Save money on interior repair

[corvette66]

I was vacuuming out my car today and realized how faded out my carpet is. Not worn out, just faded.

replacement carpet sets are 4-500$ so i was thinking about trying carpet dye. I don't know where to find it, or even if i could buy it anywhere. Maybe even regular fabric dye would work. I think the vette interior rug is nylon.?.?

what do you say? try it?

 

[silver 80]

I redid my carpert in the 87 I think all of the parts mags have dye
I got mine form mid america i think a can goes for $7 or $8 I ordered three cans. If you do this you might want to get an old rag, when the dye is dry take the old rag and brush the carpet. It will loosen the dye and the carpet won't be stiff. It's a piece of cake.

 

[SKIP780]

I DUNNO--

ME THINKS ALL AUTO CARPET IS SOMETYPE OF NYLON AND THE DYE WILL NOT SET.TRY JC WHITNEY? ITS ONLY CARPET.AS FOR ME ID TAKE OUT THE INTERIOR AND PUT IN MY OWN CARPET THAT IVE BOUGHT.SEE THEN I WOULD HAVE THE COROL/NAP THAT SUITS ME AND ONLY SEND A DAY ON THE PROJECT. R/S FRANK

 

[86PACER]

One of the club members did the carpet on his 85 with dye. It also was just faded, not torn or anything. He told me he used a bottle of liquid dye that you use for faded demin jeans. You can pick that up at a local drug store. He said he used a pressure gun to spray it on after he gave the carpet a good cleaning. I have not seen the carpet personally, but he said your wont tell it from a new one. If I like what I see, I am going to do the same on my 86. I just want to change the faded gray to dark black, but do not want to spend hundreds replacing a good carpet that is only faded.

 

[tyrel]

I'm kind of skeptical about carpet dye. Tried it once, hated the results. I applied it as uniformly as I could, but the color didn't match and there were areas of light and dark that I could never even out. The result was carpet with ever-changing areas of dye saturation, from mild to wild. Looked even worse in direct sunlight. I gave up and bought new carpet, which I should have done in the first place.

 

[86PACER]

Yeah, I honestly feel the same way. But I am heading to his house here sortly to see it first hand myself, before I do it to mine.

 

[corvette66]

..

yeah i'm do'n the same. my carpet is graphite, and i'm gunna do it dark black. I'll give it a shot. if i doesn't work, the worst part of it all is i spent 20 bucks on dye. no harm done. worth a shot anyways. let me know how your buddys car looks.

 

[86PACER]

Ok. I saw the carpet on his 85 today. If he had not told me that he dyed it, I would have never known it. In my eyes he seemed to have done a good job. I was impressed. I'm looking to change my faded gray carpet to dark black. But yeah, I agree with you on giving it a try. If the color change from gray to black does not meet my expectations, I'll just replace it. But I think it's worth a shot before spending the few hundred dollars on it.

tyrel
How did you apply the dye when you tried it?

Did you dye it to a different color, or just tried to restore the original color of the carpet? Thanks.

 

[Utah]

I used spray on dye made for auto carpet on my 89. I looked great for a week, then it started to brush off in used areas and looked like sh#$@......

 

[Gerry]

I have tried the carpet dye on the faded areas of my red carpet. It looked great for a little while and now the sills (which were faded) are now looking the same as before. Gonna cover them now and replace carpet later. Oh well.

Best regards,
Gerry

 

[86PACER]

Hmm. I am starting to have second thoughts about the dye now.

 

[corvette66]

uhh

umm why is that pacer?

fill me in

 

[86PACER]

Here's why. My friends carpet looked good. But it has not been that long since he did it. Hearing the above posts, others have done it and it lasts for some time, then fades or rubs off. I think I would be more convinced if my friends carpet had been dyed for a few years now and still looked like it did when I saw it. I know it can be dyed and look pretty good at first. It's just how long it will stay looking good that I am a bit skeptical about.

 

[The Car Whisperer]

GM used to sell carpet dye at the parts counter.

 

[corvetterider84]

Yea, i have had some bad experiences with carpet dye. Doesn't last and does brush off rather quickly. I'm gonna just replace the carpet over the winter when the car is in storage. For now its gonna have to do. Can't have any down time with this nice New England weather, which isn't always cooperative. Just my 2 cents. I dyed my carpet back in March 04' and is starting to brush off now.

 

[safety_match]

My new carpet set is supposed to arrive at the end of this week. It is $495 for a complete set and I am going to have the local Corvette shop install it. Just so that you know...they say it is about a 5-hour job.
5 hours for them, but they have done it before. Likely for me it would be a 5-day job interspersed with many foul words.
It is one of those jobs that once you've done it it's a piece of cake. But I will only have it done once and will never get the skill set! lol

Safety

 

[larry bud]

I replaced my gray carpet with black, but tried to dye the floor mats. The dye wore off quite quickly. Just get the carpet. It's NEW. It's not just the color that fades. The pile wears down as well.