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How 'bout not buying seats in the U.S. Indeed, the shipping would be astronomical. I just shipped a pair of $80.00 shoes to Germany for $90.00. Ebay, the 'J' forums plus the European clubs should have plenty in your area. Maybe not.
Try this. Place large black garbage bags over the seats. Tape them up. See what happens. Use your ozone machine if you wish. After a few days poke a hole in the bag and give it a sniff.
How 'bout not buying seats in the U.S. Indeed, the shipping would be astronomical. I just shipped a pair of $80.00 shoes to Germany for $90.00. Ebay, the 'J' forums plus the European clubs should have plenty in your area. Maybe not.
Try this. Place large black garbage bags over the seats. Tape them up. See what happens. Use your ozone machine if you wish. After a few days poke a hole in the bag and give it a sniff.
Good Luck
Jip
that's a bloody great idea! Will try that. Will also place something on the steering wheel. Far easier than dismantling it AGAIN.
unfortunately more and more i see two realistic solutions:
1 buying a complete interior and swapping it - only if completely stripped down the interior does not smell.
2 selling it. There are two or three guys that want to buy it. Not sure if you noticed, prices in Europe started to climb. Slowly but steadily. Hagery's included the XKR in their list. A 2000 model has a medium price of 20k dollars (45k for concours state, 15k for good state).
How 'bout not buying seats in the U.S. Indeed, the shipping would be astronomical. I just shipped a pair of $80.00 shoes to Germany for $90.00. Ebay, the 'J' forums plus the European clubs should have plenty in your area. Maybe not.
Try this. Place large black garbage bags over the seats. Tape them up. See what happens. Use your ozone machine if you wish. After a few days poke a hole in the bag and give it a sniff.
Good Luck
Jip
Maybe i'm crazy or maybe i've just got used to the smell but seems it smells less once i wrapped the seats in bags. One sign that i might be right is the fact that an Ozium freshner, that before was completely engulfed in the smell, now is present.
will leave it a few more days and then poke holes and smell the seats. Plus, i booked an industrial disinfection with a specialized company. Can't hurt.
Who knows, Trilapis. Maybe 'dumbing it down' might be worth a try. My first suggestion was to remove the seats and place them in big plastic bags. Tape them shut to retain the odor, if any, in the bag. I don't see why bagging them up in situ would hurt. Certainly a lot easier. Don't drive the car for a few days to let the odor hopefully clear the cabin area. You have a Coupe' as I remember. Same here. So no top down to speed up our ongoing research.
Don't worry, Trilapis. I've found moving down to poverty level might find the problem out of shear necessity. How would you fix the problem with little or no money. Not everybody has a spare million dollars to throw at old Jaguar.
Not posted here in a while as things got busy on all levels. Managed to take the seats out, stored them into a van overnight, they stink like hell. So for sure the seat pads are at least one of my problems. And that is why all attempts of killing the smell failed. I'll take out the leather as soon as possible as i am really afraid it got contaminated too.
Inside the smell is not gone but a lot less. I sat on the carpet for like 2 minutes, when entered the house my wife, who is my smell radar, said, "have you been in the jaguar?" So it still smells but i guess just a tiny bit. I'll play with the ozone machine as Jip reccomended and see what happens.
Now for the bloody seat pads that no restorer can manufacture, waiting for a miracle to find ones, maybe in europe, that i can ship home without paying a fortune...
It seems to me that if seat exists it can be remanufactured. Have you looked at a custom repair shop that does custom interiors for hotrods? Many shops do a simple R&R and when that is not available they turn the work away. Or just go to ebay!
I looked at that same advert, Gus. T'was a few weeks back, though. They're out there.
I still find it hard to believe almost any upholstery shop can't cut foam pads. Shoot, I could make them if I had a donor seat, plus the proper tool. Hell, I've cut foam with a giant bread knife, with teeth. The upholstery over the foam will hide how crappy the foam looks.
I'd prefer the Ebay kit.
