Want to refurbish stained and faded seats and headliner. To save a little I thought of spray dying both., I tried it on a section of the seats but even after drying for a week it didn't pass the "white glove" test [rubbing across it leaves a faint color red on the glove] So I am going to try it only on the headliner since no one will be sitting on that. Has anyone tried this with success?
Don't know how your doing it but back in my youth when I was poor this is how I changed colors in my cars. I used Ritz dye mixed up in a bigger spray bottle so it was super concentrated and then I would spray the material and depending on the material would use either a hard bristle brush or soft nylon brush and brush the dye into the material. On carpet I'd take a hard bristle brush and rub it hard down into the fibers, on my headliner a soft nylon brush and gently only in one direction. Then it'd take about a week of hot weather with all the windows down for everything to dry out. Then I would go in and with a clean soft rag I would "buff" the material by hand to get any excess dye off that didn't soak in.
Back in the day we used mar hyde It worked well on door panels back seat and headliners, never used it on the front seat. Don’t know if they still make it, also had to clean with lacquer before spraying.
The spray dyes have come a long way over many decades! I've dyed door panels and seats that get lots of wear, and neither rubbed off, and still look great years later. I use Duplicolor upholstery spray and the coverage is great, and it stays in place. The key is to clean and get the surface as god as possible first, and then it will hold up great.
My Olds is a drop head and that top is rarely up in the summer. As a result, the black loop carpet turns brown in spots. A once-a-year application of krylon semi flat black spray paint and a stiff brush makes it look good as new. Carpet is 20 years old and looks like I installed it yesterday.
I cleaned the seats and used Dupli-color adhesion promoter then Dupli-color vinyl and fabric spray dye then a clear seal for fabric & vinyl. Yet when I rub across it I still get a very faint color rub off. Because it's on the seats I'm afraid someone sitting on it in white pants may end up with pink spots on their rear end [because the color is burgundy].
im a bit different on thoughts about seat covers and headliners... can i throw a mexican blanket over it? if yes, it gets a mexican blanket.
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