Auto upholsterers have seen their fair share of dirty car interiors. I’ve heard horror stories of seats covered in deer blood, wet dog hair and even human feces. But the following story of what Florida residents Clifford Ellison and Jerek Evans did in their 2006 Cadillac CTS takes the cake. It’s literally a biohazard!
Jalopnik explains:
Clifford Ellison, 36, made sure the used Caddy only went 62 miles under its new ownership before an explosion splattered half-cooked meth juice and a bunch of his own blood all over the interior. […]
Ellison, along with 26-year-old Jerek Evans, had been cooking methamphetamine in this extremely mobile mobile lab using a method called “shake and bake” involving a few choice chemicals and an old liquor bottle. Pilot and copilot were shaking and baking, and driving, when something went awry and the brew exploded, sending shards of glassware flying. Apparently, one of the sharp pieces of glass hit the alchemist-driver in his neck, nicking a high pressure carotid artery. He bled to death, adding rust colored blood stains to the rest of that spewed mess visible in Insurance Auto Auctions’ official photo gallery of the CTS.
Strangely enough, the car has not been destroyed. At the time Jalopnik published the story, the CTS was awaiting auction. In other words, some unfortunate auto upholsterer would eventually need to carry out a full restoration of its meth- and blood-covered interior.
Right now, the car — along with the crusty remnants of meth and blood from the explosion — is baking beneath the Florida sun at IAA’s Tampa branch. It’s waiting for a dealer-licensed buyer to purchase it and its rebuildable title and put the car back into circulation. IAA estimated the Caddy’s repair costs to be nearly $10,000. That means that even if someone does pick it up for NADA’s rough shape guideline price of $10,675, the buyer would have to spend a pretty good chunk of money to make the thing road worthy. But with such a skeleton in its closet title-wise, good luck getting anywhere close to the $17,000 NADA says is reasonable for a 2006 CTS with a clean title and no defects. [more]
Personally, you couldn’t pay me $17,000 to take the car. It’s probably swarming in vile and disease. Studies have shown that regular car interiors are filthier than public toilets – so I can’t even imagine what to compare this CTS to.
It does, however, raise an interesting question: What’s the most disgusting car interior you’ve ever worked on?
I’ve had my share of nasty when it comes to interiors. 1. Had to recover and refoam and passenger seat that a poor woman miscarried on, redo seats and foam where a huhnter spilt is jar of deer piss, fried chicken under seats with maggots, and alot of seats that rats and mice have made their home with the smell of urine that would linger for weeks.
I wonder if the other guy who apparently survived stated to the police; ” It’s shake and bake and I helped”!
I suppose this gives the term “riding dirty” a bit more depth.
There is just some very stupid people in this world. Sorry but he got what he deserves.If someone brought this car to me I would turn it away.
we had a car come in our shop that a female turkey had flew into front window. she was full of eggs. their was feathers , egg shells and other disgusting objects in car. also had to clean and repair a car , that owner had commited suicide.
There is nothing worse than cleaning up someone else’s filth. I had a client bring me an auction car on a tow truck; because no one would drive it. It was apparently a drug dealers car who took his last drive in it. The smell was unspeakable, blood everywhere, dirty needles. I had to pull out the special suits for gutting. Everything was replaced from floor to headliner and everything in between. Lucky for me $$$ wasn’t an issue for my client, because no one want to touch this car.
There is nothing worse than cleaning up someone else’s filth. I had a client bring me an auction car on a tow truck; because no one would drive it. It was apparently a drug dealers car who took his last drive in it. The smell was unspeakable, blood everywhere, dirty needles. I had to pull out the special suits for gutting. Everything was replaced from floor to headliner and everything in between. Lucky for me $$$ wasn’t an issue for my client, because no one wanted to touch this car.
I have had the occasion where the money under the seat that I claim as my tip is left alone because it’s just too grungy to toss in my pocket. That CTS… wow. Even I have my limits.
