cleaning mold on pop top ceiling

[hippiepilot]

I found the spray bottle was more important, at least to me. I used 30 -70 bleach and h2o in a http://www.tryfit.com/ bottle. The bottle was nice and small and the spray was a very fine mist giving me good control of the amount being applied to the pop top. http://www.vwvid.com/m/photos/view/Demolding-pop-top I had great results on the two vans I did this with.
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[tam_shops]

You cleaned your CANVAS with Tilex, right? I know everyone does the fuzzy headliner with it, which I did w/ great results. One day, hopefully later than sooner, I'll replace the canvas, at which point I'll turn the head liner upside down and sprayed and clean and rinse it...Not a huge fan of that Tilex up there, but having worked on it for several hours every night since last Sunday, I'm rather sick of the entire ordeal and not thrilled w/ the outcome. I have been using my SIL's Little Green Machine and it helps, but still see foam up there every time I put fresh water up...

[Timwhy]

Tam, try diluted tilex. Spray on and wipe off with cleanish water and spongee. You can use a mild detergent
on the canvas, inside and out! I would suggest you try doing your cleaning on a hot sunny day. It will make the drying
quicker and the smell from the diluted Tilex disappear. On the outside canvas, once washed and dried. Spray
silicon all over it, this will make the canvas waterproof. If you don't like silicon there are other products for this.
If you do use the silicon do this also in bright sunshine. Be patient, as this stuff smells bad too. It will dissapear
when the canvas drys in the sun.
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[bjrogers86auto]

Not to contradict my buddy Tim but I wouldn't silicone my canvas. Canvas likes to breathe and waterproofing it stops that from happening. It's supposed to get wet to get water proof. It's a theory I try not to test by using my GW rain fly. The breath ability of the canvas is what I found the most appealing when replacing my tent.

As far as mould goes, Tilex has worked for me. This year is the first year since 09 that I had any return. I just spray it lightly and let it dry. No rinse.

Brian
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[Paulbeard]

As always, someone else has done the experiments and I get to benefit. Just looked to see how grotty the pop top was, even with the vent open. A bleach and water solution in a spray bottle did the trick. Might have been stronger than I needed. Ask me how I know

I took the bedding out to prevent any drips from bleaching out the color. Prolly air it out before returning it. It would be nice if there a vent at the hinge end to circulate some air. This is replacement canvas: does anyone do that?

I'll check the faq/stickies for tips on preventing recurrences of it.
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[djkeev]

A related thread......
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=166505
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[williac43]

I usually just use this site for solving problems but in this case none of the solutions I found worked.
My black mold had been building up for several years and it was disgusting and I needed a new canvas.
I tried few caps of bleach with soap and water (gowesty youtube) did nothing, 50/50 bleach/water, 25/25/50 bleach/water/oxyclean, simple green and water, even Bissel carpet shampoo and nothing was working. All of these tries and it was only 50% gone. My arms were tired and I was about to give up. Then I saw a bottle of X14 that I bought for mold in a bathroom. Why not? I was on the verge of sanding off the fuzzy crap, and painting it.
I used it full strength and was amazed to watch the mold just fade away with a little scrubbing. It looks great. It's cheap and it works.
Oh...by the way, do not attempt this with the top on the van. I was able to remove the top and flip it by myself using the rafters in the garage and driving out from under it, but i don't recommend this now that i have done it. To risky and the top is heavier than I thought and very difficult to handle.
Good luck

[ThankYouJerry]

I've posted this in several other "mold threads"...

I had BAD black mold all over my pop-top flocking when I bought my van 4 years ago. Used 1 cup of Borax to 1 gallon water and scrubbed. Haven't seen a spot of mold since!

Bleach is just about the worst thing you can try to clean mold with especially on pourus surfaces (fabric, etc). Only makes things worse. Google it. Tons of info out there.
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[Merian]

I use bleach to kill the mold then a borax solution to bury it
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[lynnoski]

Hi everyone,

The fuzzy liner on my 77 campmobile pop top is pretty clean... but it falls off if touched. Anyone know if wetting or cleaning it will stop this from happening? The particles are pretty nasty to inhale when the become airborn. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thank you

[E1]

Is it streaky?

