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So hypothetically speaking, if one were to leave his 4th gen's drivers window open with a car cover on it for a year in the garage, and THIS happened:
How would he clean it up? Just hypothetically speaking...
So hypothetically speaking, if one were to leave his 4th gen's drivers window open with a car cover on it for a year in the garage, and THIS happened:
How would he clean it up? Just hypothetically speaking...
Damn, this looks really bad! It certainly looks like mold has taken over the interior although if you are lucky it is merely a matter of cleaning the surfaces. I can not comment on whether there is any mold growing on the inside of the dash, if you are lucky the mold didn't have enough time to grow inside the dash, and the console box may give you a hint as to whether you are running that risk or not. If you are on a budget I would be praying that you can get this car started and all the electrical associated with the interior, gauges and lighting and all, work without problems.
I would have this car taken to a quality automotive interior detailing business, not something like Delta Sonic or a place that doesn't have workers who specialize in these kinds of problems and cleaning. It will cost you more but that piece of mind knowing the job was done by people who know how to remove mold like this and get rid of it from your car is well worth it.
It is not the end of the world for your car, and I won't rip on you for this. I have done plenty of stupid things with my car when I was much younger but you need to screw up and make dumb mistakes in order to learn from them. The way I see it, it was supposed to happen, now I am much more wiser and my choices for buying parts for the car and what businesses I will trust all reflect the lessons I learned from my stupidity over the years. Don't beat yourself up, just bite the bullet, spend the money, and get her fixed up properly.
Gut the interior. Use a borax and water solution and spray/wipe/slather it on the plastics and let it sit for a few minutes. Then in a well ventilated area start using a nylon bristle brush and a wet vac and get everything cleaned up. Then a garden hose to rinse it all off. It may take multiple passes. The borax solution is safe to breathe and handle but don't put it in your mouth or eyes. It's basically old school laundry detergent. The ventilation is more to prevent you from breathing in the spores that the borax doesn't kill.
The seats will be a problem since the mold will be in the foam and you'll have to pull the covers to even get close to killing it all. I've heard of people saving moldy seats, but I've never seen it myself. The best I've personally seen looked like new but would give off a musty smell if you sat on them.
I'd recommend pulling the carpet and backing material as well as the headliner too. Even if they look ok there's no guarantee that the mold isn't on the back side of the material. Better to take it out and give it a good look instead of just assuming it's ok.
Some options, such as Simple Green, white vinegar, Lysol and various other cleaners which are generally safe for most interior components, won't kill every type of mold (this I have learned first hand). Bleach, ammonia (don't mix those two), etc. will almost always do the trick, but they are also prone to damaging interior surfaces when allowed to sit for long enough (and in strong enough concentration) to do the job.
My friend works for a company that removes mold in houses. He said the only thing that kills mold on contact is White Vinegar period. Lightly spray everything till its wet. Let sit for a couple minutes then use a floor scrubber with a hand attachment and mix some white vinegar into the scrubber for added mold cleaning. Wipe everything else down with a wet vinegar rag. You have to spray it down initially to keep it from going airborne. Wear a respirator at least till its sprayed down good. Bleach only kills some mold not all mold. Don't worry if the car smells like vinegar. Let it air out good and dry. Would be best if you could put it somewhere heated so it will dry out good. Put a fan blowing into the car to help dry it out as quick as possible. Use some Frebreeze to finish off any smell. Best of Luck.
My friend works for a company that removes mold in houses. He said the only thing that kills mold on contact is White Vinegar period.
I have discovered that this is definitely not the case, not with every strain of mold. I've recently tried white vinegar on a stubborn spot of mold that I mentioned in the other thread linked above - it didn't work (mold grew back). My application process was quite thorough and it was allowed to set until dry. This is a cold-growth type of mold, not particularly common I guess. I've now tried a second treatment, so we'll see what happens, but the first treatment had no real impact.
Bleach does a better job in my experience but, again, it's not going to be safe for every surface.
