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I had a gray cargo mat that I got for $5 because it was discolored and stained and looked horrible. I found some gray Duplicolor Vinyl and Fabric spray cans at a Meijer clearance for $1.39 per can. I sprayed the mat several times with one can. When it dried it felt stiff and "crunchy" to the touch. I worked it some and brushed it quite a bit and it softened up. The end result is that it looks very nice and is almost normal to the touch.
I am sure the new carpets will be much better that sprayed carpet, but it may be an option for some people.
Great project you have. I like following these threads to see what people are doing, the methods, and how it turns out.
Good luck.
Last edited by QCVette; 04-24-2017 at 09:34 AM.
Reason: spelling
Hi QC thanks for the comment. I saw the method of the spray "dye" which must be different in some way from spray paint.
My carpets were all in great shape except for the rear cargo area. In retrospect i should have used the spray method and then follow it up with a brush agitation to keep the fibers from glomming together.
I saw a few guys on the internet who went totally black with thier carpets. i think a couple things that messed up my attempt
-first off all the color is totally not a light grey. its like a navy blue grey. lol.
-not enough dye for the amount of carpet
-not enough volume in the recycle bin that i used so that i could not "stir" the carpet.
online, the guys i saw do it were
-dumping as much black in as possible. they were not worried anout the shade of grey like i was
-dyeing a much smaller piece of carpet from the inside of a supra or something.
if people had a great set of carpets (excluding my rear cargo area which i was going to buy a corvette emblem cargo mat for) i would recommend your method QC. the medium grey color can be mostly matched and the substrate is just a faded version of it so it would be had to tell any difference from oem if you also deal with the glomming and matting by brushing it out.
waiting on carpet after the wolves were slain in the backyard.
I just dropped mine off last night to get done. Can't wait to get it back! It will take them at least a week or more with the backlog they have. The new EPROM has made it a completely different car and I am dying to cruise!
I just dropped mine off last night to get done. Can't wait to get it back! It will take them at least a week or more with the backlog they have. The new EPROM has made it a completely different car and I am dying to cruise!
very happy to hear your new chip has change the vehicle! I found the same thing on my 85. It turned the car into my 87. It drove exactly the same as the 87. I don't know why they did not have a better tune for the 85 but it sure was great.
regarding your interior, I'm very excited to see what path you have taken. You've been very secretive! What are you doing? Leather interior panels?
interior update. Half the carpet is in, i have spent most of my time putting things back together correctly. pretty much every wire was routed incorrectly.
for any of you who are refurbing a c4, grab yourself a few cans of SEM landau black. Its a dead ringer match to the oem black trim parts. and grab a can of "sand free".
it basically preps the plastic with a thin mist of reducer to soften and excite the surface of the abs or vinyl part and i let it flash and then hit with a light coat of landau black while the part is still moist with the sandfree. (clean the part first!). result is a dead match.
anyway,
I AM SO EXCITED that i will be driving this car very soon. Far as I know, the only critical items i need to repair before daily driving it are the antenna which i think has a broken retract cable because the motor just keeps on a runnin. and secondly, the valve covers are leaking so i will remove them and do cork with hylomar and refurb the 86's vc's while im at it.
PICS to come guys. the carpet from auto custom carpets look great!
interior update. Half the carpet is in, i have spent most of my time putting things back together correctly. pretty much every wire was routed incorrectly.
for any of you who are refurbing a c4, grab yourself a few cans of SEM landau black. Its a dead ringer match to the oem black trim parts. and grab a can of "sand free".
it basically preps the plastic with a thin mist of reducer to soften and excite the surface of the abs or vinyl part and i let it flash and then hit with a light coat of landau black while the part is still moist with the sandfree. (clean the part first!). result is a dead match.
anyway,
I AM SO EXCITED that i will be driving this car very soon. Far as I know, the only critical items i need to repair before daily driving it are the antenna which i think has a broken retract cable because the motor just keeps on a runnin. and secondly, the valve covers are leaking so i will remove them and do cork with hylomar and refurb the 86's vc's while im at it.
PICS to come guys. the carpet from auto custom carpets look great!
Love it!! Looking awesome. I need to try the landau black trick on some of my parts. I finally got mine back from the carpet install and am putting it all back together.
Of course as soon as I got it back I bit the bullet and started the brake upgrade.....so it's in pieces again!
this car was absolutely disgusting inside. I have cleaned every nook and cranny and I am so happy with his results. I chose not to spray the rear plastic surround, but I may change that decision. The Landau black just looks so darn good as an absolute match.
