DIY: Dying your carpet!

[httrdd]

Items needed:

3 bottles of Rit fabric dye
Scrubbing brush
Spray bottle
Tarp
Laytex gloves
Scotchgaurd spray


Very easy to do and does not take a lot of time and cost in total 20 bucks! You can choose any color you want since it will work the same. I used Rit dye in black (pay no attention to the Bondo in the pic).

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2011/05/20110423_142156_837-1.jpg

Step 1.
Remove carpet completely from car and vacuum thoroughy. Deep shampoo carpet to remove and oils, grease, food, dirt, and anything else spilled. Next lay carpet on tarp to prevent dying anything else around the carpet.

*If you have the down time, wash and scubb the carpet and let dry.

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2011/05/20110424_173107_117-1.jpg

Step 2.
Put on laytex gloves and moisten the carpet with water. Drain water from spray bottle and put dye into spray bottle and spray first coat lightly just so you see some color covering the carpet. Use scrubbing brush to scrubb and push the dye into the carpet. Add second coat a little heavier and brush in deep. Now spray the last bit of dye into the carpet and brush until you think all areas are covered and there are no puddles of dye on the carpet. Make sure to get edges and any where the carpet is exposed.

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2011/05/20110424_180105_694-1.jpg

Carpet should look like this

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2011/05/20110424_180114_797-1.jpg

Step 3.
Hang to dry or expose to sun. I hung mine in the garage with fans running to speed up the drying for two days.

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2011/05/20110424_180706_984-1.jpg

Step 4.Once carpet is dry vacuum thoroughly.

Step 5.
Spray a light coat of Scotchgaurd fabric spray over carpet and let dry for about 30 mins. Spray next coat medium and let dry for another 30 mins. Finally spray another coat making sure you get all over the carpet and let it get dry to the touch.

Step 6 You can now reinstall your carpet. Avoid touching the carpet for about a week so the dye can settle in. Use floor mats to drive the car during the drying process. If you have the down time let dry for about a week before reinstall.

Ok you are all done and your carpet looks new! :smt023 I have had mine in for about 2 weeks and I can rub my hand on it and a damp rag with no problems. Good luck!


:smt020

[harrymaneuvers]

VERY nice writeup chuck!

[httrdd]

VERY nice writeup chuck!

No problem Sammy!

[mycargoesvroom]

Thank ya sir!

[GTDrifter]

nice work...alot of drying time though

[httrdd]

Yea they say you can speed it up by baking it though. I would not recomend putting the carpet in the oven though. Lol. Maybe a turbo heater in a garage to bake it? If you can get away with it just reinstall the seats and drive with no carpet durring the drying process.

[02_Legacy]

Thanks for the write up, I would like to do this to my carpet one of these days.

[harrymaneuvers]

OOPS!

[92BJlegacy]

I have been wanting to do this for awile but I was worried about the color coming up. I handnt thought to use scotchgard. Great idea Thank!!

[httrdd]

No problem.

[d1giPhux]

Nice! Lets see some pics of how it looks installed. Any signs of the old wear underneath the new coat of dye?

[httrdd]

There was only one coat of dye put on, but still sprayed on the full three bottles. Not sure about the wear since I use floor mats. I occasionally rub my hand on the passenger side carpet to test is color is coming off. It is amazing that is feels just like normal and nothing comes off. I did add another coat of Scotchgaurd after a week to lock the dye in. I only have the drivers and back seat in so I will take a pic like that if you want. Even in the sun it looks black not brown like you would think.

[Huffer]

Someone should do a "dunk in a bathtub full of dye and let soak for a day" method. :lol:

[httrdd]

I found those threads doing a google search. Seems that you have to use like 8 bottles of dye and a cup of salt and let soak for a couple of days. I would think it would work, but it would have to be done a couple of times to get it to soak into synthetic materials. Unless you let it soak for a week. Lol. They say it comes off with some soft scrubb though!

[Huffer]

^^ maybe they didn't scotch guard it like you did?

[-J.M.G.-]

Nice work !!

How many time for make it ?

[httrdd]

I would say the ripout about an hour. Prep about an hour (vacuum and shampoo). Dye about an hour. Cleanup about 10 mins. Most of the time involved is drying time.

[httrdd]

This is the best I can do right now. My interior is not fully assembled just yet.

Motivation!

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2011/05/20110504_173921_317-1.jpg

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2011/05/20110504_173952_411-1.jpg

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2011/05/20110504_172538_602-1.jpg

[MRLancaster]

How do you remove the carpet. I have tears in mine, gonna pick up a carpet from the junk yard and scrub the living day lights out of it, and replace mine.
Then.....dye it! :D

[httrdd]

Ok where do I start. Remove the seats with rails, remove all the kick guards, remove the console and trim around carpet area, pull the push down plugs that are under the seat area, pull the plugs around the kick panel area, remove seatbelt guards, and anything else you see that would restrain the carpet. Once you remove the kick panels you have to unclip the carpet edges (little white clips) then it comes right out.

