Found a forester right down the street that is mechanically solid. Problem is, it's a dog car. The Dog is cool, but the goldie hair is all over the interior and it has the dog smell.
Is this a trivial clean up or is this as bad as a smoked interior?
Found a forester right down the street that is mechanically solid. Problem is, it's a dog car. The Dog is cool, but the goldie hair is all over the interior and it has the dog smell.
Is this a trivial clean up or is this as bad as a smoked interior?
Can't be as bad as smoke or gear oil. Vacuum everything in sight, dryer sheets under the seats to soak up the stink.
A 6HP shopvac will get longer dog hair out pretty easily but those short stiff ones like jack russells have is a PIA. It requires you to use a brush and keep changing the direction of the stroke for a long time.
I have had good results will the "wet dog" smell by just using one of those Green Machine hand-held steamer vacs with some household carpet detergent. Also good for baby puke and sour milk.
Just buy a dog and convert the smell to one you are familiar with. Your dirt is always less offensive than someone elses.
For the really stuck in dog hair - masking tape after you've vacuumed it out.
My WRX was a dog car. It didn't stink of dogs, but there was hair everywhere, and the B columns were completely covered in dried slobber.
A shop vac took care of most of the hair (short, white hairs), but there's still a bunch left, pretty much everywhere. Maybe one of those sticky lint rollers would help? I haven't dedicated that much time to it yet.
Protip: Pumice stone. Pulls out dog hair like magic, though it may take chunks of carpet too. Like with women and safecracking, a light touch is always best.
calteg wrote: Like with women and safecracking, a light touch is always best.
This killed me. I dont know why.
I like either a strong vacuum, or one with a beater bar. I have a handheld rechargeable Shark with beater bar, and find it removes hair well. The stronger vacuum like my shop vac, or the equipment at the car wash tends to get dirt better, but have less success with hair. If you could fit a beater bar to a shop vac, it'd be grand.
Meguiar's Scratch-X helps the scratches the monsters added when trying to hop in. A little glass cleaner on the windows for nose smudges, and you're probably good. Of course, I try to avoid putting them in the truck genuinely wet, so you might have more fun.
My Basset lays hair all over everything. I am coated with it whenever I drive my car...
Considering the car has been sitting for about 2 years the smell doesn't seem that bad. I'd be planning on pulling all the seats and detailing the muthatrucka. Probably snag one of those rentable steam cleaners and let er rip.
I've got two dogs that shed like nuts and the hair is pretty much impossible to really get rid of. If you have allergies, i'd just walk away or plan on replacing the carpet and seats. If it's an aesthetic thing, though, I've had success with this little Euro Pro or Shark handheld that my wife bought. It came with a vacuum-flow-powered beater bar that I hooked up to the shop-vac. It toasted the bearings in the brush unit, but it worked really well for about a half-dozen vacuum jobs.
The tape lint roller thing works really well, but you'll kill yourself with the little toy ones. They make some that are paint roller sized, and those get the job done much quicker, plus the holder is angled for doing horizontal surfaces. You can get them at bed bath and beyond and target.
We had a Golden when I was a kid. She got carted around in the back of our Taurus wagon. No amount of vacuuming could get the hair out of the carpet in the back - after a while it gets kind of woven into the carpet.
Honestly, I'd be really tempted to just replace the carpet.
No dog allergies here. Just concerned about aesthetics and smell. I hate using things that cover up smell.
I suppose I could just try cleaning it out and if it doesn't work just sell it. The price is right.
I wouldn't let it change my mind on the car. Go at it with a vacuum, then masking tape, then an upholstery brush, then vacuum again, then masking tape again. That will probably be overkill. Have the interior detailed after to take care of the smell.
My family has had two goldens, the second one (current dog) loves riding in the car. It really isn't a big deal (although we do try to get beige interiors because of it).
The smell - Fabreeze the E36 M3 out of it!
Is it in the cargo area or the seats? Our dogs ride in the 'trunk' with a dog barrier to keep the seats de-haired. Works great.
Subaru upholstery is reasonably dog hair resistant, meaning the stuff usually doesn't weave itself in. The carpet, however, is craptastic. You may just want to tour the junkyards for a replacement, provided it hasn't been out in the weather for any length of time. I don't think the smell will linger like cig smoke. Ours usually airs out pretty quick.
I actually have a spare impreza carpet, it probably fits! Although, it is charcoal so it won't match that well.
Beater bar attachment on the shop vac will get you most of the way there. Some will never come out.
-owner of two shedding lab mixes
Wasn't that the name of FM's development Miata?
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