I need some real help here...got mold in my interior....

[mfp4073]

The car is stored in a garage. Best as I can figure during the hurricane I had my trash can in the garage for several days. It looks like the mold may have come from that as there was a jacket hanging nearby that was covered. What can I do to treat the car? Is there a "mold bomb" like there is for bugs? Do I have to gut my entire interior? This sucks...... its the grayish surface mold that is just a little fuzzy looking. Got it even in my trunk. Am testing a bathroom cleaner (mildow stain kind) to see if it harms the fabric and such.

 

[dodgestang]

Dude that sucks....you'll never get rid off it...at least I never have been able too...its going to be all in the seat foams and stuff and start to smell.

I would start by taking everything out of the car and cleaning it with something with bleach (but not STRAIGHT BLEACH for obvious reasons) and then leaving it in HOT sun for an entire day (rotate it around so the hot hits all the spots). I would even go so far as to take the covers off the seats and clean them seperate from the frames....but I might be getting anal

 

[Cdaniel]

That sucks! Be careful the EPA doesn't condem your car! If you could get it to Arizona for week before summer ends I'd bet youo could kill it. Otherwise I'd say total disassembly is the best solution.

 

[Ozsum2]

Lysol kills mold and fungus.

 

[mfp4073]

I am down in the rain soaked south....we get rain every day and even when its not raining its damn near humid enough for hydroponics. Lysol seems like the only real solution at this point. either that or a BIG oven.

 

[2nd Mustang]

My parents live in a very wet part of Hawaii, on the Big Island. Every so often, they have to spary a bleach mixture of water and bleach on the house to get rid of mold. Good luck.

 

[mfp4073]

Ok, heres my solution. I experimented yesterday with clorox "clean up" cleaner with bleach. In both my rear speaker boxes and nylon carpet I have in the trunk I got no bleaching. I figured that there are a lot of places that I cannot get to. So I did this. Pulled rear seat, seatbelts, mats (threw out), package tray (custom made, threw out), everything out of the trunk and back seat. I then used the clorox on any of the metal and viynal surfaces I could get to. total trunk, hosed seats (wiped them down), windows, metal rear side panels, etc. The I hosed the hell out of it with lysol. There are no warnings with the lysol to be combined with bleach products. I also got "oust", a small battery powered fan unit that claims to kill odor causing bacteria. Dont know it it will work, but it is battery powered and will keep the air moving. I then hosed the inside of the car again with lysol and closed it up. I am hoping to fumigate the car with it. Will hit it again before heading to work. I took the seatbelts (shelby style with rear "H" harness restraints) and put them in a bucket with just the leather portion out of the water then added the clorox to it. Figure to let it soak a couple of days. I was going to use a small amount of straight bleach, but was afraid of weakening the restraints. Going to wipe it all down tomorrow and let the car air out. Then going to put several buckets of damp-rid in there to try to suck the moisture out. Its almost impossible to keep anything moisture free down here this time of the year unless you climate control it 24/7.

I guess only time will tell if it works. What a mess.......

 

[mfp4073]

Ok, so update. As a whole no damage to the interior from my fumigation choices except an area on one of the doors. The laquor paint on the door did not seem to like the lysol I think. Kinda hazed over. But only in one place. Wiped it down a lot with water today and then opened the car up with a box fan blowing for like 2 hours. Closed the car back up with 2 canisters of damp rid. If nothing else it has not smelled this clean in a very long time I dont know if it was enough to kill it. Guess time will tell.

 

[one2gamble]

if your going to store the car put this stuff called dryout inside it and seal it up. Make sure you put it in a pot or something because it sucks up all the moisture.

 

[mfp4073]

Got an update for yall. I was not sucessful...it would come back here and there in interiour. Just kinda controling it rather than ridding it. Was on my list to have it professionally cleaned. But recently, I had my car out of my garage for several weeks while working on another project. Afterward it seemed like the mold was not there like it was before (I have been using damp rid to control humidity levels and try to control the mold/fuzz). I am figuring that the heat of the florida sun had done something that I could not, it had killed off the mold. I am now kinda "baiting" the car to see if I can get it to grow and confirm the actual sucess.

Just thought I would update....it has been a nightmare......

 

[cougar694u]

Got an update for yall. I was not sucessful...it would come back here and there in interiour. Just kinda controling it rather than ridding it. Was on my list to have it professionally cleaned. But recently, I had my car out of my garage for several weeks while working on another project. Afterward it seemed like the mold was not there like it was before (I have been using damp rid to control humidity levels and try to control the mold/fuzz). I am figuring that the heat of the florida sun had done something that I could not, it had killed off the mold. I am now kinda "baiting" the car to see if I can get it to grow and confirm the actual sucess.

