Dying Vinyl & Old Seat Foam Condition

[dgs]

Two questions for those who know upholstery or have restored their seats.

Q1 - Can turquoise leather be dyed red?
Penelope has graciously offered the old leather seat covers for the cost of shipping. His seats are turquoise and mine are red, however. Will I be able to dye them red? I'm thinking of something like the vinyl dyes which are more like paints in that they cover rather than saturate. Could I possibly use a vinyl pain on the leather? My leather is real tires, getting beyond serviceable and I just don't have the money to redo the leather yet. I do want to keep driving it though and this may be a good stop-gap measure.

Q2 - What are the odds my seat foam is any good?
Even if I could dye the leather, it may be a moot point if my foam disintegrates when I remove the old covers. What are the odds that my foam - after 18 years in the southern CA sun and 150,000 miles of butts in them - is any good? Is there any reasonable expectation that I can re-use the foam? What are your experiences? If I pull the old covers off and the foam comes apart I'm in trouble. Any techniques that might give better results? I bet that cutting the seat covers off will make it more likely that the foam is reusable, any other tips?

Thanks,

[tbird430]

I would recommend u go ahead and get the new seat foam. It is only getting more and more expensive each year. There are still 2 vendors that sell it for $109 a seat. Good luck either way.

I'm sorry but I don't know what to tell u about dying used leather covers. Someone else will have to chime in on that one. Did u try calling a local upholstery shop..?

[Guest]

I dyed my vinyl seats from green to white, just used regular dye in a spray can from the local parts store. Came out pretty good, wish I would've preped better though, I hear it's all in the prep.

there are some shots of it here:

http://www.squarebirds.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=3030&page=4

[Guest]

Try Eastwood .Com for your dye and prep, I used ther products on vynl and it worked very good
Bob M

[danowens3]

I have dyed several different colors red, but not ever green to red. The dye that I used was SEM and was available at a local paint and auto body shop for approx $10 per can. The most valuable thing you can do is to clean the vinyl first with light soap and water and then rinse and dry. Once dry use a SEM product called vinyl prep, you spray it on, let it soak then wipe clean and rinse with water (may need to repeat several times if a lot of grime or water still beads on the part), let dry and then use the dye. The dye I used was portola red by SEM. Used it it on the dash, console, metal trim pieces by dash, door panels, kick panels, etc and they turned out really nice. Many VERY thin coats is recommended and do not try a thick coat as you may likely not be pleased. Good luck. Dan

[Guest]

Seat Foam

dgs, once you find that your rear seat foams have turned into a glob of melted goo or have powdered, please contact me at askhow@aol.com, or call me 612-708-2144, as I can certainly manufacture a new set of rear seat foams for you and have them delivered to you in one week.

Best Birding, Jed Zimmerman, 58HT

[RustyNCa]

I have dyed several different colors red, but not ever green to red. The dye that I used was SEM and was available at a local paint and auto body shop for approx $10 per can. The most valuable thing you can do is to clean the vinyl first with light soap and water and then rinse and dry. Once dry use a SEM product called vinyl prep, you spray it on, let it soak then wipe clean and rinse with water (may need to repeat several times if a lot of grime or water still beads on the part), let dry and then use the dye. The dye I used was portola red by SEM. Used it it on the dash, console, metal trim pieces by dash, door panels, kick panels, etc and they turned out really nice. Many VERY thin coats is recommended and do not try a thick coat as you may likely not be pleased. Good luck. Dan

I would second what Dan said, SEM Vinyl Prep and Paint is what I used on my olds dash pad, sun visors and door panels. They were orginally tan and I went to black. It's all in the prep work, you get it prepped right and the vinyl dye/paint will last very well, do it wrong and it will come right off when you try to clean the vinyl.

Before



After

[tbird430]

He asked about used leather seat covers guys.....

[RustyNCa]

He asked about used leather seat covers guys.....

Opps, your right. And it says on SEM

"color coat is great for vinyl, plastics, auto carpet, but do not use on leather."

We were a very helpful bunch



But at least now he knows what to do with all the vinyl

Here are some web sites I found.

http://www.leathermedic.com/moo.html

http://www.leathermagicpro.com

[dgs]

We were a very helpful bunch

To be fair, I goofed up the title and it says vinyl. I tried to edit the first post, but I couldn't see how.

I've used the vinyl paint on my door panels with good results. Not sure about using it on seats or leather, sounds like it's not a good idea. I'll browse the links you posted and maybe call an upholstery shop and see what I come up with.

Thanks guys. I'd still like to hear from folks who've taken their seat covers off about the condition of the old foam.

[fomoco59]

My covers weren't in too bad shape, but dried out badly. I pulled the covers and the foam was so dry and brittle it disintegrated to the touch. Worth the money to replace the foam, but you'll sit a lot higher ! Tell-tale signs under the seat:

[Anders]

: I'd still like to hear from folks who've taken their seat covers off about the condition of the old foam.

Itīs a hard, very Yellow, powder now.
Need to order new to winter.
Edit: Just like the pic below

[Guest]

dgs
I took my old seat covers off and replaced with new one the foam would not have been good to reused as it was dried out and crumbled when the seat cover came off, I bought new foam for the new seat covers and it sure makes a difference on the butt when riding in the car.
Bob M

[dgs]

Worth the money to replace the foam, but you'll sit a lot higher!

Higher!?! I've got the seat all the way down and my thighs touch the wheel as is.

I'm sure it's worth the $, but my seat covers are in bad shape and I don't have the dough to do it right. I've got a red cover for the rear (which i think is actually vinyl) from a member here for $50 and for $70 I can get Penelope's turquoise fronts shipped from down under. The new foam alone is about $500, maybe $550 now. Money well spent - if I had it.

I'm thinking I'll try it and cut the old covers off to try and not disturb the fragile foam underneath.

[RustyNCa]

Itīs a hard, very Yellow, powder now.
Need to order new to winter.
Edit: Just like the pic below

Really my gripe about the foam, is when you are driving down the road with the windows down and it starts flying around in the car and gets in your eyes, well, it hurts.......alot

And it looks a bit awful when you look inside the car and see the foam dust everywhere in the interior.....

Both the 58 and 65 do that, the 59 doesn't, but that's probably becuase there isn't any foam left..... just a frame.