I find when many people spray paint parts in the car they just look out of place like they don't belong. In the case of this particular paint it just matches perfectly. I missed it on the over the sand free. Give it about two minutes and then give it a light mist again. It takes hardly any paid and you're not leaving a thick coating that will chip off in the future.
my interior reconstruction has been slow down by a few new components I realize or not working. One is the Sideview mirror joystick but I have one on order. And I also realized that the reverse lights in the car or not coming on.
so I will be getting to the bottom of that before I go any further on installing the dash and consul.
One thing to be prepared for if you refurbish your interior, the rest of the car looks old and worn out! that is OK, this was a $650 purchase and the car is complete and runs.
It's a little late for me now but how did you keep all the hardware organized? I struggled with what screw went where when I put mine back together. I thought I had a system....but it failed me miserably!!
It's a little late for me now but how did you keep all the hardware organized? I struggled with what screw went where when I put mine back together. I thought I had a system....but it failed me miserably!!
And the carpet looks amazing!
Hi Silver when i rebuilt my 85 last year, i learned to put each pile of screws in cheap 2cent sandwich bags and then use a sharpie to write what went where.
critical!!!
i can tell you that bubba who owned the car before me definately did not do that! im 99.99% sure that whoever put this car back together was not who took it apart. the window switch bezels were screwed in from under the center consul skeleton for example. every single wire in the interior was arbitrarily taped over the dynomatting. its really weird. this car had some love in the pst, but, then im sure it switched owners in mid-project status. it definately sat outside for a long time. mice were in it for sure. ive cleaned vacuumed and disinfected every part on this car. my wife is going to drive this car (hopefully not over any more boulders) and i want it to be as new. its been fun. she has never seen any of the crap that was inside the car.
anyway, plenty more to do. yah, i use clear sandwhich bags. and egg cartons with the little component hilders.
where did you order the mats? Are you pleased with the color? Seems there are a million choices and I would love an endorsement from someone with the same interior color.
where did you order the mats? Are you pleased with the color? Seems there are a million choices and I would love an endorsement from someone with the same interior color.
hi silver sry for not replying earlier. i got them from auto custom carpet on ebay.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (appearance mods)
C4 of Year Winner (appearance mods) 2019
Originally Posted by VikingTrad3r
[left]I pride myself on doing good work to these cars. As you can see from the thread I typically repair things as opposed to replace them, if possible, but it cant look bubba and it its got be something i can proud to show off when done. this doesnt qualify lol. I'm not sure what went wrong with the dye job.
I like your philosophy and DIY approach. I will offer a couple of thoughts on what went wrong...and the "comfort" that one of my restoration choices WAS to replace the carpets.
I have seen carpets dyed...and they can look nice for awhile. You also have to deal with "paint smell" for awhile. To this day, I redye a floor mat in my other rare vehicle. It's necessary about once-a-year... As opposed to interior panels in my vette, floor/carpet require refurb about 5-times more often. (5yrs vs 1yr).
Carpet is made of different fibers -- which can affect results. Presumably, nylon is what ours are made of but I wouldn't be surprised if they "take dye" poorly -- like polyester. Rit makes special dye for poly but requires BOILING water and extended HIGH heat to work. So, lack of heat MIGHT have been one issue.
Another is contamination...which you tried to address. Blotchy results could be from lack of stirring or contamination. The combination of blotchy and mis-coloring makes me suspect both water temp and contamination.
I bleached a patio set (upholstery) last winter and it faded already. I'm not convinced RIT dyes hold up to UV issues either.
When I've seen car-lots dye carpet, they wear latex gloves while spraying and working the dye into the carpet. I've used both SEM and Duplicolor fabric sprays. I think either can wash out (fade) over time.
Basically, there's no substitute for factory hi-heat-set products. That said, I would never suggest people stop trying for good DIY results. I applaud you for trying....and much of what you HAVE accomplished!
the good news is that i have an 87 auto z52 with graphite interior with a couple pieces or very dingy carpets. ive already bought a can of SEM "graphite" and because the botched panels came out so dark, a couple mist spray coats over the panel i pilfered look excellent. the side panels in the cargo area were very trashed and these now look like factory replacements and are the correct color.
so all was not lost with the botched dye job.
one thing i really agree with you on, after seeing how GREAT my carpets look, is nothing beats new carpet.
thnx for sharing your experience and the compliments.
04-24-2017, 09:32 AM
