Hot Rods UNLOCKED THE DOOR & TURNED ON THE LIGHTS - FIRST TIME IN A MONTH!

After my recent health scare I was thinking while at rehab I needed to check on Brenda's wagon and my old beater when I got home, I opened the door and noticed water on the floor so I open the three roll up doors and cranked the wagon and backed it out of the garage then open the door of my old Deuce and notice mildew all over the seats, I rolled the windows down, threw a towel on the seat and backed the car out.

It's been extremely hot the month of August and we have had several severe thunder storms with a lot of high winds & monsoon quantities of rain.

I grabbed the big floor squeegee and proceeded to push the standing water out of the garage, I have had water blow in under the doors in the past but this is the first time I have ever had mildew in the garage.
I am going to buy a dehumidifier to prevent this kind of problem in the future,I finally got all the standing water out, the garage wasn't flooded but there was water under both cars, the wagon has no signs of mildew, it seems it was all confined to the sedan.

By the time I got all the water out and the big fan had removed all the damp spots I pulled the cars back in and called it a day, I just ran out of steam!

Today or tomorrow I need to get rid of the mildew, Have any of you ever had to deal with mildew? what's the best way to clean up & remove mildew from vinyl upholstery? HRP

 

Getting old is one thing.
But we don't wanna get moldy.

Shouldn't take much to kill the mildew, Danny. Letting it dry out in the sun and maybe some Lysol disinfectant spray.

 

Not sure what to used to kill/clean it with, but guys here have used Ozone machines to get smells out of cars.
Guess it’s a good thing I was a, uh, product of the ‘80’s. I don’t smell things so well these days

 

Sorry to hear about the mildew issues Danny, but glad you are on the mend physically. Takes time to get your strength back. Once you get it cleaned up toss some dessicant bags under the seats along with the dehumidifier. You get humidity as badly or worse than we do here since we're so close to the water everywhere.

 

I had an OT Chevy wagon sitting outside for 18 months closed up. I eventually did crack each window a hair. The interior was vinyl. I took the headliner down, it was barely staying up. That helped.

I had a can of Tuff Stuff upholstery cleaner that worked amazingly well. And it smelled better right off. Problem areas I used a Lysol spray to get the mildew off, like the back of the front seat.

 

We have an antique shop behind the house in a 145 yr old wash house. Was used to wash clothes in big tubs.
It still has original concrete and wood floors.
I too fought mildew in there for years. I noticed it formed during the spring and late fall when the temps were around the 50’s.
I too fought it when I was the facilities manager for the historic site here in Zoar.
I ended up installing an attic fan thermostatically controlled in the wash house.
It fixed the problem. I also installed an intake to allow cross flow. Cheaper and much more effective than a dehumidifier in a large area.

I store my 40 ft RV outside during the summer. I found that these work good in close areas.
Dry & Dry 6 Packs

 

Fortunately for me I really don’t have to worry about rain or moisture in my garages here but the house I lived in before I moved back here was not so lucky. Every time it rained over a 1/4” my garage there would flood. When it was a heavy thunderstorm after it was over you could still see the water flowing out of the garage and down driveway. Piss poor drainage on my property and it all ran to the back of my garage and house. I would have up to 6” of water in the back of it and lots of mud to go with it. Needless to say I never kept my hot rod in there only if I was working on it in nice weather lol
What my dad and I did here was pour a small curb (3”-4” tall) in front of the garage door that just insures that if water did blow from that direction it would not leak. My other garage that my Woodie is in has a huge carport in front of the door so it never gets wet. I know from experience that moisture sucks especially when it comes to our babies. But I’m just tickled to hear that you can get back out to the garage this soon!

 

Danny,
An Ozone machine will kill any mold spores, etc. Just put the car outside, plug the machine in/turn it on, roll up the windows, and shut the doors. After a few hours, you're good- JUST REMEMBER TO OPEN THE DOOR AND LET THE CABIN AIR OUT FOR ABOUT 10 MINUTES TO CLEAR THE AIR (or lack, thereof)!!!

Ozone will kill ANYTHING, which is why it's best to run the machine outside. When I found out that a bunch of my good books, tools, etc were made into a mouse/rat hotel (while they were in storage... that's another story), I borrowed my buddy's ozone machine and ran it a few times in the shed- killed ANYTHING/EVERYTHING in the shed.

 

Second Lysol or any of your favorite disinfectants.
Dehumidifier is necessary now.
Ask your local home improvement store about some door bottom gasket.
When you begin to struggle ask for help.

 

Danny, I hear you about the "monsoon" rains lately.

I had mildew om the seats of my Thunderbird and I cleaned it off with Windex, the mildew looked more like powder and would wipe off with my hand, BTW Windex don't smell like a nursing home.

 

Glad to hear that you are up and about. My comment, from the Sonoran Desert, is: What is rain and humidity.?

 

Danny good to hear youre up & about again. I'll second the small dessicant packs in the cars to help. As far as mildew look into marine vinyl cleaners. We use one that works great on our boat interior. Unfortunately I cant remember the name as its..... on our boat currently.

 

Beyond the after clean-up, I like the nip it in the bud solutions as well The ozone machine sounds like a great idea. We recently solved the flash flood problem in my brother in-laws garage. He had water wicking up from the concrete floor and actually saturating the lower 2 feet of the drywall. We dug down around the perimeter and installed a big "O" buried in 3/4" limestone. We were able to tie into his homes sump system. No problems since.

