[updated:LAST EDITED ON 15-Aug-02 AT 11:18 AM (EST)]I just purchased a seat for my truck from a local junk yard. The last driver obviously smoked. I am looking for recommendations on cleaning these seats and getting rid of the odor.

Thanks

 

Fabreeze worked for me.






Wiz

An Equal Opportunity Truck Lover!

http://www.clubfte.com/users/thewiz427/index.html

 

>I just purchased a seat for my truck from a local junk yard.
> The last driver obviously smoked. I am looking for
>recommendations on cleaning these seats and getting rid of
>the odor.
>
>Thanks


Here's what I did - I bought a 99 Expy, and for the first 40K miles, the owner smoked cigarettes with the windows closed (blech...) Anyhow, the carpet cleaners came to my house, and I had them go through and clean my truck when they were through with the house. You can rent those carpet shampooers from Home Depot, too. Anyhow, keep cleaning it, use Febreeze (that stuff is amazing) and the smell will go away. The key is cleaning it - get all that crap outta there. You can also sprinkle baking soda all over it, and vacuum it up later. I heard that does wonders.

XXL

 

If you have not installed your seat yet. take it to the car wash . the pressure and warm water works great. if it is a late model seat i like to use simple green . lather it up and rinse until your rinse water is clear not muddy looking then hang the seat up to dry for a couple of days. you will then have a clean smelling and very new looking seat. used this many times in a body shop rebuilding cars
in wrecked cars there is sometimes very stange stains in the seats

 

I recently quit smoking after 9 years. after 3 days, I didn't crave cigarettes, but the habit is harder to break, especially when driving. The waft of warm cigarette smell eminating from my vehicle when I first open the door in the morning didn't help.

First, I cleaned it thoroughly inside. I used Prestone's carpet cleaner, the red can with the brush. If you can find RAM, it is one hell of a carpet cleaner, but you have to deal with a chemical smell for a few days.

Next, febreezed the ****** out of the interior. That left a musty smell that I'm not particular to, although there's a guy at my job with a febreeze fetish who might have enjoyed it. I'm in New York, I see it all.

When it dried up, I hit it with a spritz of Ozium Original. This is great stuff, potheads buy huge cans of it for their apartments, go to any bong shop and you'll see an entire wall of bongs, then an entire wall of febreeze. Some pothead sprayed it in his car, the rest is history, it's in every car wash and auto parts store, and he's a rich pothead now with fields of weed.

The HVAC ducts are probably the hardest part. I tried this AC deodorizer which squirts, but it sucked. It kinda works, but not well enough for me.

Odors seem to linger in the vents more than anywhere. One day, someone whizzed next to my car while it was parked for the night, I had to exhale cigar smoke into the intake to get rid of that smell. I attack HVAC odors from inside and out. I spray half a can of Ozium into the external HVAC Intake while the AC is on outside air / full blast. Then I turn the heater on full blast and do the same again. Next I sprayed another half can into the vehicle while the windows were closed and left it for the night. By the way, don't inhale this stuff.

Car smells clean. Best part is, if I sneak a pull, or one of my buddies smoke, a spray of ozium into the AC intake clears it up and my girl doesn't know.

 

Air Intake, on a 1998 is that the oval things on top of the dash on either side?

 

When I got my Truck in Feb, the owner laughed to me about how much they smoked and yes it reaked.
I heard Febreeze is good, but never tried it.
The (SLOW) but simple thing to do is leaving the windows cracked slightly when parked for cross ventilation,,,,I have always done this any........it took about 4 to 5 months before the smell totally went away.

 

Clean the headliner as well. It is an odor sponge and is the piece of upholstery closest to your nose.

 

one thing that has worked wonders in my truck has been drier sheets. put a couple of yer fav smellin ones under the seat and park it in the sun for as long as you can. the heat will activate it and it smells drier fresh. just my two cents,

mike