Does anyone know how to get the stench of rotten whalemeat out of a Gladiator?

[Yapascuero]

My wife and I are having a lovely beach weekend for our anniversary. She's been indulging my desire to do Jeep stuff, so we have been using our sand permit.

Yesterday, we drove down to the historic lighthouse...

And we cruised on the beach (in the sections that aren't closed off for nesting shore birds).

But then, right when we came over a big dune and started dropping down to the last section of beach we hadn't explored,

I looked off to my left, and what did I see?

There was a dead whale washed up on the beach below. And this is where I made a terrible mistake. Of course, my wife and I wanted to get a picture of it. So of course we drove as close to it as we could. And of course we rolled down the passenger window to take some pictures.

Thirty feet away and directly downwind from 40 tons of rotten whalemeat.

We didn't get, like, chunks of meat in the truck, or even visible drops of seawater, but I guess that rotten whale oil was in the salt spray, because driving back into town, it smelled so bad I could taste it. We have a two hour drive home today, and despite the 45 degree weather, I might insist we keep the windows down.

I'm worried that this (powerful) stank is going to linger. Any cleaning tips?

baking soda is your friend. pour it all over the place and leave it in the carpets and seats (dry) for a day or two and then vacuum. if you still have the smell after that carpet spray should get rid of the rest.

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[Whiskerbiscuit]

Get an ozone machine... be careful ozone is deadly. But it works very good.

 

[Orange01z28]

When I occasionally smoke cigars in my car, I use this stuff.

leave the car running with the heat blasting on recirculate for like 10 mins after spraying this in the car. Seems to work well.

YOU CANNOT BE IN THE CAR WHEN ITS DOING ITS THING!!!

I second this stuff

The flu hit me and I barfed all over my windshield and myself before I could get to the side of the road. I had to to three rounds of this, as well as three new cabin air filters, and it made the stench go away

Poor Subaru

 

[Pedal Metal]

I noticed you have a JTR, so, I’m suspecting that the smell is attracted to Rubicons more so than say a Mojave. …Bahahaha!

JK, seriously, I agree with the ideas of multiple thorough washes of exterior, replace cabin filter (or at least pull it for a smell test) baking soda and don’t forget sunlight, fresh air And time.

 

[Pedal Metal]

I second this stuff

The flu hit me and I barfed all over my windshield and myself before I could get to the side of the road. I had to to three rounds of this, as well as three new cabin air filters, and it made the stench go away

Poor Subaru

Imagining this hurt my mind‘s eye!

 

[Sazabi19]

Futurama had it pretty much right, though admittedly it was whale vomit:

 

[CavFab_MFG]

I logged on to see what all the blubberin' was about.

nothin to see here
plenty to smell though, i bet

oh whale :D

 

[Rusty PW]

I had to go to the land fill today to get rid of some old tile that I removed from my front porch. The place stinks to put it mildly. The whole time there. All I could think about, is this thread. Wondering IF my JT will pick up the stink from there.

 

[maddocmuc]

I enjoyed your story.
I enjoyed your photos.
I have learned a lot and will hopefully not repeat the same mistake (unlikely anyway, there have not been any sightings if dead whales in switzerland lately.
I am a little helpless concerning a remedy to your mishap. If it was my jeep, I‘d do as follows:
- try another car, if problem persists, take a shower.
- of not, deckare your rig as desaster area and claim federal support
- if denied, sell it to Putin
- if he does not want it, set fire to the interior
- if reluctant to do so, live with it and enjoy the perspective of your car is propably never ever going to rust.

 

[Rusty PW]

I second this stuff

The flu hit me and I barfed all over my windshield and myself before I could get to the side of the road. I had to to three rounds of this, as well as three new cabin air filters, and it made the stench go away

Poor Subaru

Back in 1979. I had a TransAm and a Chevy Luv as my DD. The Luv had vinyl floor mat, no rug. Around Christmas time, was bar hooping in the Luv with my GF at the time. The temp was below zero. It was COLD. We hit 3 bars. I'm drinking beer. She is drinking just about anything that had alcohol in it. On the way to the 4th bar. She yells for me to stop. Before I could stop. She throws up everything, including dinner from 3 days before. She is SICK, and drunk. Take her home, get her inside, cleaned up and in bed before her parents come home. On the way home. I drove with the windows down. I was about to throw up myself from the smell. Parked the truck with the windows down over night. Wake up in the morning to clean out the truck. Had a bucket of hot water and cleaner, rubber gloves and paper towels. Open up the truck door to clean it out. All of the puke had frozen. I took it out in frozen chunks and threw the chucks over the hedge into the neighbor's yard for their dog to eat. (wasn't friendly with them) That was the easiest clean up I ever did. LOL GF didn't call me for 2 days. She was that sick. She never learned her lesson either.

 

[Orange01z28]

Back in 1979. I had a TransAm and a Chevy Luv as my DD. The Luv had vinyl floor mat, no rug. Around Christmas time, was bar hooping in the Luv with my GF at the time. The temp was below zero. It was COLD. We hit 3 bars. I'm drinking beer. She is drinking just about anything that had alcohol in it. On the way to the 4th bar. She yells for me to stop. Before I could stop. She throws up everything, including dinner from 3 days before. She is SICK, and drunk. Take her home, get her inside, cleaned up and in bed before her parents come home. On the way home. I drove with the windows down. I was about to throw up myself from the smell. Parked the truck with the windows down over night. Wake up in the morning to clean out the truck. Had a bucket of hot water and cleaner, rubber gloves and paper towels. Open up the truck door to clean it out. All of the puke had frozen. I took it out in frozen chunks and threw the chucks over the hedge into the neighbor's yard for their dog to eat. (wasn't friendly with them) That was the easiest clean up I ever did. LOL GF didn't call me for 2 days. She was that sick. She never learned her lesson either.

I just gagged

Good job

 

[Caseyx360]

At first I thought the subject was going to be funny, but what you described sure as hell sounds horrible.

I have an ozone generator that I use for a million things, including destroying odors. Amazon sells them for under $100. I have several and they all seem to work the same besides total coverage over a give time.

https://www.amazon.com/Enerzen-Comm...lja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1

 

[Oldmanchild]

White vinegar in a bowl. Place it in the vehicle in the back floor boards. That helped me when I had dead fish smell in my truck.

 

[bleda2002]

I noticed you have a JTR, so, I’m suspecting that the smell is attracted to Rubicons more so than say a Mojave. …Bahahaha!

JK, seriously, I agree with the ideas of multiple thorough washes of exterior, replace cabin filter (or at least pull it for a smell test) baking soda and don’t forget sunlight, fresh air And time.

I've heard smell and capability go together, even in death the whale knew which one is better.

 

[chaosjake]

At first I thought the subject was going to be funny, but what you described sure as hell sounds horrible.

I mean... it smells terrible, but it's pretty frickin' funny too. At the time, all I could think was "holy crap, that's a dead whale." Then when we drove back into town and could still smell it, it was more like "oh no, I've made a huge mistake."

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