MyBalt10

iTrader: (5)

I'm gonna be cleaning one of my friends cars probably on Wednesday. I was planning on washing, clay bar, polish, wax it. BUT, when it comes to her interior I'm lost. She smokes and its "nicotine stains" on the whole inside. How do I do a good job on this interior to get the nicotine and nicotine smell out of the car?

denlou

steam cleaner? lol

2.2balt

You wont get the smell out so don't even bother.

Use some good all purpose cleaner on a cloth for the headliner, as above the driver will probably be awful if she is a bad smoker. Do the whole thing though for good measure. The rest of the stuff is the same. Windows will take a few tries as you get the film off of them. The trim will be covered in dirt on the driver side. Check the signal and wiper stalks really well for dirt and nicotine stains. Use a good conditioner on the trim if you want.

68nova200

iTrader: (2)

I have heard a plate of vanilla extract under the seat gets rid of the smell. I have never tried it, but my uncle says it works wonders. If you try it let me know if it works.

LDouce90

I just leave my gum in the car and whenever I drive again it smells like that. Of course, I don't notice the smoke smell on myself anyways, so that might be biased.

cmatthewb101

iTrader: (4)

Can of coffee grinds will help with smell.

proZak

when i was 18 i worked at a car dealership and the used car manager did that to a cavalier that had a heavy nicotine smell, the coffe grounds made it stink even worse

he had to call a company out and the put special fogging machines in the car the clean out the smell

so imo I would skip this step

people that smoke have a hard time smelling anyways

zerosk8ter83

iTrader: (3)

dont bother unless shes gonna quit smoking.other then that just drive with the windows down

Billy Baldone

put some bounce dryer sheets on the floor in the back for a cfew days.It does wonders.

arkkornkid

the smell in the seats/carpet is bad enough, but manageable, think Febreeze.... it's the crap that's built up in the heat/ac system that's nearly impossible to get rid of.

remove the cabin filter, turn it to recirculate and turn the fan on high... spray OZIUM in there and let it run with the windows up. Come back after a few minutes and spray more in there, after a few times it'll be much better. Then replace that filter..... PS, OZIUM is very strong- try not to inhale too much during this.

All that will help to get the stink out of the cloth as well. The best air freshener is a Bounce dryer sheet under the seat, they last about a month at a time.... on warm days or when you turn the heat on it'll smell good

blackICEbomb

i am a professional detailer at our local chevy dealer for a living...and really the only way to completely get rid of the smell is to run an IONIZER machine in the car for at least 24 hours with the car running and the heat on and the window cracked just a bit. otherwise all that different air fresheners or advertised odor killers do is mask the scent for a while but then its back...

cranemaster

Shampoo x 3. Should work and make the car seem brand new.

ssblackstealth

iTrader: (8)

no way to lol

smoking = death for interior

4dr-RS

Well i smoke (not heavily though) and i vacuum my headliner then scrub it down with this **** called "Tuff Stuff" works like a charm and it doesnt smell like weed in my car anymore o i mean um cigarettes lol jk bout the weed :p

b00sted06ss

iTrader: (10)

this is what i would do if i were you.

cranemaster

I smoked every day for 3 years in my civic, I spent about 35 hours detailing it before I sold it. I sold it to someone with smoke allergies who specifically needed a car that was never smoked in. So yes shampooing works flawless, anyone who says otherwise is lazy, or sucks ass at detailing. Or both.. or doesn’t have a decent rug shampooer.

Grishbok

This is a tedious task. The Ionizer trick mentioned above will work, as long as the smoke hasnt beocme embedded in the interior cabin filter as well.

There is a special product made by 1Nzeitte that will clean mold/bacteria/fungus etc out of the ac and cabin filters but it makes more sense to just replace it with a fresh one. Once you know thats done, youll know you have fresh air coming in, Then run the ionizer. Once youve done that, you will need to deeply clean the fabric on the seats, The cigarette smoke actually adheres itself to the fabric so, what you will accomplish here is not nescessarily removing the tar/contaminents, but disinfecting them and killing the bacteria/mold that grows on it. A good steam cleaner will do this, followed by a shampoo will leave it in great shape for a while. But smoking in the car permanately destroys the fabric.

