When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
So, when I found my '69 it was in a barn and I had been forewarned that he had a mouse problem in that barn at one time. When we got it home, we gave the car a quick spray down and vacuumed out the interior. Amongst that were a few nests, a lot of droppings, and 3 skeletons. Since then, I had found another nest in the underhood insulation pad, and another smaller nest and skeleton under the back seat. The front seats were removed and we did not see anything there (although the seat backs are sticky for some reason). We removed the sun visors and managed to track a spot either between the visor and headliner, or just the headliner that seemed to be a popular place for the mice to urinate. Visors are out of the car, we scrubbed the headliner to at least get the smell tolerable until the car can be driven, at which point I was just planning on a new headliner and visors.
A couple of weeks ago, we pushed the car out to spray down the engine bay, and then subsequently the entire car. Since then, the death/ammonia smell has returned in full force-worse than it ever had been. The only thing I can think of being different, was A. the car got wet or B. this is the first time since we brought it home that the windows had been rolled up.
Would anyone have any ideas where it may be coming from? Also, what is the best way to get rid of it? The plan for this car is cruising and shows-neither of which I'll be okay with having my wife and soon to be 4 year old in knowing they'll be inhaling that mess.
if there were mouse nests found IN the car, then you can 100% guarantee they got into the headliner too... Sitting on the seats and cleaning them, or just getting air moving throughout the car may have disturbed dried mouse **** enough to make the smell return in full force.
If mice get into stuff and pee, even the RUST that forms on the bare metal parts from it will smell like mouse **** and will need to get scuffed/painted to get rid of it.
A friend of mine had an absolute MINT 71 chevelle, always stored in their shop. One winter mice got into it and we had to absolutely gut the interior and redo everything. The back seat frame was mint, shiny bare metal except for the bottom 4" where mice had made their nests out of the cotton pulled from inside it... Those bottom 4" were covered with fresh surface rust from all the mouse ****. Was about the worse seat i've ever redone. Had to strip it outside it smelled so bad, then had to wirewheel the bottom of the bare seat frame because IT was still stinking up my shop.
He cut the headliner out and it had cotton and seeds and junk carried up there by the mice and the edges were all soaked with the mouse ****... Even after most of it was removed, it was still horrible to work in there until he scuffed and primed over the new rust from the mouse ****.
Nasty little Fers. exactly why i have a cat who lives in my garage!
Roll up the windows, add a little sun, and, voila! Stench city.
As noted above, gonna have to gut the interior, replace headliner, seat padding, covers, carpet, any jute insulation, anything porous. Check heater/evaporate box, ducts and cavities - roof pillars, lower front quarters, rockers, cowl, etc. scrub everything, repair/prime/paint/undercoat as appropriate. Replace all the fabric, padding and carpet, etc. Unfortunately it’s the only reliable way that I know of.
Last edited by bccan; October 1st, 2021 at 03:12 AM.
Roll up the windows, add a little sun, and, voila! Stench city.
As noted above, gonna have to gut the interior, replace headliner, seat padding, covers, carpet, any jute insulation, anything porous. Check ducts and cavities - roof pillars, lower front quarters/rockers, cowl, etc. scrub everything, repair/prime/paint/undercoat as appropriate. Replace all the fabric, padding and carpet, etc. Unfortunately it’s the only reliable way that I know of.
Little f ers. Once they get in. Ugh. I agree on the rolled up windows and heat. Once things get wet again it can bring out those smells again. Especially with all the carcasses stains etc.
Another thing to think about is all the wiring. They like to chew up the insulation. I would carefully inspect all the harnesses for insulation damage. Might keep your car from going up in flames from a major short.
When i got my car the headliner was torn and held up non OEM supports.
after a couple years i replaced it, when i did i discovered there was at least on partial mouse nest up there.....no smells or death just a partial nest
Checked wiring over the summer and fortunately didn't see any damage aside from the tachometer lead wire. Related or not, I went out and addressed said wire after work and noticed that the smell is extremely strong here:
This is one thing I'd not checked yet, because I didn't know if I was supposed to discharge the A/C to do so or not.
As far as getting interior replacement, I'd planned on new foam for sure..the irritating part though is everything looks to be in great shape.
With out the compressor, refrigerant is gone. One thing that helps with the smell is charcoal, not the easy light stuff. Make up some trays and close up car, takes some time but it worked on a '57 that had raccoons in it.
