A bit of poor judgement and laziness on Friday meant that our tent spent the weekend drying out in the garage whilst my mini spent the first significant amount of time sitting on the driveway in the rain.

I had kind of forgotten that it lets water in somewhere on the passenger side (dunno where - i assume it's the door) but was kind of curious to see if a heavy rain would eventually leak thru the sunroof which I had recently put back into use after it had been sealed inside and out by a previous owner.

As it turned out the sunroof was largely ok (a couple of drips but nothing huge) but whatever the other leak was left a big pool of water in the footwells!

Now the car smells like a wet dog.

I dried it all out last night (almost) but this morning it still smells quite a bit.

Anyone have any suggestions - Shake n' Vac perhaps??

There is a couple of remedies - the first is one of those deodorant powders - as you said - shake it in and then vaccuum. The benefit of of a talc based power is that it will soak up any moisture still in the carpet. It is moisture making the capet stink.

The second remedy is a spray based solution called Febreeze which somehow seems to absorb the most obnoxious of odours - from tom cat wee to ?????

Do dry the carpet and underfelt thoroughly though.

Febreeze Febreeze Febreeze!

Or baking powder in the carpet and then vacuum. It's gotta be dry first though!

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

Make sure the floor underneath isnt wet

I with the Febreeze people

Yeah, make sure it is dry other wise you're wasting your time. Can you sit the car closed up with a dehumidifier running in it for a few days?

I spilt a bucket of barramundi stomach jibbers in the boot carpet of my car in the Northern Territory once. I washed it then but had to wait a couple of days before I could get back to civilisation and clean it out properly. It really hussled from the heat!

The febreeze was reccomended (although not cheap), I bought it anyway and it got rid of the pong perfectly. If it works for rotten fish jibbers, it'll work for damp.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

The secret with organic odours such as fish guts and nappy juice is to park it in the sun - the smell will get really really bad - but after about a month - it will magically die - I cant explain but it works for me.

Thanks guys, I hadn't thought of Febreze.

Don't think i've got any in the house but might pick some up on the way home tonight.

I soaked up all the water in the floor and then ran a fan heater in the car last night (with the windows & sunroof open so it didn't all condense) with the carpets suspended above the floor.

The front carpet dried up nicely but the rear was where it had pooled the worst. It hadn't quite dried by the time i went to bed but it was no longer forming fresh pools in the floor from the carpet by that time.

I removed the heater and locked the car up last night hoping it had done enough but when we got in this morning the smell was still pretty awful.

I'll finish the drying out tonight and then give the febreze a go.

Failing that i'll just torch it and claim the insurance...

Seriously, get the spanners out and remove your seats... and then remove your carpet.
Febreeze is good, but if its moist under the carpet (if you have ANY) of that crap underlay it will stay wet.

Mine was in the HOT HOT HOT (just ask chong) sun for a loong time and the underlay was still moist!!!! I nearly fainted... just couldnt believe it would still be wet.

So its all out, no underlay for me, and new carpet (if I put carpet in)

Peter.

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Click here for the Turbo Conversion Thread!

I agree, seats out and carpet in the sun. This will also let you check out the paint on the floor. Do what I did and close your eyes 'cos it doesn't look so bad that way. I have a backed underlay and this stayed moist for a few weeks, carpet folded back and in the sun.

the bomby old magna that i had copt a lot of punishment from mymates in the way of spillages it was the fishing car wen we went it got all the fish and bait in the back and the booze
one day on the way out to a house party boot loaded with beer and bottles
i hear a chink
pull over and there is 3 bottles smashed 1 baileys 1 tequila and one vodka
hell of a mix got to the party and not a drop in site i think sweet mustv drained out
wrong it ran down the sides and sat in these pcokets that i couldnt get to or be bothered so it stayed there till i sold the car
it became that strong you could get pissed just by sticking your head in the boot

cheers bob

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1978 NUGGET GOLD 1275 LS

Or you could buy new carpet

Dan

I'd consider a new carpet at some stage but have 2 problems:

1st I need to stop the leak so that my lovely new carpet doesn't suffer the same fate

secondly i dunno about getting the right colour. My carpet is a kind of dark red, all the red ones i've seen advertised seem a lot brighter.

For all I know, mine started that way and got darker as it got muckier (it was 14 years old when i got it - 1990 Rover Cooper).

I think that somewhere down the line, when i've had all the bodywork and rust sorted and got a respray (and get it watertight), it will be one of those things that i'll do to freshen up the interior.