The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Seat smells like pee. Really.

Hey guys, so I just got my truck, and it has a rather unpleasant odour in the cab...smells like urine, yeah, pretty gross. I thought it was the floor, until I realized that after sitting in it, my jacket smelled like the truck. So it's the seat.

My question is, will shampooing the seat eliminate this? If not, what else can I do? The seat is in beautiful original shape, not a tear or stain anywhere...so I'd really like to save it!

The truck sat for 3 years before I got it, so I'm guessing it's mouse pee.

You could take it apart and wash the foam and padding and put it back together. If it is mouse pee they may have nested in the foam. You should be able to tell from the back side. If you don't want to take it apart, shampoo it and try some charcoal under the seat. Airing it out will help but smells tend to return on really hot days, in a closed up cab.

Adam61

Have you driven the truck?

you never know where you might find a nest
Check out this thread
https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=672222#Post672222

Good luck

Put it out for a few days in the sun and let it air out.

DADS50, yeah, I have driven it. It rides super nice, but runs only ok. Carburetor is goobered, will have to rebuild that, and then it should run good.

You'll most likely have to have the seat re-padded & re-covered. Urine smell is very difficult to get rid of.

Such a shame. Really, you guys should see this seat!

Junk the stinkin mess and replace it, every time the temperature gets up the smell will come back.

try this........link:

http://www.febreze.com/en-us/pages/home.aspx

Simplest fix from my vantage point would be to get an upholstery kit from one of the vendors rather than try to save the old stuff. They are really quite inexpensive and come with all new stuffing. Anything that’s nearly a half-century-old is probably due for some new dressing any way.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Ok. I'm prettty convinced now that I need to get rid of the seat. I'll clean it the best I can and use some germicidal cleaner on it for now, and get an upholstry kit for it in the near future. Thanks for all the advice guys.

An old prank was to raise the rear motor hood of the VW Beatle and pee on the heater tubing. When you cranked it up and it got hot you could smell burnt urine and it never stops smelling. Replace the guts of the seat and forget it.

Adam61-
So i have a similar situation. I just got a 52 chevy 1/2 ton. Turns out at some point, some cute little mice decided to nest underneath the seat. I've got some time as a detailer so i've treated similar oder's in other vehicles. in this case, i vacuumed everything out, treated the metal under the seat and re-painted. i can still smell it. Although i see people recommend fabreeze or other industrial cleaners, my advice would be to recover the seat. take it down to the frame and start over. quite frankly, no matter what chemical you use, padding is so thick and there is so much overall material on seats, i doubt you could really clean it enough to completely remove the oder. plus chemicals that are too harsh will most likely damage the fabric....

I would replace everything but the metal.

You can mask this problem for a period of time but it will return.

I'll say it again.........
Germicidal Cleaner

Not only does it kill those harmful/hazardous little bugs but it also neutralizes the bad smells.
My bus had a foot of Rat Poop in it along w/who know how many years of being pee'd in. After cleaning it out and using bleach, baking soda & a bunch other things to get rid of the smell, I still could not put it in my garage for the next year, stunk to high heaven.
I mixed up 1-2gallons of Germicidal Cleaner sprayed down the complete interior & in a matter on minutes the smell was gone for good .

I would also paint the metal frame as well and the floorboard under it.

Find a stock tank and fill it with laundry detergent/water and bleach mix (not too much bleach), and submerge the seat for an afternoon. Get the water as warm (hot preferably) as you can. Then rinse the seat real good with hot water after wards. Then set it out in the sun to drip dry for a few days and/or run a fan on it to help it dry. Clean the inside of the truck real good with hot water/bleach mix. Place a bar of Irish spring in the truck under the seat when you reinstall it. Make sure the seat is fully dry before you put it back in.