HOW TO: Make a 40 year old carpet almost like new

[vulgalour]

After the success of my first venture into carpet dye, I wanted to share the info so you can see the results for yourself and perhaps even try it out on your own car.  The sample is a nearly 40 year old carpet from an Austin Princess which has some wear to the pile and a lot of sun fade.  The colour was originally Paprika which is quite vibrant and I wanted to keep it bright rather than going for plain black.  If you want to go black there's plenty of other products in the UK on the market that will do that.  For bright colours, there isn't a lot of choice and the product I went with is an American product called Simply Spray.

 

You can buy the product here: https://www.fabricspray.co.uk/ or on eBay by searching for Simply Spray.  The colour samples shown are fairly accurate though the colour of carpet you're spraying will affect the final colour a little.  It looks like this.

20171011-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

The Princess carpet is just shy of four square metres so I bought 3 cans which have a stated coverage of 1.5 square metres.  Considering how badly faded the carpets were I erred on the side of caution and this proved sensible as I did use all three cans.

 

The carpet looked pretty bad, it would be an excellent test for this product.  The pile for the most part was in good condition, there were no tears or burns.  The worst of the damage really was chronic sun fade and some staining.

20171007-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Once inspected and found to be sound I spray some water in various places to check the carpet was absorbent.  This is important as the product is stated as requiring an absorbant surface to work so if your carpet has a stain guard or similar and the water beads and rolls off it's not going to take the dye.  After that, it was time to shampoo the carpet to get it as clean as possible since there's no point dying dirt.  I used a household Vax machine and the fluid pictured.  It didn't take very long at all to clean up the carpet.

20171007-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

I then left it to dry in the spare room with the dehumidifier running.  I would have preferred to leave it to dry outdoors in the sunshine but the weather didn't permit that.  After a couple of days everything was dry and ready for the next stage.  It also allowed me to see exactly how much the colour had faded and changed, in some places it was quite brown and in others nearly white.  Hidden edges showed the original colour, or something very close to it, which is what I was aiming for.

20171007-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

20171007-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

The first coat is very light, little more than a dusting.  The cans are uncomfortable to use, the triggers are an odd design, and generally I found it best to spray as you would with an aerosol (press for the pass, and release before the next pass) for the first pass but then just keep the trigger pressed and keep moving for the second and third passes.  On the first pass the sun-faded areas disappeared very quickly and on the second pass the colour started to even out nicely.  Here the top piece has had two coats, the bottom has only been cleaned, not dyed.  I will note the camera is slightly misleading, once the dye started to get uniform my camera struggled to focus and ended up taking a slightly over-saturated picture, the colour match was fairly close to the original in reality.

 

On the first coat work in one direction.  For the second coat, turn your piece 90 degress and again work in one direction.  This gives a very even coverage and prevents blotching and stripes.

 

20171011-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

20171011-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

You ideally need to leave 24 hours between coats.  The first pass seemed to take the longest to get to touch dry but subsequent passes were fairly rapidly drying and able to be moved without dye transfer in 2-3 hours.  After two coats and some drying time the colour mellowed from the initial brightness and was looking very good.  This piece has a stain that wouldn't come out fully and is just visible as ghosting in this shot.

20171011-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

The other minor marks and discrepencies in colour are all gone with two coats.

20171011-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Once I'd got two coats on most of the carpet I took a comparison picture with the piece I hadn't yet dyed.  The difference is quite remarkable.

20171012-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

20171012-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

The third and final coat evened the colour out completely.  I masked off the heel mat and the steering column collar with regular masking tape so they wouldn't be dyed.  Some dye did bleed under the very edges of the tape in a couple of places but the dye didn't stick so could be wiped off for a nice clean finish.  I didn't want those bits matching, I wanted to retain a more factory look.

20171018-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

The end result leaves the carpet slightly stiffer than when you started but as it's handled this stiffness does go away.  I haven't experienced any dye transfer on clothing or hands while manhandling the carpet into place in the car.  I've not experienced any dye rubbing off either.  How UV stable it is will become apparent over time though it does state it has some UV protection.  I'm very happy with the end result and for an investment of about £35 and a few hours of labour effectively spread over a long weekend (most of the time is waiting for stuff to dry) it's a very affordable solution in place of getting a new carpet.

