LOL

Well it looks like I'm going to try out the VHT dye because it is a DYE and not a paint, I'll give it a shot and see what kind of results I can get from it. I will post pics when I start to do this, but first things first, I need to make the car street legal.

 

Carpet dye will wear fast. My friends have done them to their 240's
It's also makes the cloth fabric feel stiffer.
You could do it for a headliner or something (since there is no physical contact with it)
But for the main carpet.. I'd go with the real thing or an aftermarket copy.
Aftermarket carpet don't look too bad.. just need some time with a heat gun and some spray adhesive to make it sit flat


I'm the guy selling the door panels for $260 shipped.
I bought the car with the tweeter hole and immediately had them replaced.
I would have cut a hole in the passenger door and threw in some tweeters ...
but decided to keep it stock looking (for now)

 

Not using dye on any of the cloth surfaces. Will be buying carpet new or used (not sure yet) But I've seens all I need to see as to the durability of the dye.

 

well.. i am selling a 93 black carpet as well, lol
Good luck on your color change, it will be well worth it in the end

 

Ordered the black dye tonight through summit since i couldn't find anywhere locally that actually had it on hand. It should arrive wednesday and we'll take it from there.

 

I bet the VHT dye lasts you a long time. The door and kick panels are really the only area that might show signs of wear after a while, but for the most part it all just depends on how you get in and out of your car (dragging feet, kicking the door, etc).

For a couple bucks, why the hell not try it!

 

Painting your carpet seems intuitively to be a bad idea, like trying to paint your lawn green. Having it professionally dyed may work out OK. There ARE products used by professional auto detailers and restorers to dye carpets, but the good stuff is expensive enough that you might as well sell the tan and buy a real black one. With that said, you may consider doing an all black interior over tan carpet. I did this because back when I was collecting interior parts for my car, there were no aftermarket black carpets and good used ones were going for $500+. Here's a pic, see what you think:



James

 

I'm actually going to be leaving my carpet tan for a while until it finds its way up the priority list, if you ask me its kinda a neat look.
This is a local members car, he left the tan carpet and had the seat reupholstered black with tan centers, looks amazing. It won best 3rd gen at Sevenstock last year. Those who where there know which one I'm talking about.

 

alright so the VHT vinyl dye arrived today, but since I'm lazy and on vacation I didn't get up until this afternoon nothing got done.
So here's some pics of what I'm starting with:





Interior is very beat up, many things have been broken including the passenger handle and the glove box mount (the dash side of this snapped, how great is that >_>)
Tomorrow the fun starts.
This is what I did get done though:

Windshield wiper cowl was extremely faded, so I hit it with Duplicolor bumper paint.

 

i painted my door panels 3 years ago with dupli-color vinyl paint and its still holding up. i put 3 coats of semi gloss on it and then just misted some flat black on it and it looks exactly like the dash. i used a red scotch brite to scuff it and then wiped it down very well with prep-all.

 

Well I lied about being lazy:



Parts will be further disassembled and thrown in the bathtub with some Ajax for the first cleaning, this is going to be a through conversion

 

Moar progress, its amazing how much hardware there was just keeping the bins together. The only thing I haven't done that I'm torn over is whether or not to separate the two halves of the cargo area divider.



rub a dub dub FD parts in a tub.

 

good lord.. you decided to tear all those panels down after 9pm?
i would have a panic attack if i saw my car torn down like that, lol
good luck to you

 

All the small stuff is cleaned and given the Brillo pad treatment, working on the bin lids right now moving from smallest stuff to biggest, which would leave the bin shelf for last, not doing that in the tub.

 

Well today has been EXTREMELY windy, no chance whatsoever of dyeing the interior. I do have some good news though, I landed a set of black base cloth FD seats for $475 shipped to me

 

Ugh, I remember tearing my interior apart like that when I cleaned everything. That is alot of work!!!

 

Yes it sucks, I'm headed back to the bathtub right now to scrub the bins and the rear quarter pieces.

 

For Static mainly bc its his thread, but for all who wonder how the Duplicolor Vinyl and Fabric looks. Heres pics of my nearly done drivers door panel.







I disassembled everything much as he is doing, and while I was weary during the process, I am glad I broke it all down. Other than cleaning the pieces well, there isn't much else required than patience. I think he'll be happy with the VHT. I may end up redoing my carpet with a dye for a bit better coverage.

 

I plan on doing this when it gets warmer here. I really want to see how it all turns out so keep the pics comming, looking good so far.

 

You know your an RX-7 owner when you use your tub as a parts washer.

 

So long as the wife doesn't see, I'll wash anything in the tub.

 

I used a damn scrub brush like you could use to clean your carpets after a spill. For the small cracks and stuff< i grabbed the handy dandy used toothbrush. Lot of elbow work, but very work it.

 

WOW that looks great man!!

static i will be watching you over the next few days to see how it turns out !!!
then i will start lol
good luck with it.

P.S. my wife would Kill me if i put any of my parts in the tub!! lol

 

Progress:



Ran out after I did a few small parts, 4 cans doesn't do very much apparently.

 

good ****
i did similar with my old 190e 16v, got some tan door panels at the junk yard and painted em black to replace my worn out ones



old vs new


I cant remember the brand, but i used flat instead of gloss.

tho i sold the car a few months after that, dunno how it held up.. but should be good. They will scratch, but only if its a hard scratch, but which a hard scratch would mess up the unpainted stuff anyways.. You can rub on em all day and not worry about it.. Just dont put any crap/objects around that will scratch em, and you dont really have to tell people about them being painted, they will have no clue.