re-dyeing carpet?

[micky_ray]

Has anyone had any experience re-dyeing the carpet in their car? The carpet behind the rear seats in my cariolet has faded from black to a medium brown.

Is there any way to restore the original color? Can it be re-dyed in the car, or do I need to remove it? The entire interior is black, so I'm not worried about staining something else black.

Thanks,
Micky

[Dan in Pasadena]

Mickey,
I don't have a 911 (yet!) but I am going to try my hand at some carpet dyeing, black also.

Now keep in mind that this is on a car that I may be selling, so I will try my hand using ordinary Rit dye (from the supermaket). If it works, great. If I end up keeping the car I will eventually buy a good carpet kit from World Uphlsteray or some such.

My plan? Remove the entire carpet from the car, vacuum it very, very well after hanging it up and beating the hell out of it with a tennis racket - you won't believe how much dirt comes out. Then mix up Rit dye according to label instructions, with the exception that I've been told to add fabric softener to it so that when it all dries, you don't end up with crunchy carpet - yuck! Should be nice and soft. I have no doubt it will work, my only fear is will it come off on pant cuffs or other? We'll find out, hope this helped.

What's the worst that could happen? You'll need new carpet? You do already!

[Ditomaso]

Micky i suggest getting a carpet out of another car (from the scrap yard maybe) washing it and trying Rit dye i used it for my carpet in my house.
it works magic. just boil water and add it

[onewhippedpuppy]

On my old 911T I used the spray black carpet dye from Wal Mart, it actually worked very well. It stiffened up the carpet a little, but it provided excellent color and coverage, and didn't seem to wash out when I cleaned it.

[jtratza]

Micky, Thanks for posting this. Mine's getting a little brownish also. It hadn't occured to me to try dying the carpet to get the color back to black. If that doesn't work as well as I'd like little is lost and we can always replace like Dan suggests.

[micky_ray]

I came across this stuff with Google. Has anyone tried it? I may order a bottle and see how it works.

http://www.rightlook.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=255

[bigchillcar]

dan,
i'd recommend too that after the assault on the carpet with tennis racket that you take them to a spray wash booth. it's worth it to power wash and rinse and allow to dry..you don't want to try to put dye on still dusty carpet if you can help it.
ryan

[jtratza]

I recently watched a professional upholstry shop power wash carpets (2 year old BMW 7 series that someone didn't seem tocare about) and posted that a couple of days ago. A couple of readers objected to using a power washer. I can understand their concerns especially after power washing about a quarter inch of wood off my fence once but feel the technique works if extreme caution is taken and that if you do blow the yarn off the carpet you're prepared to replace the carpets anyway. I'll try it on a old set of rear pieces I have and don't use anymore.

[bigchillcar]

yeah, you have to practice reasonable restraint and anyone should be able to develop a 'feel' for how much pressure the carpet can stand..stand back and move forward until that point is reached. my brother is in the car wholsealing business and i can tell you that this procedure is part and parcel of the work the detailer they use to 'clean up' really dirty cars go through..almost all of them have the seats and carpet removed to get the power wash treatment..sometimes needing the use of commercial degreaser..but the 'before and after' results are phenomenal.
ryan