[xoSubieLegacyxo]

I'm thinking blue dye? Haha good write up!

[httrdd]

Pink! Jdm yo!

[MRLancaster]

Ok where do I start. Remove the seats with rails, remove all the kick guards, remove the console and trim around carpet area, pull the push down plugs that are under the seat area, pull the plugs around the kick panel area, remove seatbelt guards, and anything else you see that would restrain the carpet. Once you remove the kick panels you have to unclip the carpet edges (little white clips) then it comes right out.


Thanks! I tried before, hopefully this time I will have more luck. :D

[TexasLegacy2.5GT]

When you had the entire carpet out did you put in any sound deaden insulation?
Awesome write up! I've got some ideas as to what I want to do with my interior after I saw a 97' LSI....looks kinda cool haven't seen one like in a hundred. I'll post some photos sometime...

[httrdd]

Na not worried about sound right now. I love to hear the rumble and the squeeks the car makes. There is a nice write up on Rs25 with sound deadening I can PM you.

[rocketlegacy]

definitely doing this during this summer.

[peter]

Iv been wanting to do this for a while now, didnt know it would take that long to dry. Should have planned this out and done it when I was replacing my seats... Iv disassembled my interior so many times lol dont want to do it again

[Greavesy]

Will definetly be doing this later this year, I think the gray carpet is manky!

Top write up!

[Danny-G]

Definalty thinking about this more now. I hate my tan interior so much.

[mycargoesvroom]

I did mine and it came out great. The dye was really easy to apply and went on nice and even. Can't wait to get mine back in my car!

[Wagaru]

i have used duplicolor fabric and vinyl paint with great success before, just clean and dry the carpet first and apply one coat, let dry for a few hours and brush out the carpet, then spray another coat and let it dry and then brush out. I use a stiff bristle brush to brush it out so the carpet doesn't matte down from the paint adhereing it. I havent had problems with the paint lifting or flaking. it does not dye as deep as the rit but it works well if you are not changing colors on the carpet.

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq67 ... tojpg3.jpg (http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq67/acuragsr94/photojpg3.jpg)

not my photo

[MRB18]

Excellent write up. adding to my to do list :)

[MarkSubi]

I'm so happy this is here. I've been wanting to do this for a good while and since spring break is coming up I'm going to try it.

[xoSubieLegacyxo]

I think I'm going to do this over the weekend. I'm getting new seats, and I also want to plasti dip some interior pieces.

[lord flashheart]

I've been looking for STi or Wrx carpet but I'm gonna try it this weekend.. will post pics of the final result.

[lord flashheart]

well i did it. i used slightly different procidure, than you did. i did a mix of your steps and steps from the bottle.
after it dried, it was still alittle light, so tomorrow i am going to do 2 more bottles to really darken it up.

[rushjay2121]

sooo just to clarify do you dilute the dye at all?

[lord flashheart]

i did 1:1

[pumpupthevolume]

I gotta do this! Good write up

[monical]

You did a good job. I often buy a new one and then throw the old away. But now I will consider clean it by myself

[Levi B]

I'm in the process of doing this, I'm also putting in sound deadening and hooking up my heated seats. Needless to say I'm driving around carpetless for a while haha

[Levi B]

Finished, it turned out great! It looks so much better than my old grey, stained carpet. My only complaint is it will blacken your fingertips a little bit when you're touching it a lot. I went over it really well with a vacuum cleaner and it fixed this 95%. I think over time it will eventually be 100% ok to touch, and even when it was coming off on your fingers the carpet didn't change in color at all.

[httrdd]

Glad its working out for you guys. Like you said once you brush it and knock the top layer off it will stay dyed and clean when you touch it. Also dont forget to spray it with the carpet sealer.

[pumpupthevolume]

Hey man I was wondering what you've done to protect against water? i did the sealer but when my carpet gets wet, the dye comes up a bit. But btw the dyed carpets look great. :smt023

[teeceRS]

That came out very nice! I'll have to look into a blue tone so I can hopefully replicate the STi blue carpet. It's always been a favorite little feature Subaru did.

[argyle409]

Yes the question is kind of stupid, but is they some sort of dye that as if bleaches the carpet to white? To then get a more pure color when you dye the final color you are going for, or is Rit dye really powerful and no need for that? Thanks

[StaticRegulator]

Has anyone tried this with the cloth seats?