Evening fellow Fiero Fanatics!
As some of you know, I am in the middle of an interior rehab on my V8 Coupe. The PO had put in after market carpet that was originally grey and then dyed a dark blue. At first I was just going to buy new carpet then I was looking for a clean set of factory carpet. My goal on this car is to keep the budget as low as possible. I searched the net for carpet dyes and was not really "impressed" with what was out there unless I wanted to pay a professional shop to do it. At that price, I might as well buy new. I ran across a video on Youtube where a guy used some spray paint like dye for his car carpet. So I decided I'd give it a shot. Worse case was that I would be out 15 or 20 bucks and a little elbow grease.
Here's what the carpet looked like when I pulled it out of the car:
There were two nice mice nests under each seat and of course there were dead mice in there too. I used my big shop vac and spent a couple hours. Then I used my carpet shampooer and shampooed each carpet 3 times. I got a lot of dirt and old dye out of the carpet.
While it was drying, I went to the parts store to pick up some Vinyl and Fabric spary. I wanted the Dupli Color brand but AZ did not have it. They had the same product from Rustoleum. So I bought a can of dark grey and a can of black. I was not sure what color I wanted the carpet to be. I tried both and decided I liked the black so I went for it. I used 2 cans of the Rustoleum to cover one carpet. As the paint was almost dry to the touch, I used a large stiff bristled nylon brush and brushed the carpet. It looked pretty good. I used the grey to cover the rear firewall cover but I was not real happy with the way it turned out - made the brillo pad carpet feel like 60 grit grinding stone. I'll deal with that later. Here's a pic of the 2 after I was done last night.
Not too bad. Well today when I got it out in the daylight, it had a blue tint to it. So I went on a search for the Dupli Color brand. Found it at Pep Boys. I bought 2 cans and went to work. The Dupli Color went on very nice and covered great. Took a little more than one can to do the other side and after I did the brush trick, it was almost as soft to touch as it was before the paint was applied. I brushed the side that I used the Rustoleum on a bunch more and gave it another coat with the Dupli Color.
Here's the first one with Rustoleum. It's hard to see in the pic but it had a blue tint to it and you could see some of the grey fibres deep in the carpet. Forgive the "dog" hair as my Lab slept on it on the living room floor last night. She thought it was her new bed I guess.
Here's the second side with the Dupli Color: Much better penetration, better coverage and took less material.
The Rustoleum was 6.79 a can at AZ and the Dupli Color was 6.69 a can at Pep Boys. I like the Dupli Color much better than the Rustoleum and if you are thinking of dying your carpet, this is an inexpensive way to go.
Pat
[This message has been edited by katatak (edited 11-13-2009).]