 

Now, I just need to finish sorting out the rest of the interior.

20171018-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

20171018-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

[Heidel_Kakao]

Could you have put the carpet in a washing machine rather than using the Vax?

[beko1987]

Could you have put the carpet in a washing machine rather than using the Vax?

I read that as running the dye through the vax!

 

Id imagine the carpet in the washing machine would have destroyed it, as the backing crumbled away and it all slowly knackered the machine! I usually say hit removed carpet with a pressure washer but even that is fraught with danger on old fabric/carpet!

 

You should get some nice but cheap white over mats vulg, then dye those so at lease if it proves to not withstand heavy use it'll only be the mats that go manky, not the carpet! It looks like new once fitted!

[vulgalour]

It's not flexible enough to go in my washing machine since it's latex backed stuff.  I also wouldn't trust the machine to destroy the carpet even if it did fit.  If you haven't got a vax machine you can use regular spray-on cleaners, it's just much more work and the vax does a much more thorough job, quicker.

 

A newer, less-worn carpet would probably tolerate pressure washing, I'm not sure this one would have.

 

I think I've still got those beige offcuts I was using as floor mats in the front, they don't fit as well as the modern mid-grey set I have but they should dye to match.  Good thinking, I hadn't thought of doing that.

[chrisjvm]

That's great ....

 

Excellent job

 

Thanks for sharing.

[cobblers]

Dyes are amazing, like they seem to be so good it's almost magic - like we're always so let down by paints and stuff that when something actually does change colour properly it's mindblowing.

 

The other day I dyed a pair of tan brogues black and honestly you'd never know they weren't made that way. Done in a few hours. Shame really as they were lovely to start with, but I needed black ones cos I'm the best man.

[vulgalour]

That's a bit bold, I mean, you're okay but I don't know if you're the definitively best man there is.

 

 

 

 

yes I know what you mean really

[SiC]

What does the dye smell like and of?

[vulgalour]

When fresh it smells just like old fashioned felt tip pens.  Once cured it doesn't seem to smell of anything.  Inside of the Princess still smells just like the inside of a Princess.  Might be different when it's had time to bake in the car for a bit.  It's certainly low odour enough to use indoors with no ill effect, it's quite a pleasant smell really.

[Stanky]

Excellent write-up thanks for sharing.

[cort16]

That looks like a great result. I vaxed my cortina carpet about 15 times and it went from stinking spider farm to quite present able. Better than I though.

I recon one of those steam clean jet wash things would do quite a good job of cleaning one up.

[danthecapriman]

That does look brilliant. A huge transformation from how it started.

I might look into this for the Volvo's tan carpets, they've faded badly in places where it's been sat in the sun.

[mat_the_cat]

Great result! Was that a standard colour, or did you have to get it mixed up?

[cobblers]

That looks like a great result. I vaxed my cortina carpet about 15 times and it went from stinking spider farm to quite present able. Better than I though.

I recon one of those steam clean jet wash things would do quite a good job of cleaning one up.

I've revived many synthetic carpets from cars by nailing them on a wall and jet washing them. Red 106 Rallye ones come up lovely! With enough detergents you can get the smell of gearbox oil out too.

[vulgalour]

Great result! Was that a standard colour, or did you have to get it mixed up?

 

Standard colour "Burnt Orange" which isn't far off Paprika.  They seem to have close matches to all the standard Princess carpet colours, even the rare 100 Club purple carpets have what looks like a reasonable match in the range.

[Pillock]

That looks amazing in the car, and a great transformation from what you started with.

Was black seats and paprika carpet an original BL combo then? Or have you replaced the seats?

[vulgalour]

heh... originally this car had brown carpet, door cards and seats, called Sorrel trim.  I replaced those with the full black set from a car I stripped.  Paprika was, I believe, late model Princess and was seats, door cards, carpet and a plastic skirt around the bottom of the seats that only the late models got.  So no, Paprika carpet and black seats isn't a factory combo, but it should have been.  Normally Paprika was paired with Champagne Beige or, if it was an Allegro, whatever the plain silver was called.

[Felly Magic]

Good job there, and clearly saved a fortune compared to the price of a new carpet from the likes of Aldridge. Burnt orange sounds the colour of Donald Trump, I wonder if it is this stuff they use on his lizard skin?

