An Interesting approach to reconditioning a series 1 interior

Dear Aus300zx,

I like the tweed.

Sincerely,
Anti, Z32 lover

The tweed, I feel, is very comfortable, looks good and doesn't have the maintenance that leather does. The problem I have with it is the colour. It's very old school and brings down the car.

For a while I was thinking of ordering some sheets of black tweed and doing a full retrim professionally, but that would be a very costly and time consuming task. Then I remembered this stuff:



Some years ago I put together a Heath Ledger's Joker costume, and for the life of me I couldn't find a purple coat (as you can imagine). I looked up dyes and the like, but nothing really fit the bill 'til I found this stuff. I ordered two cans, did all the spraying myself and the result was pretty good! The coverage was flawless, the material kept its finish, didn't stiffen up at all and even now the colour hasn't faded. The only issue was that it isn't as fine when spraying as regular spray paint, but that's easy to work around.

They recommend on their website their upholstery spray as a great way of bringing car interiors back to life, and I'm thinking of going down that road. Ordering 6 cans ($20 a can) will net you a 17% discount, and I reckon the whole 2+0 interior can be done with about 12 cans, judging by their coverage guide. Should be easy too - just pull out the trim one piece at a time and spray in the garage or something. It's odourless too. That's a full black tweed interior for about $200.

Thoughts? I'm pretty keen on giving this a shot.

-A

 

VHT Vinyl Dye

I've been considering the same thing but just for the seats, a few guys have posted on this topic before, what i got from them, the best stuff was VHT Vinyl dye that is designed to work on car carpets most cloth materials and vinyl..best bet is go to the VHT website and have a read up on it, looks like the way to go for what you want, Hope this helps

 

There is guy round my way who has done it, he doesnt get on the forums much, and it looks a million times better as black tweed than the grey tweed

 

lowzx actually sprayed the tweed bits black using VHT dye 3 years ago. i saw it and it was quite good actually.

i can understand why you can't be bothered changing out tweed. it's durable, easy to clean and wears slowly.

give it a good clean. dye it in black and it'll have that 2k spec feel to it. they went back to tweed for a reason.

 

tweed is leathers bitch

 

http://www.simplyspray.com.au/products/Upholstery-Spray®-MIDNIGHT-BLACK.html is the link to the stuff I've used before.

That VHT stuff looks like it might do the trick, I'll have a read up

I like the tweed...

 

Which is why he's saying he CAN understand why you're keeping it. Gosh.

 

he said he can understand why I can't be bothered, and that's not it at all

 

So's your face, but you don't hear me going on about it.
But srsly, I too am pro-tweed. Tweed is pretty awesome. Black would be even more awesome than grey. Grey is less awesome than black would be. In tweed, that is. KEEP ME UPDATED ON THIS PROJECT OF YOURS, MR. ANTI.
KTHX

 

mate tell me how it goes, i might come round and bug you to do this for me and possibly fome free booze?

 

Hey mate,

Tried this a few years ago with another car. Don't steam clean it. You'll see your water turn black and your seats turn lighter.

 

neeed pics

 

I found that VHT was useless (some years ago not sure if they improved) never a bought a can of VHT again.

When I was doing the dash restoration on my 260z i used this as finishing coat and to change the colour of other interior bits.

http://www.viponds.com.au/tautflex.htm

you can get it from Bristol Paints in any state. approx $35 per liter and u can get it mixed in almost any colour.
in Brsitol paints they had few samples of painted chairs etc.... unlike VHT that chips and peels off vinyl this stuff gets really in and u be hard pressed trying to get to original colour.
its awsome stuff. smells bit like new leather.Also its Aus made and owned. support the local industry.

I will be using it again on some of the 300zx parts that are faded or rubbed through. ie ash tray and door handles and rear plastics in the boot.


Vinyl covers and plastics i had in the 260 were white and resprayed with this. carried all sorts of stuff in the boot. the white never come up. it scratched but it was still black.

here is the link of the dash resto I did on my 260z.

http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,1618.0.html

 

lol oh snap, i better step the hell back.

just about anything feels better than tweed. i can understand someone CBF changing it cause it's too much work. if you rate it higher than other materials, erm...

 

I <3 my...
















...velour

 

and I do... for me it's a toss up between leather and tweed as to which I'd prefer, and I'd take either over velour or anything else. like I said at the beginning of the thread... I like it

it's just the colour. I think black tweed would look fantastic!

so you used it on the interior plastics and it was sweet? definitely something to consider. How about the materials, though?

 

Used on plastics and vinyl. Need to make sure its silicone free ie armor all.

Also used it on seatbelts (i know u not ment to but was more of an experiment) looked like new and didn't loose colour or rub on clothes.
It doesn't like thinners or metho but what does?

For me worked perfectly. Wouldn't use anything else but viponds.

 

It'll take more than some free booze Zach!

I reckon I'll do it, and if it goes well you could order in your own heap of cans and working together we could do it in a day or two. Looking at the interior today you could do some in the car I reckon. Just mask off... it wouldn't be too hard. Seats would have to come out for sure because you'd have to push 'n' pull every whichway to get into every seam. I reckon it'll work.

 

sounds good, just need to find a day suitable.. not too hot, not too cold, and no work haha