With out the compressor, refrigerant is gone. One thing that helps with the smell is charcoal, not the easy light stuff. Make up some trays and close up car, takes some time but it worked on a '57 that had raccoons in it.
Compressor is there and still hooked up (just didn't make the picture)
With out the compressor, refrigerant is gone. One thing that helps with the smell is charcoal, not the easy light stuff. Make up some trays and close up car, takes some time but it worked on a '57 that had raccoons in it.
That's an excellent idea. You might try dicing up a really fresh onion or two and placing them on trays, as well.
The 70 Vista I bought had gotten flooded up to the bottom of transmission and then left to sit and mice got in it before I got it. It reeked!! I did finally get the odor out after completely gutting the interior, pressure washing it all, bottom of seats, etc. Then letting it all dry outside on a hot sunny day. then spraying down in and out with a odor eliminator spray. It seemed OK if I remember correctly. Later on I went thru the dashboard and found the heater/ a/c core completely filled with mouse nest made from upholstery material from the seats themselves, I'll bet this is what you have if it smells worse by the A/C housing. What a mess!! Oh and after you get them out use Moth *****. I have a bunch of lids from pickle jars, and small tuna cans, etc. I put 2 or 3 moth ***** in a lid or can and put them all over in interior, under hood and in trunk. Yeah it smells, but not bad to me, nowhere near as bad a mouse ****! I lived in a area with fields planted with soy beans surrounding my house, mice were everywhere but moth ***** kept them out, much better than Decon type stuff that they eat and go into a tight spot and die, that is as bad as the **** stench!! Good luck!
Also beware of Deer Mice. They carry the respiratory HantaVirus which has a 50% mortality rate and no cure. I knew 2 people who got it. One of them died and the other ended up paralyzed from the waist down after being on an ecmo machine for weeks.
Once gets the virus by inhaling mouse droppings, mouse dust and anything they were in.
Little f ers. Once they get in. Ugh. I agree on the rolled up windows and heat. Once things get wet again it can bring out those smells again. Especially with all the carcasses stains etc.
Hope you dudnt pay much for this car. Sounds like need t strip all interior and strip and repaint alot of sheet metal. It should be nice when done though
As has been alluded to - get under the dash. There's insulation and a lot of wiring under there. Plus it's dark and undisturbed so they really like to spend time there. God only knows what's in the HVAC ductwork and if you're smelling it near the evaporator box, chances are good they had a colony in there. Unfortunately, it's a royal PITA to remove that. Fasteners on both sides of the firewall and the bottom few can only be accessed by loosening the bottom of the passenger side fender.
Maybe pull the seats and get them out in the sun to see which, if any will need attention.
I was just talking about this with my painter last week. He's working on a beautiful '65 GS and said he'd rather work on just about anything than a barn find due to the birds, raccoons, mice, etc. using them as toilets.
I have used a product called Auto Shocker by Biocide systems. It works great on smoke and mildew, but I have never tried it on mice. It cost about $25.00 for a treatment, which would be cheap if it solved the problem.
I had mice get into my 70 CS and I swear you could smell it until the car was completely gutted and in epoxy primer. They get in the headliner, seat frames etc. I hope you can somehow get it out
Hadn't been on in a few days..so playing a little catch up.
Unfortunately, the car doesn't need a repaint..and aside from missing foam in the seats it visually doesnt need interior work. That being said, if that's the only way to permanently rid the car of the smell, then it leaves me no real other alternatives.
I'll still get into the Evap box/heater box to make sure it's nothing obvious. Last time I pinpointed a smell, it was a carcass. Once it was removed, the smell went away.
As a follow-up. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) is rare. Additionally, deer mice, white-footed mice, rice rats, and cotton rats can all carry & transmit Hantavirus to humans; but, again it is rare - not all of those select mice carry Hantavirus (some, may carry it). A 10% chlorine bleach solution will kill the Hantavirus if you have concerns.
Like most mammals, mice urinate frequently to mark their territory and/or attract other mice - not simply to remove urine proteins (1° ammonia e.g. NH3). Proteins are made up of chains of peptide bonds between amino acids - long-chained amino acids are referred to as proteins (polypeptides). The bonds are easily & quickly broken w/ sodium hypochlorite (common chlorine bleach). The creation of those (peptide) bonds is the result of condensation reactions (removal of H2O), the breaking of those bonds occurs via a reverse hydrolysis reaction (the addition of H2O).
