Oh hai, just some lessons learned and words of advice, don't take these words as truth. Just my experience and tips I think you should use :nyah:
Dyeing tips:
- Don't buy foam brushes, buy artist acrylic brushes: 3/4" - 1"
- When dyeing, do NOT stop in the middle of a panel, make it to the closest seam and stop. If you get bubbles or heavy spots of dye, blow on them to even them out.
- You might think that you will get brush marks, swirls, etc when the dye dries, but just be patient, they will even out. The WORST mistake I made while dyeing was trying and touching up half dried dye, it scuffed up and make a mark when dry. If you mess up, DONT touch it. Let it dry and wetsand out w/ 1500 grit, then apply another coat. It will even out
- When dyeing, you will notice that the dye separates really quickly. No lie, you will get some dye on your brush and paint a bit, then go back to get more dye on the brush and the dye will have already separated. You need to keep stirring the dye before you go and paint with it.
- Take the seats apart. I don't know how Alec did the dye job with his seat together. I did my drivers seat like that and I realized that the seams where the seat cushion met the back were going to be messed up. So I took them apart and they were horrible, the dye had made the leather stick to itself and I had to rip it apart, breaking the dye. I had to go back and wetsand and redo the portion of the drivers seat that was messed up. I did my passengers seat the proper way, taking it apart and dyeing the panels separately.
Painting tips:
- Duplicolor vinyl and fabric paint is a great product, no lie. But the spray can is a pos. It doesn't really have a good nozzle so if you are spraying downward, the spray paint coming out will splatter and make your piece look horrible. This is when I realized that if I wanted good work, I was going to have to use my hands. I just held my piece up and spun it around whichever way I needed to spray and painted while it was in my hand. I got spray paint on my hand and arm, no biggie though. Just a tip
- Make sure you are painting in the right conditions, this is very important. It was damn cold outside so I set up a spray booth inside my house to paint, it worked out very well.
Procedures
Door panels:
- Take apart door panels, don't be a bum and keep them together and mask off portions with newspaper. If you take them apart, you will get a better result in the end, I promise.
- Leatherique leather inserts, let rejuvenator soak in for 24 hours. When applying the rejuvenator, use about 2-4 ounces per panel and massage it into the panel with your hands. Like really, think of it as you giving a piece of leather a massage, it's weird. Then do all the necessary pristine clean and dyeing procedures
- Clean vinyl door panels - scrub with green works and sponge, then scrub with warm water and wipe dry. Let them sit for a while because the vinyl will still be damp feeling after you wipe it. Then spray with duplicolor vinyl and fabric paint. Remember! light coats
- Take apart arm rests - leatherique leather pads, prep and sand bottom portion for duplicolor vinyl and fabric paint.
- Put door panels back together using screws and washers
Seats:
- Scrub clean with wet rag
- Apply leatherique rejuvenator and scrub into the leather, let sit for 24 hours minimum, I let all of my pieces soak for 48 hours.
- Spray pristine clean onto leather using spray bottle and let sit for 20 mins, scrub with toothbrush and wipe off with terry towel. Wait 2 hours.
- Put leatherique prepping agent into glass bowl and get 1000 grit sandpaper, dip sandpaper into bowl and start to wetsand leather seats. Wait 6 hours minimum
- Ready for dye. For my black leatherette seats, I found that 5 coats was necessary to make it look absolutely perfect. 4 coats and you could still see some black through the dye. For the tan leather, 4 coats was plenty.
- [insert dyeing procedure here]
Headliner, rear deck and pillars:
- Clean with wet rag
- Soak them with rit dye, no lie, soak them. Don't hesitate to use as much dye as the panel will take without dripping
Door seals:
- Clean with wet rag
- Apply rit dye using bowl and sponge brush, same as headliner pieces
Plastic pieces:
- Spray down with green works and scrub as much dirt off as possible.
- Wipe pieces with a wet rag and sand with 600 grit sandpaper.
- Place in hot water bath to get rid of all the powder, let sit until completely dry
- Lots and lots of light coats of spray paint, waiting about 10 minutes between coats.
Originally Posted by neil1138
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