Well guys I thought I would share my Jeep project with everyone. I have to say I am extremely excited to get this rig done. This is my first Jeep too. I've built quite a few rigs, the last I built was my HUMMER H3. It was setup really well and worked flawlessly on the trails and took my family and I on several great trips. Last of which was the Naches Pass Trail. However, the H3 had its limitations due to the IFS front suspension. This will be our first straight axle rig for offroad. I bought this 99 Classic for 2 grand. The previous owner was a dog lover and this rig smelled something terrible. The driver seat was mashed down and the back rest was bent as well. When I bought the jeep it has issues with dying all the time and I almost didn't buy it because of that. However with some research here, I found it was probably because of the weak battery it had. I put my Optima I has sitting on the shelf in and have yet to have that issue again.

So I have started project clean. This thing had hair behind every panel including the dash and above the headliner. I completely stripped out the interior and the dash. I also pulled the dash due the the defrost door blowing shut on high speed fan selection. I found the problem with that and will share later. This is about trying to get the jeep clean and smelling not like wet dog. I pressure washed the carpets to get them clean and used carpet shampoo on them to try and get a clean fresh smell. This worked pretty well, but I found something even better.


This stuff is awesome! After the carpets dried the smell was about 90% gone. I sprayed this stuff on there (get it at PetCo) and the smell is 100% gone and the carpets smell great. I'm not afraid to bury my nose in them anymore. While I was at it I sprayed down the complete inside of the Jeep on all the metal and wiring. Then wiped it all dry. Inside the Jeep is nice and fresh now. Next I've just got to put in every piece of interior after fully scrubbing all of the trim etc... I've already started taking the seats apart and washing the covers in the washing machine and still have to recover the headliner.
Looks great from the outside.







As you can see hair is everywhere!

 

So, once I've got this all cleaned up this jeep is getting a full makeover. I plan on a RC 6.5 Longarm lift with Bilstien shocks, pocket flares, bumpers, rock sliders and 33 inch tires. I can't wait! I plan on sharing every step of this project so keep your eyes on this if you're interested in seeing where it goes. I've got buddies that are into building 100K buggies who want me to go extreme. I'm just going to make the a family rig that is super capable. I was almost convinced to put a Dana 60 up front and 14 bolt in the rear. My goal is to build what I've got and be happy without any crazy fabrication. If anyone has any input, please feel free to share with me.

 

How well does that odor remover work? Had one of my neighbors dip**** cats **** in my passenger seat this summer when the doors were off and nothing has gotten the smell out. You can't smell it at all in the winter, but I know it's going to **** me off when it starts getting warm again.

 

Works great! You can buy a small bottle at PetCo. It's designed to get rid of urine odor and stains. You gotta saturate the area really good and just let it dry. This is the first time I've ever used it and I'm very impressed. The reviews on google are pretty good that I've found. That's where I got the idea when I was doing a search on what works the best. I was doing a pretty good job, this stuff has made it just a little easier and better in my opinion.

 

So can I send you my 98XJ limited and have you gut the interior and clean it lol. That's amazing attention to detail, I'll be watching this one.

 

Wow, you could weave a rug with all that dog hair.
Once you get through that the XJ is lookin good.

 

At one point in my life I worked on police cars for a living. The K9 cars were the worst to work on, there was dog hair everywhere and the smell was overpowering! If you drove with the windows open there would be clouds of hair swirling around, it was pretty gross.

 

Well the "Dog Mobile" as we have nick named this Jeep for now is on its way back together. I washed the dash frame from all smell and hair.





Then put the rear carpet back in.

 

You may want to remove the A/C evaporator and clean the bejesus out of it. You might get the dog stink again the first time you use the A/C.

 

Where's that at? It's probably in the heater box huh? Not sure I want the take the heater box out if it is.

 

Here's my progress after about 3 hours today. I'm scrubbing each piece I have to put back in as I go.







Time to spend some time with my woman and watch a movie.

 

Yeah, it's in the HVAC case. You would have to evacuate the A/C system of the refrigerant in order to remove the evaporator.

 

Thought so... Ill try drawing in some disinfectant through the fan first and see if that helps. That was my original plan, hope its effective.

 

At my shop we have issues with a/c odors we have a few things that work one is called contras cept followed by a wynns powder cleansing and thirdly an ozone treatment. The contrasecpt is a gnarly alcohol based spray that we funnel into the hvac box near the evaporator with the car running on full a/c. And wynns is liquid that gets vaporized and sucked through the a/c with the windows up basically a bug bomb but for smells and then any remaining smells is taken care of with an hour of and ozone generator running. Then we have a Mercedes specific treatment. It's an aerosol foam your drill a hole into the hvac case and foam the hell out of the evap and have the blower on lo with the car runnig to push it through then let is sit for 15 mins. Off then plug the hole with provided plug done those take care of the smell. If you want on Tuesday I can get you some part numbers for the second method if you want it works great on anything. Just make sure the interior is clean. I've had people comming back complaining of smells still and they have dirty clothes and **** in the car. Oh and any cabin filters change them. I Dont Know if out jeeps even have those

 

Thanks. That'd be awesome if you could do that for me. Ill look into the other stuff too.