Recoloring Carpet

[Posti]

The interior of my Reatta coupe is pretty clean, but the blue carpet had faded to a grey-blue with some stains.  Because the carpet itself was solid and in good shape, I decided to try recoloring it.  Replacement carpet is available fairly cheap, but that is not a match to the original stuff and only covers the front floor.    The dye came from Leather Magic (https://leathermagic.com/), whose water-based carpet dye does not change the texture of the carpet you use it on.  Most of the spray can dyes stiffen the carpet fibers to rock hardness.  Better yet, they have most factory interior colors available, both for vinyl and leather, and fabric.  (GM Dark Sapphire for the Reatta) I had used their product once before on badly faded carpet in a 1976 Dodge Aspen wagon with excellent results.

 

Unseasonably nice weather (sunny and 70) prompted me to get the job done today.  I had already cleaned the carpet thoroughly with Resolve.  The dye is in a spray bottle, and the smallest (16 oz) size just covered the entire carpet surface and the floor mats.  It was $34.95 plus shipping.  I also had to supply my own gloves and a soft bristle brush .  You spray a small area and then use the brush to work the dye into the fibers - it wipes right off vinyl and leather surface if you catch it right away.  Once it dries, the dye is permanent in fabrics and has to be removed using alcohol from non-porous surfaces.   It took about an hour to do the entire interior including floor mats.

 

I am very pleased with the results.  The color is even and looks correct, even over old stains and uneven fading.  What looks like streaking in the photos is just brush strokes where the pile is not all going the same way.  It is not quite as good as all new carpet in the correct style, but way cheaper and very effective.  You can see the difference in the back cargo area, and the before/after picture of door carpet.

 

Bob

[Ronnie]

Good job. It looks great! Fading is a common problem with the Reatta carpet. I dyed my tan carpet a couple of years ago.

[Frogware]

Wow that does look really good Thanks for the info and nice work!

[kdirk]

Thanks for posting this. I'm planning to redye the tan carpet in my convertible come spring after a thorough out-of-car cleaning and will be purchasing the dye from Leather Magic. Will also be doing the burgundy carpets in both 88's as they are starting to show noticeable fade. Nice to see their product in action and get some positive feedback about it before I proceed. And it does look good.

 

Now what I need is a way to bleach the remaining color out of the blue carpet on a rear storage bin assembly I took from my last parts car. It is already badly faded but I'd like to bleach it and recolor it for use in one of my other cars since the carpet itself is undamaged (no burns or wear spots). So far, chlorine bleach did nothing so not sure what else to try that won't damage the nap.

 

Kevin