Wet Miata....detail shop?

[t walgamuth]

After a month with little or no rain, yesterday we got a down pour.....after about ten to fifteen minutes I looked in my driveway and noticed I had not latched down my miata top nor rolled up the window.

The carpets are soaked and the cloth seats as well. I need to do something quickly today to avoid mold.

Will a detail shop be able to dry it out?

[Angel]

Tom W,
Up early today ?
You can call any detail shop you want, but I imagine that they wouldnt do anything that you can't do (not sure if you have a garage available...)
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/detailing-interior/114518-how-dry-wet-car-carpet.html
there are a few ideas in that thread. When my "monotheistic nonprofit" was recently flooded, we hired a company to dry all the wetted carpets - all they did was open the doors and bring in some large fans that blew along the floor (one large fan per room - they were those squirel-cage high velocity fans...they were there for most of 2 days) I think that they periodically moved the fans around so that they caught every part of the carpet, but a Miata interior is pretty small - any fan would probably do.

I have done the "shop vac to suck up water" idea, and it will pick up a lot of moisture if you spend some time with it.

-John

[layback40]

Take out the floor mats & hang them up.
If you can park the car in the sun with the top off, a good day would dry it. Fans will help but so would a good strong wind.

[t walgamuth]

I woke up at 4 and could not go back to sleep. Finally I decided i was hungry and ate a half pbj and half glass of milk then went back to bed. I reawoke at 7 and am hungry again.

I think I will remove the seats and bring them into the ac and put a fan on them. the car will go in the garage which is sort of semi air condidioned and get a big fan trained on it.

I found out last evening that we are not leaving for the west coast adventure until mid day so I have another morning to do things.

Thanks for the ideas!

[ramonajim]

Tom - as a former SoCal guy (weather check on parking Miata: look up - no clouds? No worries, top stays down) who learned the wet way that weather doesn't behave the same way in the rest of the country, I have LOTS of experience with wet 'yadas. Favorite has to be during my road trip to Connecticut for my first Barb-B-Que (from which I brought home Darling Wife!!!): left the top down when I stopped for the night, got up to find that the skies had opened and dropped 2" of rain while slept.

Was parked outside a Bob Evans, and went inside to ask if I could borrow a few towels..... seems the entire staff and all the customers had been contemplating the story behind the "really nice car" left topless over night - consensus seems to have been that it had been dumped with a body in the trunk! Wound up with a bucket full of towels, a bus boy to assist, and a roll of trash bags to cover the soaked seats so I could drive on semi-dry.

I've never done anything more than pull out the floor mats, shop vac the floor, and point fans at the interior. More than once it was simply pull out the floor mats.... no vac and no fans. Only damage I've ever encountered is an angry stereo head unit (the display got flaky, but I'm still using it 5 years on).

Only exception - early Miata's (can't remember which years specifically) that have the ECU on the floor under the passenger seat (later moved to the wall behind the passenger seat think that was in 94, but can't swear to it). Enough water will get those wet/damp and you will want to deal with the box accordingly.

[kerry]

Drop the Miata off in Colorado while you're on your West Coast trip and let the low humidity and relentless sun beat down on it until it shrivels up.


What's a 'monotheistic non-profit' Larry?

[JB3]

I seem to remember that during the multiple times I stole my fathers Miata and drove off on a date, that when it got rained in, just leaving it open on a sunny day it was fine in no time.

I wouldn't even bother removing the seats, maybe pull the mats, but those seats are designed to dry fast from what I remember.

My fathers 91 got wet plenty of times, and when I sold it, it still had that excellent cockpit smell those cars have, which is spectacular

[t walgamuth]

I guess I worried too soon. I planned to remove the seats and so forth but had an early appointment and put a towell on the seat and went. When I came out two hours later everything was nice and dry.

All's well that ends well!

[Jim H]

When I discovered water standing in the trunk of my wife's Sebring, I removed the contents, sucked out as much as I could with a shop vac (the vacuum at your local car wash may work just as well...) and left the trunk lid open all day in the sunshine. Two days of airing out and sunshine dried everything up quite well.

This might work for interior carpeting as well.

Good luck

[JB3]

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

I guess I worried too soon. I planned to remove the seats and so forth but had an early appointment and put a towell on the seat and went. When I came out two hours later everything was nice and dry.

All's well that ends well!

have you had the sloshing in the doors problem?

I found over a gallon of water in each door from plugged up drains on the bottom. Cause- cat hair.

Made for interesting driving, i was selling the car at the time, and every time you would stop and go, there would be tons of splashing pool like noises.

Totally threw off a few buyers

[t walgamuth]

Originally Posted by dropnosky

have you had the sloshing in the doors problem?

I found over a gallon of water in each door from plugged up drains on the bottom. Cause- cat hair.

Made for interesting driving, i was selling the car at the time, and every time you would stop and go, there would be tons of splashing pool like noises.

Totally threw off a few buyers

Yuck!

My carpet was dry too.

[panZZer]

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

After a month with little or no rain, yesterday we got a down pour.....after about ten to fifteen minutes I looked in my driveway and noticed I had not latched down my miata top nor rolled up the window.

The carpets are soaked and the cloth seats as well. I need to do something quickly today to avoid mold.

Will a detail shop be able to dry it out?

hey tom--what do you think detail shops do?? They open the doors at the carwash and spray out the seats and carpets, then they use the vac to suck all the water out. Ive seen some guys use a hammer and screwdriver to poke holes in the floor to let it drain more

[t walgamuth]

Ouch! That does not sound good.