 

another vote for the ozone machine, my pal's 64 impala seats were green with mold and 8 hours with machine inside solved the problem.

 

Those can be rented. Works great for cigarette smoke too.

 

I also swear by these, work great.

This is what I use to get mildew off boat vinyl and works pretty well.


Magic eraser works good too but can be caustic on seam thread so I always follow it up with a damp towel, then dry with another. I also try not to use them too often.good to hear you're up and around Harp! Feel better my guy!

 

Glad you are up and about Danny.
I put a Costco dehumidifier in my 24x24 shop about 13 years ago. I have gone through 2 in that time. But it pulls gallons of water out of there on the dry side of the state. It helps if you are slow on dealing with bare metal.
It can show on utility bill if you crank it down to lowest setting. On the upside on those damp rainy days of fall and spring it feels wonderful when you go in there.

 

Glad to hear you’re back in your shop! I have had a couple of surgeries in the past eight years that have kept me out of my shop for months. It sucks…
I don’t have much rain blowing in under the shop doors, but do have occasional flooding from the tidal creek that is out behind the boats. I use a mild bleach solution to kill mildew and clean the upholstery in my boats…

 

The little dehumidifiers that sell for under $100 online work surprisingly well. I've got 2 in the big basement, one in the downstairs laundry room, and one in the main garage. I thought I didn't have a problem because I had the heat and a/c plumbed into those rooms a long time ago, until I started seeing spots of rust on bare metal. These little machines will pull, all told, about 2 gallons out of the air in 2-3 days. If I get busy and forget to empty, they will fill up and shut off. I've got a big, old machine, too. Don't use it anymore, it doesn't pull as much water out as one of these little chinese ones.
Good luck on your continued recovery.

 

glad to hear that you are getting out & about. your health most important. breathing in mildew vapors likely not a good thing. do not over do it dealing with problems in garage. one day at a time.

 

Simple Green works good to get mold and mildew off vinyl and metal. Use full strength in a spray bottle. Leaves a nice minty smell, too.

 

I'm helping Brenda at the shop today, so I plan on trying to clean the seats this afternoon if I still have the energy, if not tomorrows another day.

I need to let you guys now it's not the kind of mildew that turns black, actually it's like a powder like John was talking about. HRP

 

Any good household cleaner will work.

 

Its good to see you are getting active again. Keep working at it and you will get the endurance back.
A dehumidifier will make a difference. Our dehumidifier came with a collection tank with the option to connect a hose that can go to a drain. It would be good if it was possible to drain the dehumidifier with a hose out of the garage otherwise the tank will need to be emptied constantly.
They sell silica gel in large containers at reasonable cost for drying flowers out. They sell it in gallon containers of 5-6 lbs. We put it in into old nylon stockings and put them in with an engine we had crated. It goes from blue to pink as it absorbs moisture. When it turns pink it can can put be put in the oven in a roaster at 300F to regenerate and take it back to blue.
I was sent by our company to Georgia and North Carolina for business a few times. The company would let us go a day early and we rented a car with the Hertz never lost to tour around as many hours as we could. Really nice parts of the country. I live in N.W. Ontario where we do not see the kind of humidity that you have in the southern states. What would be a comfortable temperature here was barely tolerable there when it was humid. The humidity was really apparent when staying in an tall Atlanta hotel where the humidity was condensing on the windows and pouring down the glass.
I always enjoy your posts and comments. Take care and keep mending.

 

Danny, I have been the same route that you have. Heart attack, triple by-pass at 60, double by-pass at 70, a stent at 81. Don't push yourself too much. you want to be around for another day. It is hard to not do the things that we were used to doing, but look at it this way, you got another chance at life. Enjoy it, but take it easy, at least for a few months. Winter is coming, a good time to relax. I know it is difficult to take life easy, when you have always been active, but relax, and be thankful that you are still here.

 

Danny, glad that you're back up to snuff. The wife said to try vinegar and water, cheap to make and I bet you have it handy. Don't let Brenda work you too hard, Carp.

 

Never had a mildew problem but ever since we built the new house 9 years ago we've had to run a dehumidifier in the basement hot rod garage. Dump it daily most of the year. Miss a few days and you can see it affecting the drywall. I've always had leather all my cars for the past 30 years and have had no problems to date. Good to see your going again. Were you grounded after your heart problems?

 

Glad to see you're up and at em!

White Vinegar does the trick for mildew and its cheap.

 

Hope to see you in a week, go easy on yourself, no relapses

 

Wow, somehow I missed that health episode. Glad you're on the mend. Follow orders (doctor and wife both!!) and pace yourself and you'll be back better than ever.
Can't help much on the mildew cleaning, but can vouch for these:
Garage Door Weatherstrip Seals - Free Shipping on Orders Over $109 at Summit Racing
I did both my garage doors a couple years ago and it made a huge difference. Before, when it rained and the wind blew from the wrong direction the water always came in around the garage doors. Doesn't help that the driveway is on a slight downslope toward the building. I did both the threshold seal and the brush style weatherstrip around both doors. It keeps water out, and it weatherized as well so when I have the heat on during the winter there's way less cold air leakage.
Best of luck with your cleanup project. That Deuce of yours is way too cool to be messed up with mildew!!