Technical Dying a Cloth Interior?

I'm very close to my '32 5 window being done. You can read about it here.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/holy-crap-i-joined-the-deuce-club.871272/

It was originally built in the early 80's and has an "era correct" interior.







The wood-grained garnish moldings that matched the fiberglass "wood-grained" dash have been painted black. I'd like to eventually redo the interior in black tuck and roll, but in the mean time, would it be possible to dye the cloth interior black? Has anyone had success doing it? If they have, how does it stand up and what product did you use?

........ or am I wasting my time and I should just run this until I can have the interior done?

Thanks in advance.

Allan

 

Dying the cloth will work but you will need to remove the upholstery from the padding.

If you try dying it in place the dye will penetrate the cloth and soaking in the padding and will be extremely slow drying,it may rub off for weeks,experience is a great teacher. HRP

 

that would be a challenge for it all to come out with equal look/results - may not look "Hot Rod" but, sure looks nice

 

Thanks. I guess green it is.

Allan

 

Looks great in green.

 

I would guess the 80's cloth has too much vinyl or plastic in it to dye. The dye will never penetrate the nylon.

 

This got me curious, so I had a quick look online.

It turns out there are a few people out there painting their fabric couches and chairs. There are definitely mixed results, but worth a read at least ...

http://fabricbliss.blogspot.co.nz/2011/05/do-this-i-painted-couch-last-week-or-no.html

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/diy...-on-upholstery-and-heres-what-happened-218302

http://www.artsychicksrule.com/2014/02/thrifty-french-chair-makeover-annie-sloan-chalk-paint.html

 

Seems we both have the same problem. I have been debating about trying to dye the interior.

 

We have the same wheel also. lol

 

SEM fabric dye, used it first 20 years ago. great stuff. make it any color darker than what it is. https://www.semproducts.com/refinish-flexible-coatings/color-coattm-aerosols

 

NAPA has a vinyl/fabric dye in spray cans. I used it on some fabric kick panels which were faded and am pleased with the results. Need to do it with ventilation though. I don't know all their colors but I used a charcoal color.

 

I have used the SEM stuff in several off-topic cars. Works great on carpets, door panels, headliners and the like. Never tried it on actual seats, but am sure it'd do the job. The trick is to go slow, and don't put too much on at a time or else the material looses plyability as it sticks to itself.

For carpets, get a stiff bristled hand scrub brush. Put on a light coat and after a few minutes, scrub out the carpet to keep the fibers from clumping together. Repeat until the desired color is achieved.

 

Sorry for the off topic car, but here's what my beige carpet, died black with SEM's aerosol, looks:


I did this seven years ago, and with mostly daily abuse for the first five years, it has faded a bit, but not enough that I would consider redoing it yet.