Removing smoke smell

[93K5Blaze]

What have you guys tried that really worked for a long term solution? Other than removing the interior completely and starting over with fresh material?

[moogvo]

I take a Saturday afternoon with every vehicle I buy and disassemble the interior. I take the carpet to a coin-op car wash, hang it on the hooks and go to town on it with the high pressure wash. I take the seat upholstery off of the seats and run them through the wash. If they are stained up, I hit them with Westley's Blech-Wite (Tire cleaner) before they go into the wash. NEVER DRY THEM! Otherwise, they will only fit your barbie Jeep!!!

I hit all of the plastics with a Bleche-Wite/water mix and follow up with 409. You will have some smoke smell in the vent ducts, but without stripping out the dash, you aren't going to get that out. I run all of the removable interior parts through the dish washer and then put it all back together. It is a LOT of work, but it's NIIICE!

Of course, you could take it to a detailer and pay them to clean it out.

Smoke gets EVERYWHERE! You won't get rid of it until you take it all apart and clean it out.

[TheBigMortboski]

Preach on, brother. I spent an entire day when I bought my GMC, and it did about a 98% job. One good way to get the smell out of the air vents is to turn it on, run the air conditioner, and spray Fabreeze in the wiper cowl. Aside from that, scrub scrub scrub scrub scrub.

And Simple Green is my friend when I do this.

[moogvo]

Preach on, brother. I spent an entire day when I bought my GMC, and it did about a 98% job. One good way to get the smell out of the air vents is to turn it on, run the air conditioner, and spray Fabreeze in the wiper cowl. Aside from that, scrub scrub scrub scrub scrub.

And Simple Green is my friend when I do this.

Never thought about spraying anything into the cowl. NICE! (See... you CAN teach an old dog new tricks!) Probably wouldn't hurt to shoot some Lysol in there either... in case there is anything breeding in there!

I never tried Simple Green. I use the tire cleaner because it will strip the stink out of poop without removing the color.

I actually LIKE to do this to new vehicles I buy. It is a fun project... My wife wants to know why I won't do that with the house... Ok... the truck cab is 30(ish) square feet... the house is 3200... BIG difference there!

[jerrymp]

I'm a retired ins claims adjuster and I have had a lot of experience with cleaning of houses after small and large fires. So here goes.

If you live near a larger city there will undoubtedly be companies that specialize in fire repairs on houses. ServiceMaster is a recognized brand and they used to sell smoke remover aerosol sprays that used ozone to neutralize the odor. Try that. Other fire restoration companies will likely have the ozone spray. The only real way to get rid of the odor is by physically removing the ash, that's what you are smelling - - a very fine layer of ciggy ash laid down over a long time. Get rid of that and you get rid of the tiny particles that "outgas" from the ash. Ozone sprays alter the physical makeup of the particulate that comes off the ash so even though its there, your nose does not perceive the cigarette smell. And yes, the smell you are getting is likely mostly in the air vents. Sunlight and wind will breakdown and do away with the ash on hard surfaces such as plastic dashes and such. You can vacuum the beejesus out of the fabric surfaces and get rid of most of the ash stuff. Ozone spray and/or Febreeze through the cowl is inventive. Getting rid of this smell is difficult and if you go the spray route, plan on Once every couple weeks for a couple months at least.

[93K5Blaze]

Man, I never would have thought of putting everythign in the dishwasher! That's an interesting idea. I will probably tackle this sometime this summer when I redo the a/c anyway. Thanks for the advice guys.