The sooner you can get sodium hypochlorite (bleach), sodium chloride (table salt solution), sodium carbonate, sodium chlorate, sodium hydroxide or even water on the substance, the sooner the smell will be eradicated.
We tried some sort of spray on the visors and my wife still smelled it the next day.. but that being said neither of us have checked or tried more since.
I stuck an air freshener in the car and it's knocked down the smell enough to not smell it outside of the garage at least, but its also not been wet again, or outside to let the sun hit it.
Auto Shocker is not a spray. You open the container add a small amount of water leave it sit in your closed up car overnight. It does take about a week for the chlorine smell to go away.
Bringing it back..going to go ahead and pull the heater box. Whats the best (less thrown tools) way to get it out of there? I'd like to avoid having to take the dash out if its possible..but I know some vehicles don't give you a choice.
Now that the engine is in, I'm working on a tight timeline (thats what I get for dragging my feet all winter) so I'm trying to game plan as much as I can while the front end is apart.
Regarding the smell, I too bought a barn find that smelled of cigarettes, mice and other strage odors. One thing that really helped was an Ozone Generator. You can have a company do this or buy your own machine (with extreme caution). When I got my interior back, couldn't smell a thing as it kills all oxygen and replaces with new. Just ensure its not ran for more than 4 hours at a time without checking fragile fabrics/materials.
Bringing it back..going to go ahead and pull the heater box. Whats the best (less thrown tools) way to get it out of there? I'd like to avoid having to take the dash out if its possible..but I know some vehicles don't give you a choice.
Now that the engine is in, I'm working on a tight timeline (thats what I get for dragging my feet all winter) so I'm trying to game plan as much as I can while the front end is apart.
You shouldn't have to pull the dash, but I could be wrong for that year.
A factory service manual would be helpful for this one as they will have the process identified for you step by step as their own techs would have preformed the job.
With an AC box, you will probably want to remove the pass side inner fender, and fully remove the firewall AC box. As others have stated its likely jammed full of stuff anyway.
Once its off, there are four speed nuts on the firewall side that hold the inside heaterbox to the firewall. Remove those 4 nuts
Then on the interior, start by removing your front seat. You will be working on your back a lot...yes it can be done with the seat in the car, but its not an audition for the Jim rose circus sideshow, your back will thank you later if the seat is out.
You will need to remove the glove box, and disconnect any control wiring/pushrods from the heaterbox housing itself, then pull it straight back away from the firewal and get the tubes through (4 long studs and the tubes are what are holding it up)
there will probably be some gummy caulking on the backside around the tubes and the firewall pad may have glued itself to the back of the heater box, carefully pry that stuff off. try to avoid tearing the firewall pad if you can
with the box loose from the firewall maneuver it out enough and lay it firewall side up and you should be able to either see the heater core compartment (non a/c cars) or if memory serves, on ac cars there are a couple more screws you have to remove to open a door to reach the core.
Replace the core
Reverse the steps above to reinstall
Did i already mention that a factory service manual would be helpful here? :-)
Also, try not to put your fingers THROUGH the brittle plastic deflectors/doors inside the heaterbox. I had a former arizona car i did this on once and every peice of plastic would shatter if you looked at it wrong due to years in the heat.
Not sure how I missed the previous write-up..thanks for the link.
I have a CSM, but (unless I missed it-which is possible based on how wound up my 4 year old has been lately) I wasn't fully grasping what it was telling me.
I went out again and looked, the box on the firewall (engine side) looks like it just comes off with a couple bolts. I saw where there are studs sticking through from the interior side, and the speed nuts on the engine side. Of the 2 studs I saw easily, one was missing a nut already. I know the car was apart once already during its lifetime, so maybe they just forgot to put it back on?
Also, do I need to discharge the refrigerant when removing the box?
Going to try to tackle this over the next day or two..or at least get started.
Had the car out last weekend and 2 days later the mouse/death smell is back in the garage and since assembly on the engine hasn't even been started yet, I've got more time than I thought to do this. May have to reward myself by putting a new radio in..though I'm not sure it'll be worth the fight for the single speaker anyway 😅
As everyone here has mentioned, they get EVERYWHERE inside your car… Behind the kick panels, inside the doors, in the seats, in the glove box, in the channels of the roof, and especially in the headliner!