Go to home Depot and get this 20% cleaning vinegar. https://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-64-o...5031/204382105 Most grocery store vinegar is only 5%. I've used both on mold in windows and even between walls that had mold trouble, Killed it off every time. I had a bad water leak from ice dams one winter. Water ran inside one wall and down past a window to the floor. Real mess, we cleaned everything up asap but mold still grew inside the wall and you could easily smell it. Insurance agreed to pay to repair it but I got this crazy idea to pour a gallon of strong vinegar down the window sill and let it soak in good. It killed it all off and there is no mold smell. I also used it in a wall where a water pipe had sprung a leak and may have been wet for weeks or more. Quite a complete mess I didn't want to deal with, Mold was grown all over everything. I used strong vinegar to wipe everything I could down with a bucket and rags mop etc. Then sprayed everything down heavily with strong white vinegar. All the mold died off and no smell etc. If you had seen the damage you would have thought noway anything will help this mess but it worked great.
Go to home Depot and get this 20% cleaning vinegar. https://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-64-o...5031/204382105 Most grocery store vinegar is only 5%. I've used both on mold in windows and even between walls that had mold trouble, Killed it off every time. I had a bad water leak from ice dams one winter. Water ran inside one wall and down past a window to the floor. Real mess, we cleaned everything up asap but mold still grew inside the wall and you could easily smell it. Insurance agreed to pay to repair it but I got this crazy idea to pour a gallon of strong vinegar down the window sill and let it soak in good. It killed it all off and there is no mold smell. I also used it in a wall where a water pipe had sprung a leak and may have been wet for weeks or more. Quite a complete mess I didn't want to deal with, Mold was grown all over everything. I used strong vinegar to wipe everything I could down with a bucket and rags mop etc. Then sprayed everything down heavily with strong white vinegar. All the mold died off and no smell etc. If you had seen the damage you would have thought noway anything will help this mess but it worked great.
So I finally had a chance to check out the SDS sheet for the product linked above. On page 2, under section 3 (composition/information on ingredients), it states only 4-6%. So it doesn't look like this is really any stronger than the typical 4-5% that you can get in the grocery store.
Where did you see that it listed 20%? I haven't actually looked at a bottle yet, but the SDS sheet was contained within the same HD site link which showed the product:
I always keep a dehumidifier running in my shop where my cars are set at 50% humidity.It will definitely keep mold and mildew out.When I first built my shop it would grow mold on the walls.Sprayed everything that was molding with bleach and rinsed with a hose.Installed the dehumidifier and no mold since.I would clean every thing good and let it set in good hot sunlight.MOST mold cannot survive heat.Not saying all.But definitely invest in a dehumidifier after you get it cleaned up.I live in Georgia and the humidity gets awful here especially in the summer.
I'm sorry I quoted it wrong its: Regular white vinegar is 3- 5% acidity and cleaning vinegar is 6% acidity. The one percent actually makes it 20% stronger. Cleaning vinegar is not to be used for cooking. Its makes it quite stronger. Look carefully when you buy it most grocery stores carry 3% - 5%, I've only seen the cleaning vinegar 6% at places like Home Depot. There is a incredible difference between 3% and 5% and the 6% is down right nasty. The smell factor when you open the jug tells all.... lol
I live in a area of extremely hard water where the hot water heater actually fills with lime until it full. I can take a few gals of the stronger cleaning vinegar and completely dissolve that block of lime in about 4 hrs.
Another thing I've done is take white vinegar on a rag or pour it in a open container then let it sit in the car. Our formula had a moldy musky smell to it and I accidently left a spray bottle of 50/50 50% 5% vinegar 50% water with a few drops of dish detergent in the car. I use it to clean the windows it works awesome and always leaves the car smelling fresh. Well the spray bottle fell over and it all slowly leaked out over a few weeks. I started to smell a strong vinegar smell and found the bottle empty BUT it completely killed off the moldy musky smell and it never came back. I use it on everything from the kitchen bath anything you can think of. I've even sprayed all the carpeting then later vacuumed, place smells like new again. Its a mild acid that kills off just about anything.