Here’s one from when I was starting out. A guy buys a car that was stored in a field.On the way home a mouse runs out of the defrost outlet.He parks it behind his garage with the windows down to let the mice out and after a couple of days he goes to check on it and discovers a really bad smell.He hires me to strip the interior and redo everything.It was hot weather and the stink was terrible.I thought I had his problem fixed but when I came back to install the new stuff the car still reeked!I spent half a day going over every nook and cranny to find the cause and found some nesting places in the trunk and roof. Even still, there was an occasional hint of the odor.At least the day had cooled off and that made putting everything back together a lot nicer. When I finished the customer said he could still detect a hint of the odor and while I was explaining to him that I had done everything possible, his neighbor shows up taking the garbage out.When the lid came off the garbage can it was enough to make us fall over. Tuns out he’d been fishing and eating his catch and we had been smelling the fish guts and dinner scraps the whole time.
LOLOL… I like that.
We right now have a boat in the shop that’s getting a full redo on the interior. Raccoons got into it during storage, and chewed up every cushion in the boat. But, as raccoons will do, they relieved themselves on and in every conceiveable nook and cranny. The smell will bowl you over.
And I thought the lovely experience of it raining mouse crap and the occasional carcass when replacing old headliners was bad!
Funny thing is that when homes are recovered from meth labs they are taken by the feds and cannot be auctioned till the home has undergone a decontamination process. The prices for decontamination are so outrages that counties in the south were going bankrupt because of so many of these meth labs… crazy, decontamination of a home is much different than gutting a car, putting new upholstery, and detailing it.
One time the local police station brought over their Ford Explorer K9 car to be reupholstered. Apparently the K9 had an upset stomach that day and relieved himself all over the officers car.
It stunk so bad we refused to work on it. We told him to go have it detailed first before we strip everything out and reupholster it.
Another time a customer’s generator leaked gasoline all over the interior of his SUV. That thing stunk up my shop for a week. I had to leave the garage doors open in the middle of the winter otherwise I’d get headaches from the fumes.
RETIRED, GLOVES DO COME IN HANDY TODAY. ONCE HAD A FELLOW BRING IN SEATS FROM A JUNK YARD THE MINUTE HE BROUGHT THEM IN A FROG JUMPED OUT OF ONE. HAVE OFTEN WONDERD WHY WE DIDNT HAVE A GERM BOMB TO SET OFF IN CARS TO KILL THE JERMS. YOU HAVE TO BE EXTREMLY CAREFULL TODAY AS EVEN ASBESTOS IS FOUND IN SOME. I SUPPOSE YOU COULD JUST HOOK A HOSE TO THE EXHAUST AND PUMP IT IN THE CAR FOR AN HOUR OR SO OUTSIDE OF COARSE, HA. IT MAY COME DOWN TO JUST USING ONE OF THOSE JERM KILLING LIGHT LIKE THEY PUT IN HOME HEAT PUMPS TODAY. AS FOR THE METH THAT WOULD BE VERY DIFFICULT TO DEAL WITH STRIP AND CALL FOR HAULING THE OLD COVERS TO A DUMP SITE THAT WOULD EVEN ACCEPT THE TRASH. AUTO WORK HAS GOOTEN TO EXPENSIVE TO EVEN BE IN IF YOUR GOING TO DO IT RIGHT AND IF YOU DONT DO IT RIGHT ITS NOT WORTH DOING, EDUCATION NEVER ENDS ALSO.
GLASS HALF FULL HERE . ONE JUNKIE OFF THE STREETS AND 10 TO 12 GRAND IN A FELLOW TRIMMERS POCKET!SOUNDS GREAT TO ME!!!!
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My day job is environmental services. Upholstery has been part time since I went into this venture. Anything concerning meth is dangerous. The gases are heavy and a spark can cause an explosion. If you work on one like this, open doors, OUTSIDE. Have a fan blow into the car not pull air from. Also a vacuum might pull fumes through the motor, spark, then boom. !!!!!
Be safe.
I’ve seen some disgusting car interiors through the years but this is a monstrosity! Interesting article but I’d have to say I would not touch this car.
Whoever so gets the job of ripping the interior out will need to get fumigated once they finish, bound to catch some kind disease, it’s a health hazard, defiantly not a pretty site, and I bet the smell is not very nice, especially if the cars sitting with its doors and windows shut tight…
The best way to keep your car interior clean is to clean it once in a while but these dirty shit heads are plain filthy they shouldn’t even own a car until they change thier nappies.
Leave it to druggies to screw up anything that has value, DEGENERATES! one less cesspit in the gene pool though.