I'm also searhing ebay but to bring those foams from us to europe is a lot. Found all the foams for 300 but the shipping from california just to ny is another 250. Then i should make it arrive on the other side of the pond.
through jaguar classic division i have contacted the best restorers and manufacturers of seats and seat pads. None of them said they can do it. Problem is the shape is 3D, not 2D like in old and classic models. Sorry Jip but you can't do it with a knife. Or you can but it will look like something done in a kindergarten cooking class. Still weighting my options. Started to take into consideration selling it, as i was offered three times the price i payed for it, smell problem included.
Well, we gave it our best, Trilapis.
It was 1972 and making $100 per month for 2 years, while living in Seattle and owning a 24' sloop I paid $250 for. Living like a King. More pot, ***** and beer than I knew what to do with.
I bought a piece of foam at the salvage about 2 feet by 6 feet by 10 inches thick. With bread knife in hand I sliced the foam down the middle making two 5 inch think mattresses. Then upholstered them with my Moms 90 year old sewing machine. The lumpy side of the foam went on the bottom. It beat sleeping on plywood.
I have not read all the posts, but in regards to smell, have you thought perhaps it was a pet accident? Decades ago, I rented an apartment that had a weird smell. It was upstairs, and in the summer, the smell got worse. I checked under the sink, the carpets were new, etc...finally one day, the landlord decided to take out the carpet to do hardwood flooring, and it revealed several dark marks where either cat or dog from prior renters had accidents...the only thing that worked was a heavy duty spray cleaner used for pet accidents.
perhaps the prior owner let his pets in the car? just a thought,,,pet cleaners are pretty strong, and they do work...
After more than half a year the title of this thread is still valid...no solution for my problem.
Didn't post in a while as literally i didn't know what to ask or what to try.
Now for the updates:
One of the best upholsterers around started helping me in trying to find a cure.
Unfortunately the cure means eliminating all interior parts that smell.
The new leather covers i bought last year smell too (probably taking spores from the pads) so i'm afraid those are compromised.
Seat pads - taken out, the smell reduced by half inside the car. Need to find new ones.
carpets - taken out, again smell inside the car diminished.
we'll take down the dashboard and the door panels and the rear ones, basically stripping it down for the third time.
but this time we'll find replacements for all the parts, recondition them and wrap them in leather, including the ones that are now vinyl (dashboard, center console, door panels, rear panels).
now i'm on the hunt for those parts. Good news is that i found a decent shipping option from US (woodward, ny) to here.
Visited a shady local mechanic today, that had around 3 xk8s damaged in all kinds of ways. He asked for a crazy price for the dashboard piece. He was "frankenstein-ing" them and selling them for absurd prices. At least one good piece of news. XK8 values are surely on a rise.
Hi Trilapis, we have all been following this thread with deep admiration for your love of this car as well as your tenacity to work towards eradicating the unfortunate odor. The mold in the foam can be left in the sun for days and it will probably help, but we know it will never permanently cure the issue. The other parts, (except for maybe the carpet), can probably be successfully treated now that you have separated them from the demon foam.
As for the foam, replacing is indeed the only viable option. Probably no amount of Ozium or ultraviolet light could ever do the job, and it wouldn't be worth the expense. But you can do this! Foam can be shaped in 3D and it's really not that difficult, if you have a steady hand and the right tools. There are probably some good local indie automobile or motorcycle upholstery shops that can take on the challenge if you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself.
You can shape a 3D foam seat using an electric knife for the rough cuts, then a razor sharp, electrically-heated craft knife plus a sanding attachment in an electric drill for the fine shaping. Use large pieces of cardboard and make templates of the old foam with them about 2 to 3 inches apart, (front-to-back for the seat bottom and bottom-to-top for the seat back). The finished result doesn't have to be 100 percent accurate, as the contoured seat leather will mask small imperfections (and your backside won't notice any difference...). Does this make sense? (Check out the heated blade craft knife picture below and this URL to a YouTube foam shaping video).
All that said, if someone offered me 3 times (or even twice) the money that I have in my beloved/fickle '05 XK8, I would instantly sign over the title and even top off the fuel tank in the deal. And yes, I would take the monies and immediately start hunting for my next XK8!