I'm sorry I quoted it wrong its: Regular white vinegar is 3- 5% acidity and cleaning vinegar is 6% acidity. The one percent actually makes it 20% stronger. Cleaning vinegar is not to be used for cooking. Its makes it quite stronger. Look carefully when you buy it most grocery stores carry 3% - 5%, I've only seen the cleaning vinegar 6% at places like Home Depot. There is a incredible difference between 3% and 5% and the 6% is down right nasty. The smell factor when you open the jug tells all.... lol
It would be great if the 6% was guaranteed, but the SDS lists the contents as "4-6%", so you can't know for sure if every batch is consistently that strong. Or does the bottle itself specifically say 6%? I haven't made it to HD yet to check myself.
Of course, it's also possible that there are other ingredients in this solution that make it a more effective cleanser than regular white vinegar alone.
Originally Posted by RockinWs6
Another thing I've done is take white vinegar on a rag or pour it in a open container then let it sit in the car. Our formula had a moldy musky smell to it and I accidently left a spray bottle of 50/50 50% 5% vinegar 50% water with a few drops of dish detergent in the car. I use it to clean the windows it works awesome and always leaves the car smelling fresh. Well the spray bottle fell over and it all slowly leaked out over a few weeks. I started to smell a strong vinegar smell and found the bottle empty BUT it completely killed off the moldy musky smell and it never came back.
Interesting idea, using this to kill off musty smells in old cars. I'll keep this in mind for the future.
I know in the grocery stores it will state 3% etc. I'm not sure what it says on the cleaner vinegar I don't remember looking just went by what I was told. The difference between them doesn't sound like much 3% 5% 6% but its HUGE, an open container of 3% is mild, 5% is very very strong, 6% is nasty. If you are using 3% its may not do the job.
Another thing to consider some molds are very hard to kill off. I know the vinegar works on the black mold where I live, but where others live its going to be different types that may not kill easily.
Something else just popped into my mind about all this, my water is treated highly with Chlorine. Its a private well system that I personally think is over treated, It has a very strong smell to it. It may be the reason I have good luck killing off the mold. Maybe if you added just a very small touch of Chlorine bleach to the mix, I would add but a very small amount.
I know in the grocery stores it will state 3% etc. I'm not sure what it says on the cleaner vinegar I don't remember looking just went by what I was told. The difference between them doesn't sound like much 3% 5% 6% but its HUGE, an open container of 3% is mild, 5% is very very strong, 6% is nasty. If you are using 3% its may not do the job.
Another thing to consider some molds are very hard to kill off. I know the vinegar works on the black mold where I live, but where others live its going to be different types that may not kill easily.
Target sells 5% (as marked on the container) in their grocery section in my area, that's the one I bought and have been working with so far. It does smell very strong, but it didn't do the job after the first try. I've since applied it again and so far only a tiny portion of the mold has returned, but it's still not gone. I've used a very thorough application method with extended soak times. I want to monitor the growth for a bit before trying a 3rd time, just to see if there's any permanent improvement since the last application.
This is cold-growth only white mold. I don't know enough about mold to know exactly what strain this is, but it only seems to grow at temps around 34-45°F or so and is white in color.
Originally Posted by RockinWs6
Something else just popped into my mind about all this, my water is treated highly with Chlorine. Its a private well system that I personally think is over treated, It has a very strong smell to it. It may be the reason I have good luck killing off the mold. Maybe if you added just a very small touch of Chlorine bleach to the mix, I would add but a very small amount.
I've only tried the vinegar straight so far. I've previously used Lysol, rubbing alcohol, Simple Green, etc. All with no luck. I've been reluctant to try bleach due to potential damage (but I've had great luck with bleach in the past, on less sensitive surfaces), but perhaps a small touch of chlorine would help here. I've not yet tried ammonia either, but I definitely wouldn't want to mix that with any bleach...lol. Hydrogen peroxide has also been mentioned, but I would need to test this in a less visible spot first.
11-21-2018, 03:38 PM
So hypothetically speaking.... 
