spilled a gallon of gas - did i ruin carpet / underlay ?

[fordsucks!]

Hey guys, I spilled a gallon of gas (mixed with 2stroke oil) in the trunk area of my K5 . FML.

I've had the carpet pulled up and a fan on it for 24 hours, and the car still smells toxic inside. The rubber underlay under the carpets has turned into mush, if I wipe it with a paper towel the black tar just comes up like pudding!

Do you think this will eventually dry, or should I start looking at replacement insulation/ carpet??

thanks in advance

 

[nvrenuf]

Even if the gas evaporates the oil will never dry out. I doubt the smell will go away either.

If no one has good tips to fix it, I'd take it out and try cleaning it at a diy pressure wash joint. Maybe even try some degreaser or Simple Green type stuff on it, if it's hurt you can't lose.

 

[HankScorpio]

You could also try a carpet cleaner to extract some of it. Its not going to be right in a couple days but I think after a few weeks and some cleaning you will probably be OK. If gas never went away we would all reek of it.

 

[Kain]

i would replace just for the smell

 

[tRustyK5]

scrape up, scrub and chuck it all...then scrub down the floor with Dawn dish soap and water. Or light a match?

 

[diesel4me]

Repeated washings with detergent like Dawn or laundry detergent--Lestiol works good too but smells of pine so strong that might be a bad idea --that & high pressure spray ,plus leaving it hanging out in the sun to dry for several days will eventually get all the oil out--the gas smell won't linger too long,but when mixed with 2 stroke oil it reeks for a long time unless you wash as much out as possible..

Carbon Tetrachloride used to be available to "dry clean" things like this,but it is probably banned for non industrial purposes now..

I once had a quart of 90W gear lube get crushed and leak out in my '72 K5...since the OEM carpet was not that great of condition,I just ripped it out and used Lestiol and the high pressure car wash hose to blast the remnants off the bed floor..still stunk for quite some time ,but eventually it went away..we didn't have Fabreeze then..

 

[fordsucks!]

Thank you guys all for the input! I used carpet cleaner aerosol on the carpet, scrubbed the underlay jute and rubber with some Simple Green... K5 has been in the garage with windows down and carpets up, airing out for the last 5 days and I think it's finally drivable... i'll drive it tomorrow and see.

Thanks again all!!!

 

[diesel4me]

Park it in the hot sun for a day with the windows up,then leave them open a day or two,the heat will bake the smell out faster..the gas hydrocarbons will evaporate,its the oil that'll make it take longer,and washing it out helps speed the process up..

Speaking of bad odors in vehicles..
One of my friends had some baby eels escape from his bait bucket in his car once when he went to go fishing..the "bucket" was a white cardboard container like chop suey comes in when you get take out..

(it was funny,some started wriggling up his leg while driving on the highway and he started swerving ,then pulled over--and a state cop that was a ways back behind him saw it,pulled up behind him and asked why he was weaving and stopped,thought he was drunk--he explained how the eels escaped and showed him one on the floor he stepped on,and the rest squirming in the bucket--and the cop just stared at them, and said "good luck with that!--I have to go"..

He never found some of the eels,he thought they must have got up into the seats or under the tracks,and man,his car REEKED for months,especially in summer......he even tried using the high pressure car wash hose to blast the entire carpet best he could,and dumped boxes of baking soda on the carpet..took about 2 years before it was barely detectable...he got a lot of strange looks at red lights driving with his window down in January ..

 

[fordsucks!]

Geez, yeah any kind of seafood smell in the car sucks.

I got my blazer parked outside now, and we've got 105 temps for the next week, if this doesn't cook the smell out then I don't know what will!

I'm just glad I can drive it again, along with my three-year-old son. For a while the smell was too gnarly