This photo is from a car that has sat for years, and the odor just made you sick… and you can see why.
I spent hours gutting the inside of this car and cleaning every surface, blowing compressed air thru every possible place inside the roof and the debris that came out of the roof was unbelievable.
it’s a lot of work, but in the end it was worth it. You can sit in the car and it smells clean.
if you haven’t done so yet, drop your headliner…
You may find something like this… Good luck!
Are the inner fenders pliable enough to just unbolt the first couple and pull it out of the way? I've got everything off on the firewall aside from the bolt(s) unreachable due to the inner fender.
Regarding the smell, I too bought a barn find that smelled of cigarettes, mice and other strage odors. One thing that really helped was an Ozone Generator. You can have a company do this or buy your own machine (with extreme caution). When I got my interior back, couldn't smell a thing as it kills all oxygen and replaces with new. Just ensure its not ran for more than 4 hours at a time without checking fragile fabrics/materials.
I've heard those are the cat's ***.
Speaking of cats; my neighbors are very white yuppies who don't talk to me and never have. Maybe I scare them with the big V8s. But, they have two cats who they let out to roam frequently, and they stalk my property, which is excellent. Mice GTFO of here.
Speaking of cats; my neighbors are very white yuppies who don't talk to me and never have. Maybe I scare them with the big V8s. But, they have two cats who they let out to roam frequently, and they stalk my property, which is excellent. Mice GTFO of here.
So, I read that thread yesterday after beating my head against the wall trying to figure out how to get to them and it didn't make sense.
Read it again this morning (5:15-only awake for maybe 10 minues) and it still didn't understand what was going on.
Just read it the third time after staring at numbers all day with a migrane, and I think I get it. Hopefully I can retain that until Thursday evening when I may have the chance to work on it again..ha!
I accidentally posted this in in the wrong thread, so here it is for this one.
For dealing with the smell, you can try contacting a local company that does biohazard cleanup. They deal with the stains and smells from dead bodies and such. They may tell you it's not worth it, or they may have solutions to deal with your exact problems.
I thought I found all the mouse houses in mine, literally stripped the entire interior and trunk and found about 5 and still couldn’t get rid of the smell.
The massive one I found was in the cowl on the drivers side and ran all down the rocker. Had to yank it out with my arm, hood off and then use a hook from a pick set to pull out of the rocker drain…. Ugh 😑
I thought I found all the mouse houses in mine, literally stripped the entire interior and trunk and found about 5 and still couldn’t get rid of the smell.
The massive one I found was in the cowl on the drivers side and ran all down the rocker. Had to yank it out with my arm, hood off and then use a hook from a pick set to pull out of the rocker drain…. Ugh 😑
They are gone now
I'm really hoping my issues are in the blower motor/heater box area after seeing this..ha.
I'm going to try to get to it after work today. Things have been crazy at the house now that my wife has taken over running the VBS at our church. I'm getting too old for these late nights-especially when I'm doing something outside of my hobbies..haha
Finally got around to it..and holy smokes that inner fender is a pain. Once I finally got it to move, I got the last bolt..but the box is getting stuck on that inner fender.
Called it a night at that point..Hopefully I can finish removal and start taking it from the inside in the next few days.
Last edited by brotherGood; May 10th, 2022 at 03:14 AM.
I bought my 55' in 2012 and it was also in a barn for over 30 years. The mouse nests etc were everywhere including the headliner, under the dash, kick panels, trunk side panels etc. I also found a nest in the top of the oil bath housing and inside the heater blower motor. I pulled out the seats, carpet etc vacuumed then wiped down with bleach water. If the car is no longer in a barn environment leave all the windows down and try some dryer sheets. eventually the smell will go away. Hope this helps a little.
Got the box out on the firewall side and saw nothing but turds. Pulled the glove box and found a small nest behind it, along with a bunch more droppings but still no mouse. Went ahead and pulled the box, still nothing but droppings.
I'm going to just go ahead and reassemble and move on at this point. Hopefully the Ozone generator can get rid of the smell (assuming it's just residual at this point.
Update..I have the inner portion back together, shooting on getting the engine bay side this weekend.
Do I need a gasket or sealer or something like that to seal off the box to the firewall? I've heard both, but have never heard of either being used prior to this adventure. If not, I'll just slam everything back together this weekend and all should be well, ha!
September 30th, 2021, 10:46 AM
