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It seems that the interior of my 1969 is too dark. I think it should rather be a lighter, almost electric, blue.
The (lousy) paint job someone did seems to be flaking off.
Is it possible to re-dye or otherwise recover this color ? That paint flaking is garish.
The seats seem to be what I suspect are original leather with vinyl inserts. They have been dyed or colored as well. Fortunately the color there is sticking without cracking or flaking. The covers looks in good condition; so I want to keep them. The foam needs to be replaced, however. I suppose the we cannot dye these seats back to their original color ?
Does the car have an interior color code for "Bright Blue"? If so, a prior owner didn't like it and shot it with regular paint...or shot it with vinyl dye without cleaning the panels well. You are going to recolor the interior panels with something (whether same blue to match the seats, or back to Bright Blue), so try the oven cleaner or other paint remover (something which will not 'melt' the vinyl interior) on a spot to see what happens. 'Real' vinyl dye will bond to the surface; paint will just 'coat' the surface. If the darker color comes off easily, it's probably paint.
You can recolor what you have with good quality vinyl dye, but it will only stick as well as what is underneath it. If you rid the surface of all loose materials, a re-dye should work pretty well. But, you have to CLEAN the surface WELL; get rid of all loose material and all oil, grease, dirt, etc. Then rinse ALL materials off the surface and dry completely. From there, you can recolor from whatever you have to ANY different color with relative ease. If you recolor the seats, it would be best to remove the seat covers so that you can clean them WELL and have good access to getting new color down into the tight creases on the surface and along any welting.
The simplest thing would be to clean those areas which have flaked off and recolor them to match the existing darker blue. You can get vinyl dye mixed to match what you have at most professional auto body paint stores.
Interior too dark...
