honest no bullshit assessment of dupli-color fabric & vinyl on recoloring carpet

[paulkeith]

Subject says it all.

I've seen a few users tout their success using it, and as many others saying its a disaster waiting to happen and to not do it.

I have my carpet out and pressure washed. Its gray, but slightly faded and my ultimate intent was to move to an all black interior. I have new black floor mats and leather dye for the rear seats and headliner, front seats will eventually be recovered or replaced in black. I will paint the doorcards and just replace them with black ones if that goes south, but I can't make up my mind about the carpet. Its a job and a half getting it out and I dont want to be doing this again in a few months if my painted carpet is staining everything black, fading, stiff, etc

Who has done it? I dont wanna hear if your brother's friend's roommate did it, I wanna hear if YOU did it. Does it bleed later if in contact with moist/wet items? How stiff is the carpet afterwards if you work the product in with a bristle brush during/after coats? Does rubbing/scrubbing the carpet weeks/months later pull the color back out? How long ago did you do it? etc

If you've got before/after pics that'd be helpful too.

TIA
Paul


Just so this gets picked up in later searches: dupli-color duplicolor carpet dying dye

[Tricked 323i]

Paul,
I have a dye I use on carpets and it works well. I can not personally comment on duplicolor though. I have a friend that used SEM and it looked great, he sold the car so not sure what the durability of it was.
Kevin

[Asbradley21]

I used it on my kick panels and used it to touch up some fading on my black cloth Corbeau's, its very even and doesn't feel crunchy on the seat cloth. All in all though, I wouldn't recommend it for carpets.

Edit: Just saw you were just going from grey and not tan. Should be fine.

[doglegleft]

I am in the process of converting my blue interior to black. I removed the rug and all of the interior bits.

I tested two small pieces of the carpet and was very pleased with the results so I have begun treating the rest of the carpet with the Duplicolor.

I also tested a couple small pieces of the interior trim and was equally impressed.

I plan to post a thread with pictures of the project I am working on...

As others have suggested you have to work the dye into the rug with a brush during and after each coat. You certainly can work the rug back to soft after the dye dries using a medium bristle brush.

I can't comment to how long the dye will last... no first hand experience yet... but several here have reported back good results after tens of thousands of miles. I am planning to run floor mats for sure.

G/L

[catchuk]

Paul,
I have a dye I use on carpets and it works well. I can not personally comment on duplicolor though. I have a friend that used SEM and it looked great, he sold the car so not sure what the durability of it was.
Kevin

where do you get the dye I want to make my carpet dark grey!

[paulkeith]

Alright, bit of an update. I gave the duplicolor a shot tonight on my parcel shelf and rear door cards. As a result of that test run, I'm pretty sure I'm NOT going to try to do the whole carpet.

It took a pretty substantial amount of effort and paint (can and a half) to get just the parcel shelf coated evenly without visible streaking or light spots. I also worked it with a bristle brush and this either removed the paint entirely or made it clump up into big chunks. After it dried, the carpet was pretty stiff and crunchy, so I tried working with a brush again, which just started pulling the paint up again.

On the upside, it worked absolutely AWESOME on the gray vinyl door cards. I scrubbed them with simple green, wiped down with acetone, and sprayed on. Probably half a can per card. I bought the flat black duplicolor, and they look very good. It was a pleasant surprise after the rear parcel shelf.

My gray carpet is decent, so I think its just going to go back in with black floor mats on top of it.

Paul

[Asbradley21]

Alright, bit of an update. I gave the duplicolor a shot tonight on my parcel shelf and rear door cards. As a result of that test run, I'm pretty sure I'm NOT going to try to do the whole carpet.

It took a pretty substantial amount of effort and paint (can and a half) to get just the parcel shelf coated evenly without visible streaking or light spots. I also worked it with a bristle brush and this either removed the paint entirely or made it clump up into big chunks. After it dried, the carpet was pretty stiff and crunchy, so I tried working with a brush again, which just started pulling the paint up again.

On the upside, it worked absolutely AWESOME on the gray vinyl door cards. I scrubbed them with simple green, wiped down with acetone, and sprayed on. Probably half a can per card. I bought the flat black duplicolor, and they look very good. It was a pleasant surprise after the rear parcel shelf.

My gray carpet is decent, so I think its just going to go back in with black floor mats on top of it.

Paul

If the stuff ruined your rear deck, rip off the carpet on it, go to hobby lobby, get some black fabric (2 yards will do) and a can of spray adhesive. spray the fuck out of both the deck and the carpet and work your way out from the inside. Looks better than dyed or anything else, and takes about 20 minutes.

[CorvallisBMW]

I've used it on carpets and it worked great.

[paulkeith]

I've used it on carpets and it worked great.

little more detail? How did you apply it? Did you use a bristle brush? etc

[MDryVur]

ive used the duplicolor for the carpets as well and worked out great... ive also used it on the door panels

[EightiesBaby]

Well I bought te stuff last night and sprayed my floor mats. The coverage wasnt bad and the can was just about enough for all four mats. I dont know if I did it wrong but after letting it dry overnight the paint easily brushes off the fibers. Should I also spray on some 3M carpet protectant? Aside from that little snafu, the mats look great

[MDryVur]

added pics above.

[Poopie]

I would not use the product on carpets. I did the rear sheft and it was decent, but the fibers were a bit too firm, even from brushing it. The coverage was decent though and looks good compared to the faded blue. I just don't want to touch it. haha. I also did all the door cards and side panels and it it came out great. Just don't "spray bomb" them. You have to do one light coat, and a few medium coats. A heavy coat will blotch.

[E30Nova]

ive used the duplicolor for the carpets as well and worked out great... ive also used it on the door panels

That looks awesome.

Matt

[MDryVur]

thanks dude...

it took a while but got it near perfect.