Mold

[callmethewander]

I just went into my '89 which I had laid up several months ago and the steering wheel was covered with mold and there were some other mold spots on the seats and dash! What should I do?

[rufrob]

speed above 100mph will blow it off.


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[northern_aqs]

Clean it with TSP (tri-sodium phosphate).

[callmethewander]

haha thanks once it's running I will do the 100mph blowoff, but in the mean time TSP, Thanks

[Eric 951]

white vinegar

See below

[bpu699]

Goto home depot, get some concorbium. Its a mold killer with residual action, keeps it from coming back. I haven't used it on leather, but works great on everything else...

I left my car parked in a humid garage and got some mold on the door cards and steering wheel (Not as much as you!!!). Wiped it down with some bleach type wipe (didn't have concorbium at the time), and haven't seen it come back in 5 years...

Run a dehumidifier now .

[Bukowski]

Killing mold or fungus is all well and good

However

Try water and a rag/ towel first. Next, ArmorAll will work. Bleach, acids, fire etc. are not going to be nice to what's underneath the offending life forms.

Lastly, consider that life as we know it needs, among other things, water. A dehumidifier will help. Go ahead, ask me how I know.... on second thought, don't.

[mhariush]

Might be worth taking the door cards off and apply the stuff on the back. The cardboard rear might have been afflicted as well...

[FrenchToast]

Originally Posted by mhariush

Might be worth taking the door cards off and apply the stuff on the back. The cardboard rear might have been afflicted as well...

Could have spread under the carpet as well..

[djnolan]

Here is what I would do. I would park the car in the sun with the windows and sunroof closed. Put a flat pan with a quarter cup of ammonia in the car and let it bake. This should kill the mold. Once that's done leave the car in the Sun for another couple of days with the sunroof cracked and let all of the moisture in the car dry out. Once the car is dried out you can go in with a vacuum cleaner brush attachment and vacuum out all of them black spots they should be nice and dry and should come right out by then. You should check your sunroof drains if you pour a small amount of water into the channel around the sunroof it should drain out on the bottom of the car somewhere.

[Bukowski]

djnolan - that's an interesting idea. Ammonia will leave.

About the door cards : they are made of Fibrit - which is an obsolete material AFAIK. I think it's wood pulp. My card of the P side had fungus that formed a film, almost no separable from the door. The card was close to pulverized already. Then came along a can of PlastiDip after a trip to the home center. I just slathered it all on top of the mold, etc. the solvent ought to at least hurt the life forms, and I would imagine the final plastic coating would suffocate them. They might extend to the opposite face, but 1. This is a cheap fix 2. That face is in the door = exterior. 3. Next time while you're in there blast it with some plastidip. I did this a while ago, it's holding up well. No guarantees about fire codes etc. I am not a shill for plastidip!
New cards are ~$100.00 I think....
HTH.

[djnolan]

Ammonia fumes will kill the mold and that will penetrate everywhere. Just don't get in the car and breathe it. Another trick is to spray Lysol disinfectant into the air intake for the AC heater system while the blower is running on high speed. That will kill mold in your AC heater system . Again don't breathe it.

PS. I heard about this method on car talk so I know it works.

Your girlfriend will really like it since it deodorizes the car to.

[Bukowski]

I was going to say it sounds like something from Car Talk

... I think it might need a long time to work... Isopropyl alcohol is flammable, but I mean get try that too... carefully

[dgcantrell]

Excellent idea on the ammonia thing. I'll be doing that to the 88S I'm working on at the moment. It has a bit of a musty smell from a little water egress from the small hole under the battery tray. I've since temporarily sealed that up with silicone but will be doing a more permanent repair on that at some point in the future.

[djnolan]

The Lysol in the vents is a pretty standard detailing trick, but the ammonia fumigation is a little extreme.

The first post above didn't provide any pictures or info on how wet the car was. But first thing I would do is figure out how wet the car really is, remove the floormats, and let it dry out in the sun and go from there. Then figure out how the water got in there and fix the source of the problem.

[dgcantrell]

My 928 that I've had in storage inside at my Dad's old shop will need a "Fumigation" treatment.

[Bukowski]

Another thought :

Ammonia, isopropanol, etc. are easily cooked off. The key though, is to "cook off" their reaction products - which are not simple compounds like ammonia, isopropanol, etc....


Perhaps a very large sauna?