Black carpet dye

[CarreraRSR]

Anyone have experience of using black carpet dye on faded carpets?

Should it be done in situ or remove them from the car?
How black will the results be?
How permanent will the result be, any bleeding of colour if carpets get damp?

Any other watch outs or praises for products. I was looking to buy Autosmart dye.

 

[JM1962]

Had a go at this a couple of weeks ago on a small piece of carpet to try it out. Because the carpet has a high nylon (or some other man made fibre) content they cannot be dyed. The dye is not absorbed into the material like on a wool carpet.

 

[barrysmith]

Black hood restorer is a good product if you are re- colouring black carpet this can be done easy insitu.

 

[944 man]

Valeters dye should take irrespective of the carpets makeup. Ive seen cream Japanese carpets re-coloured black this way; and they certainly werent made from natural fibre. Id always remove the carpet and steam clean them first, then dye them out of the car.

 

[JM1962]

After reading some stuff on the TVR forums about successfully dying carpets with Dylon, I gave it a go on the center console carpet from my 944. Despite following the instructions the dye didn't take at all. If anyone has successfully dyed a 944 carpet I would love to know the manufacturer and product they used and I will give it another go.

 

[CarreraRSR]

I'm getting some Autosmart Midnight black carpet dye on Friday. I'll give the centre console parts a try first on the weekend.

 

[CarreraRSR]

Spent the morning dyeing the carpets back to black. I used Autosmart Midnight carpet dye and a sprayer. Tried a small section as a test and was surprised how quickly the carpet returned to black. I then set upon all the sections. Used about 3.5 litres of the 5litre can.

Here you can see the left side already sprayed up to the top of the transmission tunnel. The right side has a faded area which would be the rear passenger footwell. The right side front would be under the drivers seat and protected from the damaging UV.

A little closer. You can see the dye bleeding into the faded untreated area which would be the top of the transmission tunnel. The tunnel top was one of the most faded sections in the car.

Now fully sprayed

It seems the longer the dye is on the carpet the more the colour takes. The dye bleeds into the weave of the carpet the longer it sits. In the worst affected areas I also worked the dye into the carpet with gloved hands and recoated after 20 or so minutes of drying time and repeated as required.

Below is after one coat and already the faded area is almost as black as the protected and unfaded area to the right.

The full carpet set is now in the basement to fully dry, although some smaller pieces had dried to touch after an hour, I'm leaving it for at least a week to fully dry up and inspect outside how the dye has taken. However just looking at it all now I'm really pleased with the outcome and can't wait to get it all back in the car. For the £20 for 5 litres I paid its really worth the effort. Due to the potent smell I would recommend doing it with the carpet out of the car and allowed to fully cure before returning and driving.

PS I now have for sale a full 1984 924/944 black carpet set which I bought to replace my faded set. But as I've dyed my current set I don't need it anymore. The set came from a 35,000 mile fully garaged one owner 924 which was unfortunately written off. Full black, unfaded and near perfect except for the passenger rear boot section which had about one inch torn away in the accident, hardly noticeable.

 

[os951]

I have heard Valeters is a good stuff. We have dyed carpets with normal black spray can colors.
Would like to buy 5 liters of Valeters. Contacted to manufacturer but they told me it needs some kind of special transport method from UK to Finland. They offered to send me a truck pallet with 20 canisters.... I would dye carpets for rest of my life with that much of Valeters Pride
Have discussed with some of my UK friends, hope they can help me on this.

 

[944 man]

Olli, have you looked on eBay.co.uk? There are a few vendors selling valeter's dye and I sure that at least one of them will simply wrap 5l up and post it off to you... []

 

[JM1962]

Hi Steven

Your results are looking good. After everything has dried out are you going to check that the dye won't come off if it gets wet ?

 

[CarreraRSR]

I've given it a check this morning. The carpet has a slight crispiness due to the dye. Once rubbed over by hand it loosens up, ideally a quick vacuum should sort it out. There appears to be some kind of spirit in the dye which evaporates out. Sprinkling some water on the carpet it appears to have some element of water repellence. Didn't want to soak too much water in but it didn't come off on my hand with a brief try.