I have been to a couple of shows were the spectators mention how they remember so and so had the same car as mine (1966 Chevelle) and how they all have a certain smell to them interior wise.
Any one else come across this?
I am just curious, because even with new foams, seat covers, door panels and headliner it does still retain a distinct smell.
Funny I know but interesting none the less.

Yeah, what is that?

I remember looking at a friends 70 Mustang once, smelled just like my old 68 Chevelle...he thought I was crazy when I said, yep, smells just like an old car...

60's Ford/Mercury interiors have a very distinctive smell.
Couldn't tell you why. Must be the way the vinyl was made.

I installed two sets of NOS covers a couple years back- one for for a 63 galaxie, the other for a 65 Mercury Comet and as soon as i pulled them out of their boxes they gave off that distinctive ford interior smell, exactly like a friends 66 mustang w/ original interior.

Repop covers don't seem to have that smell- they just smell like new vinyl.

Original Chevy's don't seem to have a specific smell that I've noticed, though often original seats / interiors have a very old "smoker" smell- but from what I've seen it goes away when the original interior gets redone.

just my thoughts. I haven't done enough mopar seats to know if they have a specific smell or not-

Although I can say the guts & design of Mopar seat frames & springs are very similar to the guts & frames of Ford seats (and also AMC seats), which has made me wonder if the same subcontractor designed/built them.

The Guts of GM's seats are noticeably unique when compared to the others.

I'm betting unless they are restored, they all have that same mouse whiz scent.

My 66 has the "what went on in the back seat" smell. Got a love it.

Mine has been known to have that Ode De burnt rubber smell...

Cars with original interiors ABSOLUTELY have a distinct smell. The vinyl materials changed over the years to where I personally can differentiate from a mid 60s GM car to an early to mid 70s GM.

My first 67 was an original 40k mile car & it smelled like you were sitting in a new car before I restored it. The smell is still so recognizable to my olfactory senses that I can immediately tell an original car when I still my head in the window or open the door.

Even better, my '73 Nova SS that my Dad bought new in September of '72 still has 21,000 original miles. When you open the door to that car, you're immediately transported back in time to the 70s, but the smell is uniquely different from the scent of my first '67.

Hard to explain, even more difficult to describe, but it does exist.

Try some of this in Old Red....

https://www.professionaldetailingpro.../new-car-scent

My sister and I were just discussing old car smell this weekend while I was in the process of replacing my carpet. My "guess" was that it was a combo of tar-based products (I was peeling, chiseling, and melting with mineral spirits the factory sound deadener pieces), mildew from various pieces of the interior getting wet at some time in their history, and maybe ever gasoline fume impregnated interiors. In fact, after I had finished swabbing down the floor to clean metal with mineral spirits it smelled even stronger of old car. I had assumed that I had reactivated the old molecules and left a thin film of them just like a hot day on creosote railroad ties that are decades old.

Now that metal floor has been almost totally covered with dynamat, dynapad, jute, and carpet. All you can smell for the moment is toluene off-gassing from the contact cement, so I'll be interested to see just how much smell comes back after a couple of weeks.

I got the same story from the guy that bought my "66". When he called me to say he recieved the car and opened the door and got in it immediately brought him back to his younger years when his parents had a "66".
He also commented on the sound of the deck lid making a little pop when the key was turned and it opened.

My Chevelle had a really nice original black cloth bench seat interior when I was just out of High School. Cruised a lot of miles, made a lot of memories, etc at that time. The interior has since been changed out to new parchment vinyl, and I never really noticed that the smell was different.

This summer at a show, there was a '69 Malibu with an original cloth interior. I stuck my head in the window to look at the dash, and the smell brought back all those old memories instantly. I had to go look at that car, and smell it, several times that day.

The weird thing was that I drove my car to the show (same car I drove in High School) but it was that other car that triggered all those memories.

Definitely... I say that every time I stick my head in and old GM car. They do all smell alike... Nice

We had a VW bug that everyone commented the interior smelled like Crayons. It did...

Naw Mike, he's got all original seat covers and rebuilt seats ( well the front) . I sort of dig the 1967 vinyl degassing reek!