Help!!!

My 02 montero limited has been sitting for the past 5 months while I have been rebuilding the engine. Well about 2 months ago it started to smell of mildew and mold started growing,so I promptly killed all of it off (and man does that stuff spread fast in the Pacific Northwest).

After many hours killing it all it still smells in there horribly. I know there is some I must have missed it that grew back but I can't find it.

The headliner is sagging so I am wondering if it's up in there. Is there anyway to easily remove a part of the headliner to check up in there.

There are no visible signs of leaking any were else no wet carpets,seats,doors etc.

I put some anti moisture traps down and every day to every other day I empty them and they have a lot of water in them!!

Oh I also cleaned all the door traps and roof slides so no build ups in there.
I also opened the door panels up and noticed the previous owner tried to put speakers in horrible and pulled almost all the plastic off so I real sealed them as well.

I guess to summerize my going on and on I need to know.

Any known places that they commonly leak from?

Anyway to get access to above the headliner easily?

Is there a cheap substitute that works for weather stripping besides having to buy oem weather stripping?

Any other ways to test where leak could be coming from.

I love this montero and have put litterly hundreds of hours into rebuilding engine/transmission, and don't want to have to get rid of it over mold. But it's so horrible getting in or out of it since the mold/mildew incident.

Any info or help is much appreciated.

Thanks guys.

Jp

 

Is it sitting inside a closed garage? Humidity? I'd fix the source first - and then, focus on the car.
If its environment is humid - then nothing you do will help since it will just keep coming back, as you can see.
Sounds like just from the amount of water you are able to "catch" - you should invest in a heavy duty dehumidifier or two.
I have a rare plant business, so I am very familiar with this kind of situation - and there's actually nothing I can do, since plants love the jungle conditions.

 

It's outside on my drive way I don't have room in my garage .
What dehumidifiers do you use? I have 2 I am using but there the little beads not a machine.

 

I don't use dehumidifiers - the humidity is good for the plants.
Is the car at least under a temporary garage cover? You know the cheap ones that look like a half-greenhouse? That would at least keep the rain off of it. (And under it, for that matter.)

 

No I cannot have a temporary carport or any other structor due to liability issues my land lord will not let me.

It just started raining here pretty hard so I will check it in the morning for signs of wetness.

Any ideas of weather stripping replacement that's not oem?

 

Get a couple of boxes of baking soda and place inside vehicle. I do this for my Mustang that sits all winter and driven sparsely in summer. Arm & Hammer actually makes a box that has a flap that opens with a (screen) in front to prevent the stuff from coming out. I've been doing this for about 25 years now with success.