[Matt]

Nice result! I like the idea of doing mine in red à la 205 GTI but that'd look daft in a Swift with no other red trim.

[oldcars]

That looks brilliant, like new. Get some mats in quick.

[DodgeRover]

Looks brilliant, 70s tastic! why didn't they continue putting bright colours into cars?

[robinmasters]

Dyes are amazing, like they seem to be so good it's almost magic - like we're always so let down by paints and stuff that when something actually does change colour properly it's mindblowing.

 

The other day I dyed a pair of tan brogues black and honestly you'd never know they weren't made that way. Done in a few hours. Shame really as they were lovely to start with, but I needed black ones cos I'm the best man.

And there was me thinking your username was based on a colloquialism for a load of old rubbish.

[dieselassist]

 I used a household Vax machine and the fluid pictured.  It didn't take very long at all to clean up the carpet.

 

 

Ive recently acquired a VAX 6131 from my sister, as she was moving house, n bought a new hoover; she said she could never get the 'carpet n fabric' washing bit working on it... she had all the attachments, extra bucket n even the user manual with it... I brought it home n spotted a chaffed clear line near the machine plug in bit; cut about 2 inches back, n reattached (clear line into a mug of warm water n onto the brass barbed fitting 'ala' washwipe fix on a car)...

 

I tested it on an old household car mat I use for 'lying under cars', and later the 'smaller head' on a shit'shiney old drivers seat; not much at all happening 'washing wise' n the water stayed milky clear; I even used a household pump sprayer with just warm water in it to pre soften up the filth, before hittin it with the VAX 6131 but again it 'shagg all' (boom boom!!)

 

......am I missing something?? clearly am looking at your brown water pics there...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[3VOM]

Ive recently acquired a VAX 6131 from my sister, as she was moving house, n bought a new hoover; she said she could never get the 'carpet n fabric' washing bit working on it... she had all the attachments, extra bucket n even the user manual with it... I brought it home n spotted a chaffed clear line near the machine plug in bit; cut about 2 inches back, n reattached (clear line into a mug of warm water n onto the brass barbed fitting 'ala' washwipe fix on a car)...

 

I tested it on an old household car mat I use for 'lying under cars', and later the 'smaller head' on a shit'shiney old drivers seat; not much at all happening 'washing wise' n the water stayed milky clear; I even used a household pump sprayer with just warm water in it to pre soften up the filth, before hittin it with the VAX 6131 but again it 'shagg all' (boom boom!!)

 

......am I missing something?? clearly am looking at your brown water pics there...

Paging beko. Is Mr beko1987 available?

[vulgalour]

I have a vague memory of it Chompy's (RIP) Vax doing the same thing and it was a broken one-way valve so the water couldn't get out.  Beko will probably know for definite.

[beko1987]

The problem with using a vax etc is if it's an oily type stain, it probably won't shift. Vulgs dirt looks more organic, so mud etc, which is water soluble.

 

The best thing would be to pre treat whatever it is with some proper chemicals, then scrub it with a good stuff brush, then rinse it using just water in the vax, which should pull all the dirt out.

 

Re no water out if the vax, if its a modern tub one, check the water is actually coming through the little tube, they shit their solution pumps for fun, and that's £20 for a new Chinese one. Not sure if there's a one way valve anywhere, I've not had one apart in thst much detail. I had a 6131 to sell once but it was so knackered I broke it for spares (still got a brand new filter housing with filter and orange recovery bucket if anyone wants it?)

[Slowsilver]

Love the artisanal seat covers!

Did you crochet them yourself

[gtd2000]

Back in 1991, I bought a 1986 Hyundai Pony 1.5GLS from a local farmers son for the princely sum of £240!

 

I believe it was used to transport livestock to the local markets based on the state of the interior....

 

I stripped out the interior and removed the fabric from the seats and put them through the washing machine - came out like new!

 

The carpet was taken down to the local Jet Wash in Galashiels and the generally black carpet returned to a lovely blue colour!

 

Took a couple of days for everything to dry out but the results were very impressive.

 

I think the Hyundai carpet was 100% plastic, so it was great for pressure washing.

 

I tend to use the pressure washer on car mats these days, usually cleans them up a treat.