Friday, December 12, 2008 - 12:43 am, by: David Grab(Blastedbyasoarer)
Hey guys im about to dye my cloth seats as i cant find stock black seats for a reasonable price or in mint condition. Anyway what dye should i use to make the seats black? Will VHT (never used it before but seems to be popular) for the seats? Also from clublexus a lot of people have got awesome results using SEM, is there anywhere i can get this from as selelrs on the US ebay want 60USD for a can to be sent from america which is nuts. Will there be any problem washing the seats after dying them, like if i get them professionally cleaned like i have in the past will the colour come out, even slightly?
Saturday, December 13, 2008 - 10:21 pm, by: Sebastian Grant(Saabg)
Hi David. I haven't tried this but I heard hair dye works really well as it is designed not to be washed out. If I were to do it I would get some advice from a clothing manufacturer. My two cents.
Sunday, December 14, 2008 - 09:54 pm, by: David Grab(Blastedbyasoarer)
Yeah i want to do it myself so rules that out. Will VHT carpet spray work? As long as the fabric is still soft, that the main thing. Im suprised i havent had more replies, surely those people that dye their interior would have done their seats aswell.
Monday, December 15, 2008 - 07:04 pm, by: James Harris(Haro)
Well give it a "good aussie go" mate !
I did my interior but installed some Sparco seats in mine so had no need to do the seats.
I dont see why it wouldnt work hey... i would just wanna be confident that it wont rub off onto your clothes or anything if you get sweaty or wet the seat some other way
Just do the headrests 1st or something for a test.
Monday, December 15, 2008 - 08:18 pm, by: David Grab(Blastedbyasoarer)
Yeah thats probably my biggest concern, could get messy very very quickly if it comes off haha Also im waitig on suggestions on which products could potentially work. Im cleaning the seats to get any dirt of so i should have another day or so before i wanna start dying. Hopefully i get an answer by then, fingers crossed.
Monday, December 15, 2008 - 08:36 pm, by: Tom Nicol(Goosemonger)
I used VHT carpet/vinyl dye on my carpet (door kick panels). It looks fantastic and is very permanent, I know this because I had a leak in my door and the carpet would get quite wet. HOWEVER it DOES make the fabric a lot less soft, it goes kinda wirey and stiff. I'm sure it would work on velour, but not too sure about the seats being as soft as they were.
I've been casually looking for black seats to pop in my car for months now, I thought about dying them but then I took off the seat covers and saw how many (big) cig burns there were.
Sorry I can't give you a real solution Dave. Is there professional upholstery dyers? Look up the yellow pages maybe?
Monday, December 15, 2008 - 08:38 pm, by: Joe Aliano(Sexylexus)
Hi David ,
The black leather dye I used on my seats also worked a treat on my roof liner and if the cloth seats in your car are made from the same poly acrylic fibres as on the head liner then you're going to want to be careful as it does'nt take to many dyes , however the leather dye did work best and does not rub off.
I'm not saying that this is fact and you will need to test a section first however let me know if you'd like me to send you a small bit for you to test.
I guess the only concern with dying cloth is that it might have a tendency to startch up a little
Monday, December 15, 2008 - 09:08 pm, by: David Grab(Blastedbyasoarer)
Yeah i cant seems to find them in good conidtion or the person asks too much. Thats why i wanna give it a go myself and if it doesnt look good then i'd go stock black or reacros again. Having said that if they dont look good thats not a big problem but if they rub off onto my expensive jeans or shirt etc ill be pissed haha
Monday, December 15, 2008 - 09:45 pm, by: David Grab(Blastedbyasoarer)
Aaron? Dont know who that is mate. Reason why i wanna try and do it myself is that spruce seats are pretty much worthless (although mine are mint and have been professionally cleaned) so replacing them will be cheap and even if i do by black seats or recaro ill get stuff all for the seats if i put them up for sale.
Joe Radisic DieHard WA 2JZ GTE 547.7RWHP@21psi 10.8 SEC
Monday, December 15, 2008 - 10:28 pm, by: Joe Radisic(Joe)
Just get them retrimmed and be done with it, as the wear your seats get they will look crap in no time. Head liner hardly ever gets touched and so it will last.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008 - 04:09 pm, by: David Grab(Blastedbyasoarer)
Just rang VHT and they said that the vinyl dye is a no go. Also got some advice to take the cloth all off and then get a fabric dye, machine wash it a few times etc Way too much work haha.