Carpet dyeing - synthetic or natural

[Jakub 4]

Has anyone had any experience with carpet dyeing on a mk5 cortina? My tan carpet is faded and I want to dye it. I wanted to use rit dye, but I don't know if I should buy the natural or synthetic version.

 

Thanks - Jakub

[sheffieldcortinacentre 764]

The loop pile ones are nylon the higher spec are I believe supposed to be wool. Pm/email me a close up pic.

Edited June 17, 2024 by sheffieldcortinacentre

[Neil. 118]

18 hours ago, Jakub said:

Has anyone had any experience with carpet dyeing on a mk5 cortina? My tan carpet is faded and I want to dye it. I wanted to use rit dye, but I don't know if I should buy the natural or synthetic version.

 

Thanks - Jakub

 

The likelyhood of you dyeing a carpet successfully are probably close to 0%. The years of wear & tear on the fibres will mean that they will probably have a different uptake of colour depending on the fibres aged properties. To dye a whole carpet, you'll need a huge vessel that can be heated, and be agitated in some way to achieve a even application of colour.

The cost of the dye would be outrageous for the amount of fabric you want to dye, e.g. a good black requires about 4% colour, so for 10kg of fabric you'd need 400g of dye, just overdyeing a tan carpet with another tan dyestuff, might require 50g per 10kg but then you won't cover any problems anyway.

Probably easier & cheaper to just buy a new carpet.

[SusanButcher 33]

Spray colour works well for black loop pile, at least. Spray on vinyl colour, brush the fibres when dry to separate them, and add extra colour where needed. If you were dealing with something like blue or beige carpet, you'd get some improvement, but it wouldn't look brand new.

[Jakub 4]

update: I dyed the carpet and it looks better than it did, but still not good. i dont have 300 pounds for a new carpet at the moment so i guess i will settle for this. Mostly it looks ok, but i think i used not enough dye. There were also two large dark stains in the rear footwell area, as if something was spilled. The dye did not cover these. I used the spray bottle method.

[sheffieldcortinacentre 764]

Or put some mats in over the stains.

[Jakub 4]

I will probably do that, some rubber ones should be period correct :)

[sheffieldcortinacentre 764]

Keep an eye out at car boot/auto jumble you never know what you might find.

[disco_monkey79 33]

I was planning to use my old carpet as a template and cut a new one - haven't tried to yet but it seems a straightforward shape? 

[John Mack 341]

9 hours ago, disco_monkey79 said:

..... it seems a straightforward shape? 

 

You think ?!

Every carpet I've had out a car is 3-dimensional (it's moulded, not flat).

I did get a new carpet once for an A-series Manta and whilst the old one was one bit and moulded, the new one was in several pieces....1 part for the front part of transmission tunnel, another part for the rear, parts for each footwell, other parts for along the inner sills, etc.  Each piece was trimmed around the edge, it wasn't just cut.

 

I admire you giving it a go but it might not be as easy as you think?

[disco_monkey79 33]

1 hour ago, John Mack said:

 

You think ?!

Every carpet I've had out a car is 3-dimensional (it's moulded, not flat).

I did get a new carpet once for an A-series Manta and whilst the old one was one bit and moulded, the new one was in several pieces....1 part for the front part of transmission tunnel, another part for the rear, parts for each footwell, other parts for along the inner sills, etc.  Each piece was trimmed around the edge, it wasn't just cut.

 

I admire you giving it a go but it might not be as easy as you think?

For £20 of offcut/remnant, I figure it's worth a go! 

[sheffieldcortinacentre 764]

As said really awkward to do. Frogeye Scorpio used to be not a bad fit with bit of trimming have one in my blue 2dr.

[John Mack 341]

9 hours ago, disco_monkey79 said:

For £20 of offcut/remnant, I figure it's worth a go! 

 

YES !    Definitely