Nicotene removal from interior

danofarming · Oct 30, 2012

Anyone have a good solvent to remove Nicotene from the interior of a vehicle?

jacksun65 · Oct 30, 2012

yes dow scrubbing bubbles works good

NCWayne · Oct 30, 2012

Don't know about nicotine proper, or how it will react with different materials, but we found some stuff called Folex at Home Depot that we used to clean the carpets in our rental house. It took tan carpet that were nearly black in places from dirt and grease being tracked in, as well as a couple of cigarette burns, and made it look nearly new again. In fact I was at the house the other day talking to the tennant and she was asking me what we used to clean it as she wanted it back to looking like it did before she moved in, again. Brought it down to our house and used it on the carpet upstairs and it too looked like new. It was a dark, low nap carpet put in with the intention of the room being a game room, so it didn't really show any noticable wear or discoloration from the use it got (never made it to the game room stage) but we never realized how dirty it actually had gotten over the years until it was clean again.... So, test on a small spot, and give Folex a shot, it's some GOOD stuff.

kyhayman · Oct 30, 2012

I'm not sure if you are referring to 'smoke scum' which is mostly tars and partially burned fatty alcohols; liquid nicotine which is typically a clear liquid; or tobacco spit and spillage.

Smoke scum is tough. Really, without steam cleaning the fabric it is impossible to get out. Stanley Steamer and Serve Pro can treat it the same way they treat a fire damaged house. Works well. Anything else is simply covering the smell.

Liquid nicotine is rather frightening due to its acute toxicity in small quantities. If this is what you are referring to, that's going to take a haz mat approach.

Tobacco spit... good luck. Ive stained carpets with spilled cups, cans, and bottles. I can get the smell out but there are few staining solutions better. Might steam clean it out, the detailing shops cant touch it with anything on the shelf. Its right up there with heavy railroad grease.

RayP(MI) · Oct 30, 2012

Car dealers have an ozone generator - treat it overnight for a couple nights, gets a lot of the odors down.

danofarming · Oct 30, 2012

I gues it would be the smoke scum/tar, the whole inside of the truck is green, supposed to be gray. Most of the interior is vinyl or plastic, only the seats are fabric.

kyhayman · Oct 30, 2012

I've got a few rental properties (mobile homes) so its something I often run into in that setting. Simple Green or 409 seem to work well on unpainted surfaces. That and lots of elbow action. On really bad ones I may mix up pine sol in warm water. Probably the best bet in a vehicle too. I usually use a hand held steamer on the seats to get sweaty guy smell and grease off the upholstry.

I use that to clean the assorted funk my trucks collect over the year. Carpets I just replace. Walls, paint with kilz, 2 coats, then 3 coats of paint.

BCnT · Oct 30, 2012

Mean Green from Dollar General works great.

Anonymous-0 · Oct 31, 2012

(quoted from post at 19:16:21 10/30/12) Anyone have a good solvent to remove Nicotene from the interior of a vehicle?

The OXY products work good. Bought SWMBO's KIA from a smoker. She used undiluted simple green for everything wipeable. I took it to a detail shop to clean the fabric.. Money well spent if you put a value on your time and people skills........

Dick2 · Oct 31, 2012

I made it a policy at the motor pool that I supervised that if anyone turned in a pool car that they had smoked in, we would charge the org for taking the car to a car wash place for a complete detail of the interior. We had a fleet rate of $45 for standard sedan and $55 for a van.

That car wash did a good job of eliminating the smoke odor.

LA in WI · Oct 31, 2012

Dick2,
I like your comments on this subject. Short of killing the smoking/chewing driver, I wonder why anyone would buy such a vehicle and put up with that crap in this day and age. There are plenty of clean vehicles to choose from.
LA in WI

Nicotene removal from interior

danofarming

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jacksun65

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NCWayne

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kyhayman

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RayP(MI)

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danofarming

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kyhayman

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BCnT

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Anonymous-0

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Dick2

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LA in WI

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