As you may recall from the 'Beetle Era' of my posts, the gently used seat covers I acquired were a colour (Red) that wasn't going to work. I knew the seats could be dyed and that there were several products on the market to accomplish this. I recall looking at standard hardware store product and specialist shop product and the price gap between them. Which one would work the best?
As far as those seats go, we will never know. I do however, have several motorcycle seats that are in sound condition but badly faded and could use some attention.
On a whim, I decided to give the hardware store dye a go.
Dupli-Color Vinyl and fabric dye retails from around $12.00 CDN (under $10.00 USD from what I have seen). It is fairly straightforward to use, in theory at least; Shake can, adjust nozzle and make sure that your surfaces being dyed are very clean.
Here is what I started with:
Here is what I ended up with:
As you can see, the dye works well and makes a world of difference to the look of the seat. That being said, it took some effort and expletives to get there!
The first thing to point out is the colour selection. The results that you see, (believe it or not) come from a can of flat black, not gloss. I picked up this tip from some helpful youtube videos and online forums that I researched beforehand. If this is their version of flat, one would require sunglasses to look at a 'gloss' painted seat!
My biggest issue with the product is the delivery of it. That is to say, the spraying of it onto the surface. I shook the can, adjusted the nozzle with a small flat screwdriver, sprayed upside down for a few seconds, etc. I could not get a consistent, even spray. It would come out in globs, which had to be sprayed over to get an even sheen. By the time I had finished the seat, the can was 3/4 empty.
On my end, it is possible that it may have been too hot outside when I sprayed the product; the other being that the can itself may have had a defect. I will not rule out human error. When I watched videos of the product being used, it certainly seemed to come out nicely.
Despite these shortcomings, the results are very good and I plan to use the remainder of the can on a white solo seat I acquired years ago.
For a singular item, I would certainly recommend the product. Doing a whole car interior might be quite a challenge with inconsistent spraying and touch ups. I will do a follow up sometime in the future to see how well the seat holds up...
Until next time...
