I just bought a car, and the person before me must have smoked like a chimney. It reeks inside. I have already vacuumed the hell out of the entire car. I was wondering what kind of products/procedures I should use to make the car smell good. I don't want to simply use a spray to "mask" the smell. I want it gone. Any suggestions? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

start smoking yourself and adapt to the change

some people have had luck with removing interior and shampoo'in it, or spray it daily with fabreeze or whatever till the smell is gone...

washing the fabric would be the best, because that is where the smell is at...

 

Take it and have it detailed. Should run you anywhere from $50 to $150, depending on the shop. I am going to have it done to get the smell of exhaust out of my upholstery.

 

Detailing the car wont help, first sunny day the tobacco smell will return. My 83 had about 2" of cigarette ash on everything. The entire interior was vacuumed, the ashtray was removed to reveal more ashes inside the console. I also used some odor eliminator crap in a aerosol can. This was back before febreeze. Strangely the aerosol crap worked pretty well, when the car would sit out on a summer day it would smell like pipe tobacco (better than cig smoke anyday). When I changed the interior to black I was able to vacuum out the console and scrub it with soapy water. Between a couple of years driving with the windows down, an ex girlfriend accidently spilling the most hideously fowl smelling perfume in the console, and spraying the aerosol crap the interior smelled about normal. Clean everything, leave the windows down when you can, use a odor remover, and you should be fine. Also if you replace a couple interior pieces with new pieces from GM the new car smell will fill the car.

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Drew
83 Camaro 5.0L *1995-98*
87 Iroc 5.7L
91 Formula 5.7L 14.3@98mph
91 RS Convertible 5.0L
91 Firebird 3.1L 17.00@82mph *Gtech*
92 S10 2.8L
98 Grand Am GT 3100
Parts for sale

 

I know that u can use ozon gas to remove smells like that. Ozon are used to remove smell from dead bodies and it should be abel to remove smoke as well

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Z28 -87 TPI
white with T-roof
red interior with leather seats
Wagner Borg rear axel
all options
all stock
check Website for info.


www.musikhuset.org/~po/camaro

 

Or you could stop complaining about the smoke smell and take it like a man :P

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Karsten
86 IROC-ZZ4... too much to list.

 

Roll the windows down or have a leaky convertible when it rains. The mildew smell is stronger than the cig smell. Trust me I know .

 

put a couple bars of soap in under the seats.

a friend of mine smokes in his truck, but keeps a couple bars of soap (out of the box) under the seats. something in the soap "absorbs" smells.

dont ask me how it works, but his truck still smells brand new.

also, try one of those odor magnet things. it comes in a container that looks like a cream cheese container, but its got like a green sponge in it. they work ok too.

-brian

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1991 Camaro RS
GMPP 350 HO crate engine w/TBI
Homepage z28boy@twcny.rr.com AIM - "Z28 Boy"

 

"OZIUM" odor killer, can be found at trak auto or car parts store

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86 firebird 2.8
K&N replacement filter
modified air box
MSD ignitor
Hooker cat back
GNX style wheels

 

Take the console apart and clean it out, there is always alot of ashes inside of them. Shampoo everything, assuming you have cloth seats. You also might want to consider replacing the headliner, sun visors etc. I wouldn"t bother with the detail shop either.
Keep at it eventually it will go away.

 

I'm told the best deal is to go to a quality place that sells used cars (like a new car dealer) and ask them about it. If they referbish alot of used cars then they will have an ozone machine (expensive piece of equipment). I guess they put this thing in the car, leave it there overnight, and all odors are gone. Ask them if they can do this to your car (I'm sure they'll charge you something). Anyway ... this is what I was told.

 

I've heard of this high-end type device used on the BLT Icebox Fridge and Freezer Circuit..they call it "baking soda".

 

Remove the dash vents and clean behind them, I found a ton of soot back there. Thay could be holding some of the smell. My car smelt like cheap cologne when i first bought it, but replacing everything seemed to help. Hehe

 

I agree with 86Bird, Ozium is awesome if the smell isn't deeply embedded in everything. You may have to treat with it several times though, but it's worth a try before you spend big bucks getting it detailed. You can get it at Walmart or any parts store. If the smell is really bad though, take it to get it detailed and they can set off what they call a bomb in it and it will kill the odor.

 

First on, long time reader
Try using mothballs, they worked when I got my 87 Iroc previously owned by Larry the lunghacker.

 

LOL having worked in a large dealership there is nothing that our detail department used that would mask or remove cigarette odor. They can make the interior shiny and get stains out of fabric, but the car would still smell awfull.

 

Try Febreeze, I think they make it for cars too, if not just go to the chemical dept in Wal-Mart.

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2 Tickets to game= $250
Gas= $20
Sitting 20ft. from MJ= Priceless
'86 IROC T-TOPS, TINTED WINDOWS, BRAKE LIGHT BLACKOUTS
GM GOODWRENCH 350
EDELBROCK HEADERS Hooker CatBack
EDELBROCK 600CFM CARB.
KN AIRFILTER
ACCEL HEI DISTRIBUTOR
160* Stat, just switched to 180* b/c of winter coming and going to college in the mts.
3:73 Posi Rebuilt 700R4
B&M Megashifter, 5" Autometer Tach w/shift lite

 

Mine smells pretty good today. Okay, here's the run down. We got it, and my dad said he could smell cigarette smoke in it, but I couldn't. So I took his word for it, used one of those vaccum cleaner lookin run clears with it's extension and went over pretty much everything in the car except the headliner(It's T-Top, and even if it was coupe I don't think i'd try that... it's wore out anyway) Then it smelled like the shampoo cleaner stuff(which wasn't that bad). I finally remembered we had one of those lil spray bottles of cherry or sumthing from pepboys. I wip that out and read the instructions. It said something like 6 full sprays into the air in the middle of the car. I spray more along the lines of 10 into the air in the middle, 10 towards the back/rear, and like 5 or 6 in the driver and passenger foot area. Now it smells like cherry inside to me, and I still don't smell the cigarette.


Sooo, to make a long story short... I couldn't smell the cigarette smoke in the first place, ran a rug cleaner through it, and sprayed that smell stuff from a local car shop in it, and it smells pretty good now--even though I didn't smell cigarette smoke in the first place. Sorry for my babbling

 

Get fabric softner liek the kind u put in the dryer that looks like a sheet of paper and put that in your trunk also whipe the wole car with one too and it will smell like fabric softner and not cig smoke. I gotta quit smokin my car reeks of it.

 

I was gonna say baking soda works pretty well for absorbing odors, but somebody already said it. I don't see it a permanent fix, but it should work to some degree while you try to figure something out. A good scrub down or a slightly drastic air freshener will probably do wonders over time (more than one heavy dosage. The only reason a smell stays inside a car is because it gets onto and in the upholstry and stays there slowly emitting the noxious fumes. I say fight fire with water.

 

Febreeze works suprisingly well. While I was doing body work on my car, I had the weatherstripping removed, and it rained for like a week straight. It made the whole car smell like mold. I got the biggest freaking bottle of febreeze I could find, and soaked the interior with it (after the water all dried out of course). It worked great.

 

what i did in mine after i got it becuz i knew the guy smoked in it was , i went out and got like 2 of those air freashner tingers on a string that go around the rear view mirror. and after a while the smell went away untill when my mom drove it she smoked in it. but the ones i got were the new car smell ones and after a while it smelled like a new car excupt after it rained and i got that mildew smell from the ttops leakin but oh well.

 

i heard that charcoal briquets will take the smell of smoke out of a car.
-pat

 

My friend lit insence in hs car and left the windows closed over night smelt like insence and not cig smoke