Musty interior

This is probably a dumb question, hell, my brother should be asking it but he keeps hounding me instead of joining the forum.

Anyway, my brother's 94 RMS sat for months from around January 1st to late April or so with bad accident damage to the front fender and door, so the top of the door wouldn't close against the body, there was a half inch gap there open to the elements. Toward the end, we stuffed a beach towel in there to keep rain out. Unfortunately, that towel sopped up rain, and let it leak onto the rear footwell. Went to look in the car and found about 3 inches of water pooled up in there with CD cases floating in it!

After the car got fixed you could smell mold in there and it keeps getting worse. You can even smell it outside the car with the windows rolled up. HE smells like mold getting out. He took it to a detailer and blew a bunch of money having it cleaned when I said to just work on it himself, and it still did nothing in the long run, helped for a few days. You can't see any mold, I'm guessing it's under the rug.

I removed the interior to my Blazer before, I ground the floor down to remove any rust and treated/sound deadened/repainted it before installing new carpet, so he thinks I know how to do his car. He told me he already put baking soda under the rug then tried to vac it out, whatever that means.
Personally, I think the seats need to come out and the rug removed/cleaned underneath, and allowed to dry out, and maybe a solution of bleach/water sprayed on the floor before anything is installed. He won't listen to me when I say just take out the back seat/front seat and pull the carpet. Isn't it a straightforward job? Do the B-pillar trim pieces have to come out?

So I guess what I'm asking is:

What does he have to do to remove his seats, mainly the back one, without breaking it? Any ideas on getting rid of the mold problem? I think it's only localized to the right rear of the interior floor.

So I got the back seat out in 2 seconds, just like any other one I pulled, don't know what his problem is!

Looks like the carpet isn't too bad, just needs to be pulled and cleaned...we'll see

The problem is most likely the backing material under the carpet. I pulled the carpet out of my blazer which was only slightly damp and found the backing material was so wet I rang out about a gallon of water. That plus the foam in the seats, plus the foam seperating the trunk space from the seat back, all hold moisture and can produce mold. I'd say it's time for a whole new interior.

I've had to deal with a waterlogged interior before, it sucks. My truck's old carpet was like a swamp underneath, but was fairly dry on top so I never noticed. The truck was in an accident back in the late 90s I guess, and a quarter was replaced. Whoever did it sucked at life and didn't seam seal everything right, so water came in the rear wheelhouse and started rotting everything.
There was rust bubbling all over my floor and I ripped everything out to fix it the best I could (ground down, treated, brushed on "Rustoleum Rusty Metal primer" and flat black Rustoleum, undercoated, sound deadened with Quick Roof, Frost King, and carpet padding, then installed the carpet kit)































That job took me a few weeks on and off! If my brother couldn't get his back seat out I doubt he'll do that.

Anyway, from what I saw under the back carpet in the RMS, it doesn't look too bad, saw no rust, just shiny metallic gray paint. It looked like the carpet didn't get wet aside from where the water pooled up, but you never know until it's all taken out.

Don't the seats have closed cell foam in them to help prevent mold? I washed and sprayed the seats in my Blazer with Simple Green and a hose, they dried up fine afterward. I wouldn't try that with nice cloth or leather seats though, I just didn't care about the ones I had since they were sort of gross.

Maybe there's a needlessly scrapped Cash for Clunkers RMS sitting in a junkyard now with a nice set of gray seats in it nearby...

That's some nice work. By the time I got my truck the floors had already rotted out in the front and the rear bench wouldn't lock down since the rear floor pan was seperating into layers and the latch was in the bottom layer which meant the locking mechanism didn't reach.

I'd say try to get new carpet and backing and decide if you want to go with Bonny seats since now would be the time for it.

bammax wrote:

That's some nice work. By the time I got my truck the floors had already rotted out in the front and the rear bench wouldn't lock down since the rear floor pan was seperating into layers and the latch was in the bottom layer which meant the locking mechanism didn't reach.

I'd say try to get new carpet and backing and decide if you want to go with Bonny seats since now would be the time for it.

Thanks!


Damn, is your truck a K5? Those are notorious for the floor problems, for some reason. I wish my roof were removable, but I'm glad the body has held up well otherwise considering the miles and what this thing has been through.

My truck actually did have a rot problem that let water in. Where the wheelhouse is spot welded to the rear load floor, water/salt/crap went in the seam from the outer wheelhouse area, under that spot welded metal lip, and into the truck under my carpet on the floor. It started rotting the lip of the wheelhouse where it was welded, the bottom of the quarter also rotted in front of and behind the wheels.






I used PL black poly roof adhesive caulk (stays flexible) to seal up the joint after digging out ALL the rust and treating it the best I could with Naval Jelly and baking soda (after I stripped it all down to nothing). I basically had to rip the whole spot weld lip off the wheelhouse and floor pan! I was afraid that there wouldn't be enough structural integrity but it was fine. I used a lot of sealant, taped over the joint on the outside when I worked from inside the truck, then went outside and did the same thing up under the wheelwell. After I let the sealant cure, I went over it all inside and out with 3M undercoating, which is some nasty stuff. It's like hot top in a can. lol That's what's on the rear floor. Truck is a lot quieter inside now (that Quick Roof stuff is great, doesn't smell at all and is NOT the same as Peel and Seal...standard Dynamat and especially FatMat is a waste of money IMHO.)

I'm sure a professional body man could have done it better, which I am not, but look what happened last time, they left it so the truck would be full of water! Plus, last winter I had the whole driver's side repainted after my truck was hit, only to find all sorts of slight sanding scratches showing from the primer THROUGH the color coat on the truck!. Might be able to get it out with a rotary but who knows...either way, my own labor is free and this is an old truck, so I did the best I could. haha If it ever fails I can just get it fixed anyway.

As far as my brother's car goes, the old seats are nice but the lumbar doesn't work, and the driver's seat bottom is worn from people sliding in and out. A lot of people put the Bonneville seats in 88-98 GM trucks, they bolt right to the factory tracks. I'd do mine, but I need the seats to tilt forward and slide like the stock ones...and seats from a 4-door won't do that!

This was my truck which got replaced by the Cappy. I was actually using the truck as my daily driver while I rebuilt the Cappy to make it road worthy again.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2145654