Anyone ever dye fabric seats?

[dang]

I picked up a 2002 today that has nice fabric Recaro seats that I'm planning on putting in my CS. They're a medium gray color, which isn't bad, but I'm thinking about dying them blue to match the CS interior. Anyone here every played with dye before?

On a related note... I'm still in the market for rear seats for a coupe, but I've put that on hold now that I'm replacing the front leather seats with fabric. Once I figure out what color they'll end up being I can get some fabric rear seats.

Anyone have a set of rear fabric seats in blue?

Dan

 

[Ian Larsen]

Seat Dye

Hi.

I had blue velour seats, which I've now replaced with original leather replacements. They had some sun fading that I was able to correct very effectively with the spray dye available from World Upholstery. Color was a perfect match.

If it can be done successfully with velour, I'd imagine it can be done with standard fabric more easily, although I can't comment on actually changing the color.

The most important step in dyeing fabric is using a hair dryer and a VERY soft bristled brush -- the one I used had bristles about 3 inches long.

I sprayed on the dye in even coats to the faded areas only and then dried it with the blow dryer on the low setting (six inches to a foot away) while simultaneously brushing it until the fabric was completely dry. If you don't do that, the dye will dry like paint and leave the fabric crunchy -- especially with velour, although I'd think it would still be true with any fabric.