MyBalt10

iTrader: (5)

I don't even know how bad it is. I'll see in the morning.

Pip

Pretty curious how this went for you... Updates?

Hodz

iTrader: (8)

Try ozium. Original doesnt smell the greast so maybe another scent might be a better choice. I used it on my car and it worked very well. Make sure you spray it into the air vents and run the a/c on high.

MastaShaKe_88

iTrader: (5)

Yea I wanna know wat happened/watd you use. These all sound like good ideas... but like good ideas I'd tell people and never actually do lol jus seems like overkill with some of em

I smoke in my car, not much but I jus vaccum, air freshener, an regular **** an people are always tellin me how 'nice' it smells in there so.. eh..

Grishbok

well, theres doing the job, theres half-assing the job, and then theres people that know me and pay me to do the job and get it done right. I detail as a side job, word of mouth only, by appointment only. I am not at all cheap, but there is not shop at all in the entirety of my area that is as thorough, as professional, or as good as the work i produce. Each car i detail is a god damn work of art when it rolls out of the garage.

MastaShaKe_88

iTrader: (5)

You sir... jus got a customer..
I should be in vA in a few months, I wanna set somethin up

You do outside and in? and what kinda stuff do you do?

MyBalt10

iTrader: (5)

Job went pretty damn good. I did not get any pictures of the vehicle.
It was the dirtiest car I've ever cleaned. To my surprise, the nicotine was not bad at all. No where near what I thought.

First, I vacuumed the hell out of the thing. Took me about an hour and a half to finish that up. Got the trash, lip stick, lip gel stuff that had spilled out in the cup holder etc. etc. out. Looked like she took it to the beach one summer cause sand was in the trunk, "embedded like" in the carpet, seat cracks. Her interior was black. Other than the dirt and stuff, her carpet seemed to be in pretty good condition stain wise. She had these walmart mats that got the stains.

Her plastics, steering wheel, windows and stuff had some nicotine on them. I used this ICE product. It was a liquid gel stuff. You use a cloth with it and just rub it on all the plastics, buttons (little sections at a time) and just wipe it off with a dry cloth. I use microfiber cloths with this stuff. It did a pretty good job at getting the plastics clean. Although I did have to scrub kinda hard. They went from a dirty, chalky black to a black that the black plastic is supposed to look. This car is 8, 9 years old I guess. For the **** on the windows, I used Invisible glass in the can on them. Used a lint free cloth, not microfiber. I will look for the name of it. You can't buy it in stores and I highly recommend it for cleaning any windows and clear plastic. Windows were excellent. I can't stand a dirty window. When I first picked up her car, I thought it was foggy out it was so bad.

The outside was bad too. She had bugs on the front of her car. I used every kind of product I had (that was safe for paint of course) to get bugs off the front. I used clay bar, a couple different polishes, waxes, wd-40, bug and tar remover. Nothing worked. What could I use??? Gave up on that so I did your typical wash and dry, but just washed it an extra time to make sure it was all good cause it was really bad. Cleaned inside the door jambs. Did the whole 9 yards.

I get the car back to her, she was in shock it was so damn clean and smooth. She was excited as hell. She was so happy she gave me an extra 20 dollars. Next day she tells me her husband wants his truck cleaned, and two of her friends wants there cars cleaned. So I think I'm starting to get a little side job going on with detailing cars. I like to detail cars so I'm happy I'm getting this little business going. I believe this is everything.

EDIT: O, and also used this stuff called black magic. You put it on all the black plastics, rubbers around windows and stuff, that have faded from the sun. It brings the black back into them. And soap to wash car I use meguiars. It's new. Like 10 dollars. It's yellow and smells great

Pip

Very nice man. Glad it went well. Sounds fun, I always enjoy detailing my car. Thanks for the update
Before and after shots next time! :P