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After watching a bunch of videos and reading old information. I can’t find alot of consistency on how to properly dye interior parts.
I have both soft vinyl, ie the covers that slide on the seat belt ends and hard plastic, center console.
I have the Corvette America spraycan dye, just looking for advice on prep.
soap and water, acetone, rubbing alcohol, denatured alcohol?
thoughts?
What I do is:
Wash with hot water and Dawn 2 or 3 times
You can use a vinyl and plastic prep from SEM which I do about half the time
The dye from SEM is what I use and what I think a number of the Corvette vendors buy and resale
I also did some leather seat color changes (light to dark, the other way is more difficult) with dye from the Seat Doctor
All of the dye seems to work way better than I would expect. I suggest carefully prepping the edges as this is where the dye seems to wear off the quickest.
I would not use acetone as I would guess it could damage the part. The other stuff may be in the SEM prep, but at least the SEM prep is designed for this purpose
The only thing I can add is when you use the Dawn soap to scrub down the seats or whatever parts I dump out the wash water and refill with new soap and water after each scrub down.
I would absolutely use an adhesion promoter after alcohol cleaning and before paint, SEM does make a good one... I use Bulldog and have had excellent luck with it under elastomeric paint which is what the SEM is... same as the CA interior paint.
The directions on the product container would be a good place to start once you chose which one you want to use. I used dupli-color on my center console after a couple of weeks I was curious how it would hold so I took a grey scotch bright to it and all it did was dull the surface, I was amazed by the adhesion. Another recoat and good as new.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C3 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2016 C3 of Year Finalist
SEM has good videos...i usually wash off the hard plastic bits and put acetone on a lint free rag to wipe of any residue. Then spray them down with the dye. No issues. On my leather i used the SEM clleaner, prep and then dyed them. Came out really well. Lasted all summer and only chipped deep in the creases.
Consider a wax & grease cleaner such as the old Prep-Sol. Armour All from the old days had silicone in it and that stuff hangs around for decades. Others used silicone also. If you spray the dye and get fisheyes, you have silicone to deal with.
I used SEM soap and their vinyl and plastic prep products. I followed their instructions and am very pleased with the results.
the SEM soap is a great starting soap followed with the leather viny prep, neither is petroleum based like a prep-sol, M900, Pre Kleano, DX330 etc which are not ideal for open pour leather and vinyle or plastics for that matter, if you dont have the ability to apply a mechaincal scratch you really want an adhesion promoter to open the surface... SEM makes a great adhesion promoter and is certainly an added adheision and part of their process.
From: At my Bar drinking and wrenching in Lafayette Colorado
Rather than using the single-stage (and non-catalyzed) "dyes," I have started using the much more durable and wear-resistant solution: Catalyzed basecoat paint. This requires no clearcoat (as basecoat usually requires), and ends up with outstanding durability due to the fact that it is a catalyzed finish along with the correct "sheen" for interior parts.
All interior plastic parts and the dash done in catalyzed basecoat on my '64 (interior was "Saddletan") now 4 years old:
2025 c3 ('68-'73) of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
2024 C3 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
Originally Posted by lars
Rather than using the single-stage (and non-catalyzed) "dyes," I have started using the much more durable and wear-resistant solution: Catalyzed basecoat paint. This requires no clearcoat (as basecoat usually requires), and ends up with outstanding durability due to the fact that it is a catalyzed finish along with the correct "sheen" for interior parts.
All interior plastic parts and the dash done in catalyzed basecoat on my '64 (interior was "Saddletan") now 4 years old:
I have just purchased a gorgeous bright yellow
c3 1975, I have a list of projects to carry out this
year and the corvette was not on my list.
but due to broken fan belt on first run plus cable fire, I have spent the last few weekends working
on her, totally stripped interior tidied all wiring
replaced all illumination bulbs with LEDs, sound proofed and insulated floor, replaced fan belt plus
power steering belt. Other than some routine maintenance that’s all she’s getting this year.
next year I’m thinking of body off and a full going
over.
anyway when I had put her back together the carpet pigment had warm in areas that were
subject to abrasion by body parts ie elbows feet etc and gone a strange light brown.
i bought a can of black carpet dye from Amazon
£6.50. Can’t believe the difference it has made.
if you would like me to share my first experience
in the corvette please let me know.
kind regards
mick
Last edited by Fortune1964; Apr 4, 2025 at 10:52 PM.
Most of the spray can interior "dyes" are just regular paint with a flex additive in them. They are much inferior to 'real' vinyl dye stuff. SEM used to sell liquid ColorCoat vinyl dye, which was EXCEPTIONAL for recoloring plastic parts (hard and flexible). Today, I can only find SEM in spray cans. Their sprays are good quality and probably have the same dye material in them as the liquid ColorCoat; but you can only get the colors that they make--you can't mix it to match what you already have. That will work, if you are redoing the entire interior, though. I would highly recommend the SEM spray can stuff for interiors, rather than the junk most vendors sell.
Interesting stuff about the catalyzed base-coat paint for interiors, Lars. Where do you get such stuff?
Most of the spray can interior "dyes" are just regular paint with a flex additive in them. They are much inferior to 'real' vinyl dye stuff. SEM used to sell liquid ColorCoat vinyl dye, which was EXCEPTIONAL for recoloring plastic parts (hard and flexible). Today, I can only find SEM in spray cans. Their sprays are good quality and probably have the same dye material in them as the liquid ColorCoat; but you can only get the colors that they make--you can't mix it to match what you already have. That will work, if you are redoing the entire interior, though. I would highly recommend the SEM spray can stuff for interiors, rather than the junk most vendors sell.
Interesting stuff about the catalyzed base-coat paint for interiors, Lars. Where do you get such stuff?
No this die was brilliant can’t tell the difference by eye or feel, WOW
Remember .....you're not actually "Dyeing" ...anything, by the classic definithion of the word dye. You're painting the parts. Therefore the thin spray can paint is prone to rubbing off (eventually) in wear areas. If you bought new seats and door panels of the color you wanted, you'd have a fighting chance to have a long-lasting repair. But if you took acetone on a rag ...you could wipe it off just like that.
Ever seen what worn interior 'dye' looks like on seats and door panels down the road? Usually the seat surfaces and parts of the door panels and kick panels are rubbed off. But you can touch it up too as much as you want/need. And it generally lasts quite a while on garage-queen C3's. Not saying don't do it, just that you need to be clear what you're doing when you dye paint it with thin spray can paint and be prepeared to make repairs as needed. So have an extra can for sure when you're finished.
Remember .....you're not actually "Dyeing" ...anything, by the classic definithion of the word dye. You're painting the parts. Therefore the thin spray can paint is prone to rubbing off (eventually) in wear areas. If you bought new seats and door panels of the color you wanted, you'd have a fighting chance to have a long-lasting repair. But if you took acetone on a rag ...you could wipe it off just like that.
Ever seen what worn interior 'dye' looks like on seats and door panels down the road? Usually the seat surfaces and parts of the door panels and kick panels are rubbed off. But you can touch it up too as much as you want/need. And it generally lasts quite a while on garage-queen C3's. Not saying don't do it, just that you need to be clear what you're doing when you dye paint it with thin spray can paint and be prepeared to make repairs as needed. So have an extra can for sure when you're finished.
Dye Interior Parts