Just thought I would update....it has been a nightmare......

I lived south of Houston across from a swampy state park and my car developed mold while living there. It rained daily like you said and there was always standing water.

I tried the lysol, bleach water, etc, and it helped, but wouldn't get rid of it. I moved to San Antonio, which has way less humidity, and peaks a few degrees hotter and the mold hasn't been back. I didn't know about damp rid, so I'll have to look into that one.

 

[Pakrat]

I don't know how I missed this thread originally almost a year ago now, but I'm glad you updated it. For what it's worth when I got my car years ago I had a serious mold issue on my seat belts that fortunately hadn't spread yet. I believe they had gotten contaminated off the car and the PO just didn't clean them well before putting them back when selling. Anyway, I used a product called Zimocat or Zymo cat, something like that. Going on 5 years now with no sign of return. I even used it 2 seasons ago on the north side of my house and fences and they not only cleaned up great but are still clean with no new mold. I only seem to see their deoderizer product in stores from time to time but if you specifically look for their mold or mildem remover I'm sure you can find it. Wasn't as cheap as lysol or bleach but it was a one time cleaner too, so far anyway.

 

[grego37]

use deionized alcohol in a spray bottle,
get the car out in the sun for a while.

 

[mfp4073]

use deionized alcohol in a spray bottle,
get the car out in the sun for a while.

The problem is that you cannot get any "spray on" type stuff anywhere but the main surfaces. Cars have soooo many nooks and crannies for the stuff to hide and it only takes one spore to survive. I am really hope this did it..

 

[68rustang]

We had a VW rabbit convertible that years ago was involved in a major rainstorm and the top had a leak. It was my sister's car and she was out of town for two weeks. Needless to say when she returned her car was a little funky.

Anyway she called around and found a shop that cleans these kinds of things and basically what they did was scrub all the surface stuff they could. Then they said they pump the car full of oxygen, I don't know if it was one of those bubble storage things or just a tank and hose into the interior but the car was never moldy again. We finally sold it 2 years ago at least 4 years after the initial soaking. No mold.

 

[Bill Cool]

Any updated thoughts here? Just pulled my 87 out of five years of storage (Quonset hut-type garage - dirt floor, definitely subjected to New England weather), and the interior has seen better days. Almost fuzzy green/white tinge to the steering wheel, center console, and center armrest... I'm afraid of what's in my once-new seats and carpet...

 

[70vert]

Since heat kills mold, and I've done this before to successfully kill bedbugs in my upstairs tenants' unit, if you have propane forced air heaters or don't mind spending close to $100 on one, you could always heat the entire garage to over 100 degrees for an extended period of time - but I don't know what time it would take at over 100 degrees to kill it. You could then simply clean off the dead mold. Might help to kill any mold that's in the structure as well. Do this every once in a while - get it hot and dry - and mold would have a hard time recurring.

Gasoline doesn't autoignite until over 500 degrees fahrenheit, so you're probably OK there, but I don't know about gasoline vapor. I imagine that since no one's car has ever spontaneously combusted due to ambient air temperature igniting gasoline vapor in the hottest desert conditions that you'd probably be fine.

 

[fvike]

Gasoline doesn't autoignite until over 500 degrees fahrenheit, so you're probably OK there, but I don't know about gasoline vapor. I imagine that since no one's car has ever spontaneously combusted due to ambient air temperature igniting gasoline vapor in the hottest desert conditions that you'd probably be fine.

Whoa there! IIRC, gasoline vapor can burn at -40 degrees. and it can ignite at room temperature. That is why you can't smoke at the fuel pump! It will not self-ignite before 752 degrees Fahrenheit, but be careful around gasoline. The vapor is heavier than air, and will sink to the ground. A spark, or even a static energy spark will get you in trouble.

 

[fvike]

About mold, try putting any interior pieces you can fit into the freezer. That should kill the mold.

 

[70vert]

I know this is OT, but what's the autoignition point of gas vapor?

not to hijack, but for safety reasons - I'm sure it varies with different concentrations of vapor in the atmosphere - but has anyone ever seen a range of autoignition temps for gasoline vapor? I'm curious.

The lit cigarette thing has to do with the tip - I actually looked that up before posting - and it's anywhere from the high 400s to low 500s at the lit end of the cigarette.

A propane forced air heater does have a spark and gets pretty hot inside, so you would at the very least want to ventilate the place well before starting to heat up the garage, maybe by opening the garage door and turning on a regular fan to disperse any gasoline vapor.

If you placed the heater OUTSIDE and used mylar ducting to direct the air in, that might be able to get the ambient temps up above 100 inside for a period of time. You'd want to keep checking it. Just make sure there is enough fresh air flow into the building - leave the garage door open a bit, or a window at least partially open.