After taking a look at the seats in my car, I realized they were custom, leather edges with a cloth insert/center section. The center section used to be soft red fabric, (seems like nylon fiber), but the previous owner applied black paint or dye over them, which made the cloth feel stiffer, and to make matters worse, it is rubbing off in some spots. Is there any way to remove this black dye without completely damaging the fabric of the seats? Thanks

 

Anybody on this? Any solvents that work to dilute that stuff? Normal paint thinner seems to do a little, but not much

 

From all the dye work I've done, I've never been able to completely get all the color out. I think your best bet is to just have those cloth inserts re-upholstered as you'll most likely just tear them up trying to get the black out. You might be able to fade the black by continuous cleaning but I doubt you will ever get it all out. You could also de-stitch the inserts, bleach them, and re-dye them, but that's not guaranteed to work and probably more trouble than it's worth.