Wh all has done it? i have a seat of red sport seats i want to dye black. what should i use? how expensive is it to do?
Is there any way to dye the vinyl backs?
I was just looking in to doing the same thing. Haven't done a lot of research yet, but I did find some stuff in the Eastwood catalog that is basically spraypaint for leather. It says it's meant to be used on seats. I'm just worried about it rubbing off onto clothing, especially in warm weather. I'm sure preparation is a huge part of it working right. I have to do a lot more reading on the subject.
I'm supposed to be meeting with someone tomorrow night who does it for Springfield Ford. Will let you all know what I find out. So far he said that dying them the same color, as long as they aren't cracked, would run in the $80-$125 range. He also said that colors can be changed, though this seems strange to me. Will see what I can learn.
I'm curious what you find out. I would expect a certain dye would stay in as thats what needs to be done in the first place to get different colors. I'd like to dye all 4 seat pieces black for how to make them look semi-decent until I can do something/anything about the worn/dirty upholstery.
Either way, for $100+, I'd rather just put that money towards a fund for getting the things reupholstered.
When I worked for Mercedes Benz we tried it a couple times. Never changed color though, anyways it looked pretty decent when done. But it didnt last and it did come off on the customer on her clothes. I would imagine Black would be a bit tricky if that happened
Yeah, if it costs over $100 I would definitely put that towards new leather. I'm just looking for something cheap, quick, and good enough to last for 6-8 months. Here's the Eastwood product I mentioned earlier.
http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=14623&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=400&iSubCat=409&iProductID=14623 (http://"http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=14623&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=400&iSubCat=409&iProductID=14623")
I dyed the porno red seats in my car a few years ago and it came out great. and lasted for years. I didn't change colour though, I just dyed 'em because they were faded. I used a Dupont spray-on Ricer Dye.
I'm gonna be doing the same thing with my dark blue TC seats shortly, but this time I'm changing the colour to black.
hey Chicken,let me know how that works and what product you use.I'm thinking of doing the same thing to my Raven seats.
i used the duplicolor stuff you can get at auto parts store. this is the before pic. ill get an after pic later. i dyed them black. they turned out really good.
http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showpost.php?p=184730&postcount=193
How does it work on cloth seats?
I'm not too worried about the vinyl back. If worse comes to worse ill have my Grams make new backs.
they are cloth seats be the way. guess it would be the same as carpet? Just don't want my clothes black too... and the girl would flip too (think i would laugh on that one though)
So does anyone know of a product good for cloth seats? that is what I am really looking for?
I looked into this once. The only thing that looks remotely promising is
http://www.fabricspraypaint.com/Default.asp?Folder=156&Name=_Upholstery_Fabric_Spray_Paint
I thought about taking my seat fabric off and dying it black in a tub with contemporary fabric dye.
-dz
What the guy told me is that it's a multi-step process:
- Treat the leather with something that opens up the pores
- Treat the leather that makes the dye adhere better to the surface
- Where changing colors, mask the area with tape and use a heat gun to make the tape expand into the seam
- Dye the leather
- Treat the surface (I think, not sure if he mentioned this or not).
I'm going to give it a go. If it doesn't work out okay I can still get new leather.
I would dye it that way. If Im going to make new backs anyways then Ill have them off anyways. I just dont know anything about the whole dying process or the products and different ways to do it. all i knew was there was a spary can version that seemed easy.
I'll just swap seats.No biggie.I can sell the raven stuff after the swap.
OK so my girls Mom told me about this stuff called Rit. Is fabric dye that they sell at walmart. Its like 1.50 a ox or something. each little box is suppose to do the about one pair of jeans so i figure i would use about 6- 8 boxes per seat. She said you just throw it in th washer but i think ill try it by hand and see haow hat works then maybe throw it in the washer with somemore to cover anything i might have missed. So about $15 a seat to dye isnt bad i dont think. We'll see.
I'm curious,any update on this?
No. Im suck on removing the knee rest bars so i can get the bottom covers off. I am going to try the headrest here soon.
Yes,updates and before and after pics if possible.
My brother in law used primer duplicolor on his cloth seats and they looked good / felt like . They ended up feeling very rough but in many of our cases, looks is what counts.
for cloth seats,,,,,here is what i have pondered doing when i need to.
use a spray bottle with water to dampen surface only
have another spray bottle with die mix ready.
after surface is damp, spray on the die mix evenly
let dry
for carpets, the same process.
For interiior plastic parts, duplicolor
What about pulling the knee rest? that is what I'm stuck at right now
Sorry to hear about your seats....OHHH YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT COLOR DYE! lol.
I had mine done professionally...Look great. I would think just like jcassity said, a spray bottle and some color dye would do the trick.
I would try that but I already pulled the covers. I just cant get the bottom off because the pull out knee rest thing is in the way. I am afraid to try and pull it (i have a bad habit of breaking stuff when i;m figuring out how it works) I was hoping someone knew how to do it.
you talking about the underside of the forward part of the seat?
I had a look at that one day a long while ago feeling around and decided,,,oh hell no,, f that. theres one long clip along the forward edge of the seat cloth that holds to the interior metal angle iron. from there , there is a bunch of long wire clips / springs and . I discovered all this when i pulled my seats to presure wash them. Took a long time to dry,, heavy mothers to. Talk about a candidate for a weight loss program!!
i found a couple pics of my seats...
dye.... FAILURE!
I tried it on one of the head rest and it dyed the inside really nice, outside is still red!
There is powder and liquid an i bought both, used the powder on this one in the washing machine like directed so guess thats out.
Now I am going to use the spray idea. I put a drop a piece and it covered it pretty good even after i rubbed it around and washed it off.
To think i could have left the seats together for the most part
Update- spray= FAILURE
not giving up yet
I tried the spray stuff to on a spare seat,wasn't impressed.
I'm starting to like red.
This was the same dye only in a spary bottle.
Most dyes are intended for natural fabric (cotton, hemp, wool), and won't adhere to synthetics unless they're VERY porous. The fabric in our cars is little more than extruded nylon or rayon or a host of other plastic products. Neither is porous, and NEITHER accept dyes well. We're sorta stuck with one of two options. A.)Replace the seats with something we like. B.)Reupholster.
I'm going with Plan B when I get the outside finished, and possibly add lumbar supports if I can find a kit to build them into the seats. I really like the one in the bench seat of my F-150, except it leaks down over time. No biggie, though, just push the button, and it's pumped back up. Either that, or just put a permanent one in by adding foam.