It's possible someone over-bleached it and didn't rinse it well enough. Does it smell bleachy?

A little friend tells me he did that once.

Wetting or at least rubbing on the flecking can strip the fuzzies, we lost some but was overzealous. You might maybe test a corner or somewhere.

Last time I did it I used four Clorox dry bleach packets per quart of bath-temp water. It was slower than a bleach-water mix but way less intense to work with. Next time I'll use three packets/quart, mixture was a hair strong and harder to rinse.

This being said, it's worked for me but above opinions of bleach being corrosive are correct. I mitigated that by rinsing sections immediately after spraying. The mold almost vaporizes from dark to clear within a few seconds, then used a huge soaking wet bath towel and mopped it up over several spongings.
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[Mendonik]

I just found the quickest and easiest way to clean my 81 Westy poptop interior. For years I have used a solution of about 20% bleach and water, applied with a sponge. But it's an unpleasant job, and I had to put down plastic dropcloth to protect areas from spillage. Plus, the juice wanted to run down my arm.

This year I had acquired a used carpet shampoo machine that has an upholstery extension with a flexible hose. I filled the solution container with my bleach solution. The upholstery brush has a spray nozzle, a brush and a vacuum to recover the used cleaning solution. I just worked a section at a time, first spraying on the solution, waiting a minute or two and applying the brush to any stubborn stain areas, and then used the vacuum to suck up the leftover juice from the ceiling. It did a perfect job, with no bleach spillage, no running down the arm, and it was quick and the easiest time I ever had with that job..

I got the used Bissell carpet shampoo machine from a friend for free because it had some clogged nozzles. I'm a fixit guy so I took it apart and cleaned out the tubing and valves. It actually works well on carpets and upholstery too. You could probably find a used machine at a thrift store or garage sale for cheap.

[mikemtnbike]

Vinegar and water was simple and effective for me.

I think I heated up like a 1/4 cup of white vinegar with two cups water, let it cool to lukewarm , pour in spray bottle, spray until noticeably wet but not soaked , new scrub brush and scrub, and leave the top open all day in the sunny driveway until dry.

open all the windows.

Works! The vinegar smell totally goes away.
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[creative native]

Intermittently over the years, a spot or two of mildew will appear and I use a mild bleach solution (about 5%-10% bleach) and a toothbrush. It works great.

[euni(e]

[khughes]

[Jake de Villiers]

[khughes]

@Jake,

No that's not what I was saying. I was recommending using 5000ppm sodium hypochlorite, which is basically 13 ounces of household bleach, per 1 gallon of water. The Hypochlorite dissociates in water into both Hypochlorous acid (HOCl) and the less active hypochlorite ion (OCl-). The lower the pH, the more higher the concentration of HOCl which is much more active as a sanitizer.

So to the 13oz bleach / gallon water solution, add around 5 ounces of vinegar (acetic acid) to drive the pH down, and make the solution more effective. Research shows that at pH 4, the kill rate is like 4X higher than at pH 8.

OR use a peracetic acid sanitizer. I think you're confusing making of peracetic acid sanitizer with the chemical breakdown products. You can't add vinegar to hydrogen peroxide and get peracetic acid, it's a totally different set of chemical reactions. So you need to by that preformulated. It breaks down - as it works to oxidize and kill the molds (and really any other organic material present) - and the resulting breakdown residuals are acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide - these then breakdown into water, oxygen and carbon dioxide. Sorry if that wasn't clear.
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'86 Westy FAS GenV Turbo (Marvin)

[vanis13]

That was supposed to be clearer??? Andy, (not a chemist)

You seem very knowledgably in this other than X-14 which I can't seem to find locally, what brew shall we mix up and how shall we use it to get awesome results?

[khughes]