Rained in car, smells like wet dog.

[billoftt]

Okay guys, situation: For some reason, yesterday at work I was stuck in a windowless building for nine hours not realizing that 5 inches of rain wall falling out of the sky. Sure enough, I had all four windows on my Impala cracked just s teensy bit. But, that was just a teensy bit enough to get my car all wet inside, mostly on the floor and door panel with just a smidge on the outer inch or two on the seats.

I have it dry, but now my car smells like a wet dog that crawled out of a dumpster.

The tools I have:

A 5hp Wet Dry vac
Meguiars™ Odor Eliminator
Various nylon brushes

How do you guys think about cleaning it up? Any specific cleaners or chemicals you have had luck with before?

[Underdawg736]

Re: Rained in car, smells like wet dog.

Odor Eliminator (both versions) should do the trick, it's great for musky, old dog, and mildewy smells.

A few weeks back I left my passenger window open and we got hit by a pretty nasty thunderstorm that parked itself over my area for several hours. Needless to say we had about 4 inches dumped on us. So after work I got to my car and realized what I did......4 inches of standing water on the passenger side floorboard!!!! Drove to the car wash and vacuumed the snot out of the passenger side, afterwards I followed up with some of the old Odor Eliminator and I haven't had a problem since.

You could also grab some upholstery cleaner to use if the Odor Eliminator doesn't work out for you.

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Rained in car, smells like wet dog.

I would also like to add this. First I would use a carpet and upholstery cleaner, then go with the odor eliminator.

You want to make sure you remove all traces of water from the foam cushions. Eliminate any chance of mold cultivating in the future.