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I supported Toymods
Toymods Club Secretary
Location:
Sydney
Registered:
May 2002
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Best way to dry a car?
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Tue, 06 April 2004 13:08
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Just wondering if anyone's ever had to dry a car out before? ie. If you've had the misfortune of things getting a little waterlogged..
Had to drive through a flooded road the other day and things got a little wet  I've been leaving the doors/windows open of a night, and driving with the heater on full and blasting down towards the floor..
Most of the carpet is now pretty well dry, however my headlights seem to have a LOT of condensation in them still. Is this just a "wait for it to dry" sort of thing?
If you've had your carpets soaked before, what did you find was the best way of getting them dry? Lots of towels? Hairdryer? etc..
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Location:
Melbourne
Registered:
May 2002
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Re: Best way to dry a car?
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Tue, 06 April 2004 13:13
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dry as much as possable with a wet and dry vac then paper towel
after that Heater on flat out with the aircon on as well (to dehumidify) and on FRESH thats about all you can do and also if you have a fan heater put that on aswell inside the car (make shure its not pointing at anything that can catch fire
Allan
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Location:
Sydney/Wollongong
Registered:
October 2003
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Re: Best way to dry a car?
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Tue, 06 April 2004 13:18
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| Lucid wrote on Tue, 06 April 2004 23:08 |
If you've had your carpets soaked before, what did you find was the best way of getting them dry? Lots of towels? Hairdryer?
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Used a large sponge to get out most of the water, until the carpets were damp to the touch (rather than soaking wet) and then used a hairdryer to get rid of the remaining water...
Couple of points to note;
*Use a pattern when drying the carpets i.e. left to right, small patches at a time etc. It's no use blowing hot air everywhere...
*DON'T use the hottest setting to get the job done quicker. It does a much better job if you do it slow and take your time...
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Club Member
Location:
Sydney, NSW
Registered:
May 2002
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Re: Best way to dry a car?
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Tue, 06 April 2004 13:20
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The only way to completely dry carpet is to remove it out of the car and hang it to dry... The floorpan under the carpet will have water sitting in it and won't dry up for ages...
And with the headlights, they must have a leak in them somewhere to have condensation inside... You could always pull them apart, wipe out the inside and reaseal them of you want... Otherwise, the condensation usually doesn't ever go away...
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I supported Toymods
Toymods Club Secretary
Location:
Sydney
Registered:
May 2002
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Re: Best way to dry a car?
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Tue, 06 April 2004 13:33
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 thanks for the suggestions guys.
Ben - Luckily most of the carpet is now dry. The floor wasn't completely water-logged, but still wetter than i would like it.. (oh - and the car fricken STINKS!!). I'll see how it is when I pick it up tomorrow. Hopefully a bit better.
Allan - I was thinking about the fan heater idea, but at the time didn't really like the idea of just leaving it running in the wet car for the obvious reasons..
Conquest - *takes notes* Sponge and hairdryer
Thanks again guys 
On another note - What experiences have people found themselves in when they've had to figure out these methods?
There was a Commodore parked at the side of the road I drove through that was going to be in much worse shape than my car when the owner got back to it.. water was about half-way up it's doors.. 
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Club Member
Location:
Sydney, NSW
Registered:
May 2002
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Re: Best way to dry a car?
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Tue, 06 April 2004 13:45
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Yeah, the carpet will smell cause it's still wet... Trust me... We have cars that come into work and yeah, only way to properly dry is to remove the carpet...
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Location:
Brisbane
Registered:
February 2003
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Re: Best way to dry a car?
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Tue, 06 April 2004 13:55
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yup - remove seats/carpet- loan/borrow blowers or fans like you see when shops have been flooded and they're drying out the carpet
some heat will help, but it's really dry air you want being pumped thru teh car- if you can, small props under the underlay to get air circulating, under/thru it plus pop off ALL the plastic plugs in the floor pan
if the underlay is removable do so - even if some stays behind (stuck to the floor) cause that kind of water pooling near pillars, channels etc will get rust started pronto.
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I supported Toymods
Location:
Epping, Sydney
Registered:
May 2002
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Re: Best way to dry a car?
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Tue, 06 April 2004 14:17
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agreed with that
remove the carpets
after pulling the carpets on my ma61, I could see how much water the under lay would hold.... it would take a LONG time to dry that far down.
for example, the ma63 I wrecked had wet drivers footwell carpets
after 2 weeks in the middle of summer sitting in my yard I pulled up the carpets, and the underlay was still wet (and growing some lovely looking mold)
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Location:
Brisbane
Registered:
February 2003
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Re: Best way to dry a car?
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Tue, 06 April 2004 15:13
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ahh this reminded me of awful prank to play on a person's car (if you no longer wish to remains on good terms with them)...
lift up carpet, soak underlay in milk (lots), refit carpet, park in sun...
care will forever smell like rotting cheese...
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Location:
Newcastle
Registered:
June 2002
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Re: Best way to dry a car?
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Tue, 06 April 2004 20:53
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gotta hate that WET car smell
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I supported Toymods
Location:
Sunshine Coast
Registered:
March 2004
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Re: Best way to dry a car?
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Wed, 07 April 2004 02:30
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yep agreed on the taking the carpet and underlay out..we had to in my friends 74 civic cos the window seals leaked hella bad and there was puddles in the booton of the car..so we removeds the seats etc and hungf it up on the line..the next day it was clean dry and didnt smell like dampness
good luck
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