Hi All so it has gotten to the point of radical solutions. Fortunately or unfortunately. Long story short - i have found a complete interior, full black, out of a 2004 damaged model. I'll get that, take everything off the interior, big dash piece included, treat it with Waxoil all over and in all nooks and crannies and then set up the new interior. I think it's the easiest and cheapest solution. Should i worry about pieces over a 2004 not fitting my '99?
just want to see that bare metal interior treated and smelling of something else...so we can mount the new interior on clean grounds.
Well, that's the way to do things. Find a later model interior for an earlier car. So back to the foam cutting,,,just curious,,,if it were me,,,and it was a year ago, with the old foam seat pad sitting in front of me a new foam pad can be carved out very easily with the correct tool. A few practice pads to learn on and after a few attempts might get you close or spot-on the original. Carving foam looks like carving butter. This is the tool I was thinking of.
Nice to hear you've got a plan.
Well, that's the way to do things. Find a later model interior for an earlier car. So back to the foam cutting,,,just curious,,,if it were me,,,and it was a year ago, with the old foam seat pad sitting in front of me a new foam pad can be carved out very easily with the correct tool. A few practice pads to learn on and after a few attempts might get you close or spot-on the original. Carving foam looks like carving butter. This is the tool I was thinking of.
Nice to hear you've got a plan.
'Cheers' Jip
Hi Jip,
It's not just the foams, it's everything. The dash big piece smells pretty bad, making the air coming from the ventilation system to smell too. Door panels, which are in fact carboard plus some vinyl, smell too. That is why i ended up with the conclusion that a replacement interior will solve the problem. Still i am a bit anxious until we'll take out everything and waxoil the interior. I'm looking forward to another smell...
Just kidding. Anyway. I like a man who keeps on no matter what. A good sailor, perhaps. And it's not 'too bad' you wasted all of this time on a silly car. I've got a 5 year boat story that breeches the super-natural. I and every authority in town can't figure it out.
Your new interior fix sounds quick and easy and it probably didn't break the bank. And look at the knowledge we all gained from your experience. Plus you can clean the car in places no human has ever been.
Keep us posted, Trilapis.
So here i am at the end or actually the beginning of my journey. Car is currently stripped to the bare metal on the interior, the Waxoil kind of treatment was applied and for the first time in two years, it smells like fresh paint instead of old man. The paint is already dry so i hope the smell will stay and the old one to really be gone. i love this smell.
Went out and brought the black interior to the shop, dash included. it comes from a 2004 model. Hope the seat modules will communicate with my car (1999 interior). What's your experience on that?
Rather than that, please keep those fingers crossed for an end of my long journey, that will finish with an all-black interior smelling of fresh leather. And Merry Christmas everyone!
Thanks again for all the help, the great tips, the great words, the encouragement. Hope to bring this boat safely ashore.
and as i was saying before, it's actually not the end, but the beginning. hope the beginning of enjoying this car.
Nice to hear from you and Thank You for the Christmas cheer. It sounds like you're on a roll. Plus the Waxoil treatment is in order at this time.
I stripped down to bare steel and painted a 911 interior with zinc etching primer. Then brushed on car paint. Then stuck down Dynamat sound deadening. Then glued in the original carpets. Then installed the original interior. So we're not too far off from one another. Keep us posted. I assume you are taking photos to document your endeavors.
On a rainy February day (around 6 degrees Celsius round here, so we can roll in summer tyres) i picked up the Jaguar from my new friend - the upholsterer.
I am happy to say that after Waxoil and a full interior change (donor car was a 2002 model), the smell is completely gone. The car now smells of that oil (that was applied in late October, hope in time the smell will fade away, anyway it is pleasant). The only this that is still a bit not right is the ventilation system. Turned it on and it spreads a bizarre smell that is pretty similar with the old one. I'll change again the filter, maybe it caught the old smell. Ozone it again. The heating units were cleaned and their isolation changed (it was badly attacked). Any ideas to what should we clean/change in the hvac system? Or maybe i should just leave it working a few more days as the system was not used since september?
Thank you all for the help, i feel i owe this victory to all of you. Also the guys at Jaguar Classic Global were really helpful.
Some pics of the interior will follow. Just need to adjust the stereo (newer model) and the seats (again newer style and they need a slight adaptation)
08-19-2017, 10:57 AM
