how do you get rid of smoke smell?

[60ratrod]

actually i would try the water/vinegar route myself since it works wonders with smelly cat pee(last week i wanted to make kitten katsu out of the lil sob for peeing on both my pillow and side of the bed. thank god he's gone) in cloths since one of the cats likes to use the house as his litter box. again thank god i got rid of him. and i wonder how long the ozone machine treatment would last.

[stevencvn72]

I couldn't agree more with the vinegar. Had a giant gasoline fiasco (don't ask...I'm still alive) in the truck and in the garage. Placed a few bowls of white vinegar around the house and one in the truck for a few days and tada! No more gas smell. Of course, you'll have to give the PU a good cleaning first.

[thelonerife]

I didn't get the suv that had the smoke smell in it. I posted earlier that I went to TX and found a low mileage truck that hadn't been smoked in.Recently we had a hail storm and the truck had some damage to the roof,hood and a couple dents on doors here and there. It was 5700.00 worth of damage. Well I picked it up,, well my wife did and when I got home and gave it a good once-over everything on the outside looks great. When I opened the door I was hit with bodyshop smell. It smells like bondo/thinner. It just hits you when you first open the door then isn't as noticable after your in it for a while. It still has a new smell as well. I think I need to detail it myself so I can make sure its done well. And I think that its normal to have that lingering smell considering all that they did.Thanks guys for all your replies and I may try some if this body shop smell doesn't pass.

[pat 70/71]

I used a product called ozium on a ford ranger that we bought for our son. it worked real well. and the po was a cigar bone head!! try it! worked for us cheers, Pat

[87chevy.com]

after you cleaned it the best you can, put a drier fabric softner sheet behind the vent.... nice cheap way of having a good smelling interior.

[heartbeat96]

You can clean all you want, you'll never get it out completely.

I've cleaned mine pretty well, and I've cleaned out the a/c ducts under the dash and sprayed the evaporator with lemon cleaner. Main problem is the seats and headliner but you dont wanna clean the headliner because then its gunna start sagging.

Clean it the best you can, it will fade over time. Keep an air freshener in there it should be barely noticeable.

When the vehicle sits on a hot day is when i can smell it more.

I dont really mind it though truck has a classic smell to it.

[chris mc bride]

Probaly no help here. MY grandfather was paint contractor for 40 years. He had a customer call him t get smoke smell out of a house. He mixed 3 gallons of vanillia extract with 40 gallons of paint and sprayed the attack that had burnt. The home owner called him a year later and said she had the sweetest smelling house on the block.
Wonder if theres some way to put this to work in a auto.
As a cigarette hating SOB I can tell you its one hard small to get rid of. The main thing is the upholstery. The only way to get it out is to replace it. As for rubber and painted pieces I would think a washing with something like greased llighting might help. This Is why when in my vehicle,shop or house I can quarantee that smolking kills and even sounds like a 45 be shot at you. Heck bad part Im about to marry a cancer stick sucker. I keep telling her when she dies from it I'll have plenty of money to buy some young girls(over 21 under 30,no jail bait so take it easy).
If you do find something to completely remove the smell you can be rich easy.

[d.uccello]

There are some good suggestions in this thread and I know the OP mentioned he bought another vehicle but should someone else stumble upon this thread I have some experience in recovering a vehicle from fire/water damage.

The main areas for lingering odors in the car will be the carpet padding, the headliner, the door panels and the heater/ac ducts. The only way to do a full recovery would be to gut the interior and the fresh air systems, replace all padding and sound deadener, clean out the inside of the doors, the wiring harnesses and the inside compartment sheet metal, steam clean the carpet, upholstery and especially the seat foam, then sanitize everything before putting it back in... quite a job, and still a hot day could bring out some smoke from the permanent insulation in newer cars and various nooks and crannies.

A quicker "fix" would be to just clean the upholstery as good as possible and run some Fire-D through the vehicle. Will not get everything but will help a lot... and leave your vehicle smelling like bubblegum for a few months :P

[chip46wis]

The BEST thing I have ever found for removing odors is-----newspaper----really!!! cover the seats carpet ect with a newspaper or 2 for a few days and replace for a few days if needed. I saved a freezer that had ROTTEN meat in it and I laid whole newspapers on the bottom and then stuffed the rest with newspaper for a week then replaced the entire works of newspapers------NO smell at all! it worked for me.

[dmwphoto]

Originally Posted by piecesparts

Wow Man, what is that in the rear view mirror?????? Is it Officer Stidanko?

just stare and act natural.....

[81ShrtBox]

I just purchased a 2007 Altima for my daughter. It stinks of cigarette smoke. I'm gonna try putting coffee grounds in it. After hurricane katrina everyones refrigerators, homes, automobiles etc... were pretty stinky, most people just went purchased new stuff. I found out that a lil-bit coffee grounds in an open container will remove about ANY odor. try it... it works

[60ratrod]

oh man i love the smell of fresh coffe grounds/beans. that's my favorite part of the grocery store. don't like the smell of brewed coffe or care for brewed coffe myself, but man the fresh beans/grounds..... best fragrance ever

[72BlckButy]

Great ideas guys. The coffee ground one surprises me but if it works, it works.

[Liz]

coffee grounds work great. I used that trick when there was a dead mouse in the walls of the girls bedroom.

[81ShrtBox]

I cracked the window and left coffee grounds in it for 2days... added a few Vanillaroma trees and a Pinacolada fragrance sack and the smoke smell is officially GONE. You can smell the fresh new smell outside the car with the windows up

[rbagley]

I know ozone does work great. It should be permanent fix too. It's a 3-oxygen molecule that can steal electrons from other molecules (including stinky smells) by breaking double bonds. Basically, ozone is to bad odors what Chuck Norris is to Texas crime.

[colin_havens]

Originally Posted by rbagley

I know ozone does work great. It should be permanent fix too. It's a 3-oxygen molecule that can steal electrons from other molecules (including stinky smells) by breaking double bonds. Basically, ozone is to bad odors what Chuck Norris is to Texas crime.

I sell insurance, and have a close relationship with some companies that do fire restorations in homes. Cigeratte smoke is what they refer to as a "wet smoke" as it has tars and other chemicals that make the smoke stick to things and penetrate the pores of items, as opposed to a "dry smoke" that can be cleaned much easier. The only way they can get smoke smells out of a house is to either seal and repaint so the odor causign molucles are trapped and cannot let their smell go, or use a combination of a a thermal fogger and an ozone machine to remove it. Anything else will just mask the smell till it returns.

On a vehicle, you can either remove and replace ALL of the interior (that included the dash and all the ac duct work behind it too), or use an ozone machine. Ozone is basically three oxygen molucules chained together, but it is unstable. So when it interacts with other molucules (such as cigerette smoke) it actually breaks it up on a molucular level, and the smell goes away. Alot of dealerships that sell alot of used cars have one, and a half a day or a day with that machine running inside will get rid of ALL ordors, and make it smell like new.