Is your ride hurricane-soggy these days? If so, you might want to head over to the Robin Hood Car Wash in Bloomfield, where people have been showing up all week long for a post-Irene clean up. And, according to the management, they’re still pouring in — no pun intended.
The long-time Conger Street fixture is offering a special mold and mildew Hurricane Relief service for cars that got flooded, starting at $175, depending on the condition. The auto laundry’s 31-year owner, Dick Boudakian (pictured here, at right, with car wash manager Sal Shlah), said that properly salvaging a waterlogged car is more involved than just opening the windows and letting it dry out. “If you don’t take care of the situation properly, it’ll smell for a very long time,” he told Baristanet. “The longer you wait to take care of it, the harder it is to remediate.”
When asked where his customers’ cars were when they took on water, Boudakian told us that many were in the parking garage at Troy Towers, just across the street. “Since the garage is below ground, the water collected there and filled the cars,” he said.
Boudakian and Shlah traded stories of the state of the cars that have come in. There was a Buick that was filled half way up the door, a Jeep Grand Cherokee that had a few inches. Shlah pointed out that since this car sits high off the ground, it must have been in pretty deep. One Dodge Caravan that was parked at the airport had a particularly high water level.
The Hurricane Relief service consists of a full interior bacterial shampoo with a “non-pathogenic” product called Bio-Zyme, which claims to be a “synergistic blend of bacterial enzymes.” Then they spray an ozone treatment into the air conditioning ducts to kill the smell in the system. After that, the car is aired out and good to go.
Are you driving with plastic bags covering your seats? Have you hung some extra scented pine tree things on your rear view mirror? Do you have your own mold and mildew remediation system? Let us know if your car took a hit in the storm, and what you’re doing about it.
Robin Hood Car Wash
29 Conger Street
Bloomfield
973-748-9820
” Let us know if your car took a hit in the storm ”
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Nope, they remained in our garage. Our “Show cars” reside @ “Car Condo” in W.O. ~ a brick building, with concrete floors, plenty of lighting and hard wired to the W.O. Fire & Police. It was a bit damp-feeling, but no water.
Left overhead door open for a bit and the dampness left.
I think that first, if in fact your car was “flooded,” you might wish to get it running again, no? This offer doesn’t quite make sense, seems to prey on folks’ fears.
Many years ago, my vehicle plowed through enough water to “flood” it. It got me home but would not start again. Had to have it towed to the service station, basically got what the station guys called a “super tune-up.” Cost was over $300 20+ years ago. But the interior of the car did not smell nor did the upholstery mildew. I can only imagine what such work might cost today.
This “special offer” does, however, with its emphasis on expensive products whose names basically mean nothing, remind me of that Seinfeld episode about Jerry’s efforts at trying to get someone’s BO out of the car.
IF one’s automobile is “flooded” (all different degrees of “flooding” ~ Ask one’s self, this question…..
“How will washing the thing (with water ) make things better ???
I cut my finger, so, to make it better, I took a steak knife, and stabbed it as well….