Re: Distinct Interior Smell?
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.
72 El Camino