i have heard that you can use special fabric dye to color seats, is this a good option? i am in the process of eliminating the ugly tan interior of my bird in favor of black, installed a new headliner, carpet and painted the plastic molding(came out pretty good) now i need to do the seats and door panals. what should i do?

 

I've used the Duplicolor stuff on the door panels and center console and would never use it on seats. I've had to reapply it twice to the center console lid...

 

but do they make dye that i can apply to the seats? by the way, i used krylon fusion on my plastic trim and panels, turned out great. the key is to clean off the plastc with a solvent, otherwise the paint just runs off due to wax build up. got that info from my uncle, he works at a body shop, and paints cars on the side.

 

Tried some Plasticote stuff on mine that were faded. Very little pigment, no color to it. To get the fabric even close I had to soak it and the fabric was really stiff afterwards. This stuff is not the trick anyway.

 

Cloth or vinyl seats?

 

I did it to the cloth seats on my 71 Monte years ago. I took the seats out and used Rit fabric dye. It took a lot of soaking with dye and drying time but it came out ok. It did dry out the seat fabric though. If you have something to test it on I would try that first.

 

For cloth the trick is to gently clean them with a slight almount of a good cleaner. Something to get the grease off. Get a quart of dye from Year One or Classic and spray it with an el cheapo air brush that lets you put a lot on but is still finer than a regular spray gun. Don't use cans of air - you'll need a compressor. Forget the spray cans and guns - too much paint. Put on a coat, let it dry (it will dry fast because you're putting it on very thin), brush the cloth around with a hair brush or something equivalent (that will keep the cloth from laying down and becoming really hard and will help the next coat soak in and cover spots you miss). It's time consuming but if you have the patience it will work and will look much better than from a spray can. The color will come through again but just air brush it again as needed depending on how much wear the seats suffer. Vinyl is the same way just without the "brushing technique". FYI - Tan will come through on black paint over tan vinyl pretty fast, mostly around the edges of the seat where your legs rub against them when you're getting in and out and in the creases of the vinyl caused from weight.