Best $2.49 interior mod ever (IMHO)
 

As I have been personalizing my C7, I've simply posted most of my mods in my mod thread. But for the money and resulting impact, I felt this one was worthy of a thread of its own.

I wanted my interior stitching to match the car, so I bought a "Stained by Sharpie" Fabric Marker and went to work on the stitching. Of course, I used yellow, but there are a variety of colors available: http://www.sharpie.com/enus/pages/st...y-sharpie.aspx

UPDATE: Some going with yellow have indicated that the Stained by Sharpie yellow fabric marker leaves a green tint on their stitching. Others have suggested using the yellow fabric marker that Marvy makes and have indicated that it does a better job and shows more true to yellow. Here is a link to the Marvy markers: http://www.uchida.com/p-267-fabric-m...hisel-tip.aspx

ANOTHER OPTION: I tried a new option, the ZIG Fabricolor Twin, and found that it matches Velocity Yellow the best. There are other colors, of course. You can view them here: http://www.markersupply.com/zigtema1.html#.VW0zLkb5GXo

It took about two hours to transform the stitching. The process involved staining a 4-6 inch section then wiping the excess off the leather with a dry rag. There were no issues at all and it really looks great (the pics really don't do it justice).

Here are the pics (the first pic is of the passenger seat BEFORE being stained).

http://s5.postimg.org/ayu61yhvr/IMG_3736.jpg

http://s5.postimg.org/cfa9xua6f/IMG_3727.jpg

http://s5.postimg.org/xiflruryf/IMG_3733.jpg

http://s5.postimg.org/5jlg0zqbr/IMG_3741.jpg

http://s5.postimg.org/4vcli1rlz/IMG_3745.jpg

http://s5.postimg.org/drndlzi87/IMG_3747.jpg

Awesome. Can't wait to do mine in red. Thanks.

That is pretty cool but I doubt the colors will not fade in sunlight. Better to let a professional do it IMO.

BTW Red pigment has the greatest chance for fading in UV light of any color.

fabric pens don't fade much, they dye the stitching not color it......even in UV - all you do is do it again if you think it's getting light....

Amazing job! I must admit, that looks great!

^^^
Plus, just get yourself some ceramic tint and a sunshade, and you'll significantly slow down any sun damage to the interior.

Wow!!!!! Really brave to mark on the leather. The excess dye on the leather just wipes off? I have adrenaline red interior. I would LOVE to dye my red stitching in the red seats black for contrast. I have the 1LT interior with the gray stitching in the dash, door and steering wheel. It would be awesome in red.

It just seems TOO good to be true.......Seems it would be way easier to wipe yellow dye off black seats than black dye off red seats. If I try it and mess up my seats I might have a heart attack.

PS- If you are correct you will be the HERO of 1LT owners on this Forum. You may even make my favorite personal cost effective forum MOD expert "Glen e" jealous.


Are you sure the dye wipes right off the leather COMPLETELY?

I used this on the console stitching of my '08. It was grey and the seat stitching was red. It looked perfect from 4/08 to 7/13 when the car was sold, the car saw lots of sun.

The thread just wicks up the color, one stitch at a time.

I just tried an inconspicuous area under the seat (mine's a 3lt and was thinking black stitching on the red to offset the red on black on the rest of the car). It's a no-go on the red leather but your gray stitching will be fine with the red marker. I started a thread on it back on 12/09/09 in the C6 Z06 section, several pics there. Also, when I did the console in '08 there was already leather conditioner on it and that didn't interfere with the thread wicking the color.

Here are a few pics from the 12/09/09 "Gray Console Stitching vs. Red Seat Stitching - Quick Fix" thread on the C6 Z06 section, there are more there. It looked the same in July 2013 when sold.
Nothing to be afraid of when going over lighter stitching on black. Using the marker on each thread (there's a fine end and a coarse end on the Zig) as opposed to painting a portion and wiping off the excess may be safer and less work.

Looks good. Thanks for sharing

:lurk:

What if you have black stitching ..could you change to others colors easily?

no..and as said above - this best works on light colored stitching on a back/dark leather....this is just like dying anything - you can make light colors darker but not vice versa...that would be bleaching and then dying which compromises the leather and the stitching...

http://i:thumbs:mages.corvetteforum....s/thumbsup.gif
Looks good, thanks. I bookmarked the link. I'll try it this summer.

Quick reply for now...the Stained by Sharpie is a fine tipped market. It is possible to only get dye on the threads until the tip starts to break down. I imagine one could do the whole interior with three markers total if you wanted to just mark the thread and not get any on the leather. I just found it faster and easier to keep using the marker as the point broke down because the dye wiped right off with a dry rag. There were a couple of places on the seats where I did longer sections and had to wet the leather slightly to wipe the dye off the leather, but every bit of it came off.

Outstanding,Yes i will do this on my TR LT2 black.With the red pin.Thanks R.

my camaro took 4 fine tip pens at 3 bucks a pen, it's no big deal....

Nice touch. :thumbs:

In terms of bang for the buck...this is an incredible mod. Well done, the yellow looks terrific.