know.

[maxintegra]

Re: Moth Balls

Just from what you are saying, it sounds like the whoever had the car before had those mothballs in there all the time. That being said, I am sure the odor has worked its way into the fibers and all. I don't think that leather absorbs smells, so the leather should be fine. Just wipe the leather down with a damp towel and then treat it with Meguiar's leather cleaner/conditioner. It the trigger bottle of it because I keep reading about people not liking the aerosol version. In terms of the carpet, try the Meguiar's odor eliminator, I use it and I love the results. It does a great job but it might not be enough for your car. Try using it, spray it over all the carpeted surfaces, let it settle for 20-30 minutes, then vacuum thoroughly. If that doesn't work, I think that you might need to get the interior shampooed. Also, don't forget about addressing the headliner in some fashion, because I am sure the odor has reached there also. Hopefully something I suggested will do the trick, but if not, atleast everything will be clean Good Luck!

[Lydia]

Re: Moth Balls

Oh one other thing I just thought of. If there's any kind of cabin air filter (I'm not sure if they had those on older cars) you should replace it also as it will hold on to the smell.

[jmoffo]

Re: Moth Balls

I do not believe the '76 had a cabin freshener...Maybe a filter in the AC ...

[perkoz]

Re: Moth Balls

forgive me my not perfect knowledge about the english language, could someone explain what is a moth ball?

[Murr1525]

Re: Moth Balls

It is a white crystal ball (or flake) that can be put in closets to repell moths, or in the yard to repel other critters sometimes. It is kind of toxic, and definately an annoying smell.

[Murr1525]

Re: Moth Balls

Incidently, a little google search turned up a site called care2.com, and they said leave stuff out in the sun, and another site says activated charcoal, available from pet stores.

[Daniel Kinder]

Re: Moth Balls

hi jmoffo! i had a problem like that not to long ago, but mine was kerosene spilled in the carpet. i finally give up on everyones ideals and thought about it and come up with this idea! took the carpet out and soaked with purple power mixed 50/50 and then pressure washed it, after that i layed the carpet over some saw horse and used a air hose to plow all the water out/off then used a big shop vac to **** the remaining water out. let it dry completely for a couple more days and kept spraying some febreeze every once in a while on the carpet. and i have a breeze AT air purifier with sanitizer by ecoQUEST and i left it in there for about 26 hours straight . used all purpose cleaner sprayed on a micro-fiber cloth and rubbed over the cloth, also used meguiars leather cleaners & conditioners over all the plastic trim and vinal seats. got lucky and the smell was about maybe 90% gone just keeped spraying febreeze and meguiars cleaners and theres no trace of kerozene smell no more. not saying to do all that but i think the air purifier and meguiars cleaners helped me out a lot. maybe something i did might give you some ideals.