Hello everyone,

Short story: I loaned my truck(93 3vze) to the wrong person for one month.
When i re-commandeered my truck, the bench seat absolutely wreaks of the most gawd awful, unsanitary smell of bodily spillages.

Has anyone had any luck disassembling and cleaning the seat foam padding?
Is this possible?
Do you think it's worth it?

If I attempt, it will be a multi-soaking cocktail of bleach, dawn, laundry detergent, and any other cleaning agent i can find in the house.. it's really that bad.
I would prefer to burn it, but I've looked for replacements seats and can't find anything yet.

Thanks in advance

 

Best if you could take seats out of the truck.
Use a carpet steam cleaning machine.
or scrub with febreeze and hot water and suck moisture out with wet shop-vac.
Febreeze worked really well for me.

 

I believe the upholstery will be stapled to the subframe and not very easy to remove and replace cleanly unless you've done it before.

I'd be tempted to remove the bench and either use the steam cleaner/vacuum that the carpet guys use (or even a home Bissel or similar unit). You may even be able to give them that soak with either a diluted bleach solution (not too sure on that one vs upholstery color), a diluted vinegar solution, or some of that enzyme stuff for upholstery/carpet that the carpet cleaners use. After that follow up with a good session with a wet/dry shop-vac to suck out as much water as you can, then leave them with a fan pointed at it (possibly from the bottom/underneath where there's no fabric?) for at least 2 days to try and dry it out. Might be tricky in the winter weather with the higher humidity.

Best of luck.

 

Don't disassemble it by pulling the fabric off, it may stretch (looks like crap) or you won't be able to get it back on.

Remove the four bolts that hold it in the cabin, they are easy enough to find. Then you can use a carpet/upholstery cleaner, it will take some effort. Do multiple cleanings, the first with cold water to get the bulk of "dirt" off (cold water is less likely to stretch the fabric, or drive the filth in deeper), let it dry fully. After that follow up with a good drench with fabreeze or an enzyme based cleaner from the pet section once that is dry hit it with the hot water (steam) cleaning.

Don't drown it untill you are sucking clear water, it will just drive the filth into the foam. Suck as much water up as possible between washings, you might need multiple passes. Use another pass of fabreeze at the end for good measure after its clean and dry.

I've used this method on both bench and bucket seats with great results, I don't believe I have any before and after images.

 

Whatever you do, don't mix cleaning fluids, you can inadvertently create deadly fumes!
I have removed seat covers and padding before and it can be a pain, but it's do-able. It is tough to get the wrinkles out when you put it back together also. I'm not sure on yours if the padding is separate from the frame or molded to it, but if it's separate you may consider some of the cleaning methods mentioned above. In the past I have use a linoleum roller to squeeze liquid out of carpets and seat foam and had good luck with it, repeatedly soaking/rolling/soaking/rolling and then hanging them in the boiler room of the shop I worked in. It would still be far easier for you to find a seat from a parts rig if you can deal with spraying febreeze on it and continue searching.

 

Ok. gonna pull the seat out and give cleaning a try. Thanks for all the responses.

 

Wow, I guess that was the wrong person to loan a truck to. I used a rental "Rug Doctor" to clean all the cloth seats in my truck and it did an amazing job.
It cost around $50 for some length of time (24 hours iirc) and you can use it for whatever you want during that time period.

 

Mixing bleach or ammonia together or with other products is VERY bad. Not funny bad, but I call dibs on your stuff bad.
Start with a rug doctor or steam cleaner and see where that ends up. Might be better and easier to find a used bench seat. A lot of people swap in buckets so benches should be fairly easy to find.

 

If things are as bad as your saying .

it will be the whole cab that needs to be cleaned!!

I have a similar problem then every time it rains from tracking water in the smell comes back till things dry out again

Then you could just get comfortable with the smell

 

I think I'm going to start looking for a replacement or some inexpensive buckets.

I went full-on yesterday and pulled the seat out and peeled the cover back as far as I could.
I poured about 3 gallons of water & rug cleaner mix across the seat padding and stepped on it for a bit, then vacuumed the wash out of the cushion with the large shopVac.
also been saturating with the enzyme cleaner.
The smell is a little lighter, but still too potent.

Thanks again

 

Curious what did your "friend" DO with your truck? Trust a fart? Let their dog swim in a nasty rotting cesspool of a pond then jump in the truck? Get in after sitting in gear oil? Sucks man. Good luck

 

Went for a drive in the truck right after Navy line-crossing ceremony.

 

I was a detailer when I started at a Toyota dealership before becoming a mechanic and once I was tasked with removing "the smell of death" out of a car. they had hit a dog and put it on the passenger side floorboard to take it to the vet. Unfortunately the dog bled out and died before they got there and soon after even with using a carpet shampoo machine in it the smell began to haunt them. I got the car about 2-3 weeks after the fact and it was BAD even with like a dozen air fresheners hanging in it you couldn't stand to close the windows. That's when I tried the linoleum roller trick I mentioned above, remove the entire interior, wiped down all of the floor pan with pine sol and did the lather/rinse/repeat/squeeze/repeat to the carpet and padding like 5 times and hung it in the boiler room for a day to dry. I never found out how well the cleaning worked because I never heard from them again, I just have to assume it worked.

 

Yeah, hes been my friend since we were kids. that's the only reason loaned him my truck while his car was out of commission. He is a vet that's been struggling hard with PTSD and all the connected side effects. he decided to go on a serious bender the month that he had my truck... and basically used it as his own homeless encampment. Thats what it smells like - urine soaked homeless encampment. When he stopped responding to text messages was when i finally hunted down my truck and snatched it back. there's other damage. he hit something so hard that the front bumper tweaked in the center and bent the vertical support in front of the ac cooler.. as well as bowed the ac cooler. Funny (not really) thing is, his car is sitting in my front yard, when i pop open the trunk or door, it's freakin immaculate inside and smells like scented candles or some ˟˟˟˟. I'm like "muther f...!"
I thought about offering to trade the truck for his car, a mercedes, he would probably do it out of guilt. but I'd prefer not to profit off him and just get it all back to normal-ish.

 

Poor guy, hard to tell what is going on inside his head in his mental condition. I hope he recovers and you can clean the bench seat.