Fabric Paint Recommendations

[Alastairh 47]

Hello,

 

I picked up a nice and cheap parcel shelf today from my local scrappy, but the only problem is it's grey and not black like it should be for my GTI.

 

Any recommendations on fabric black paint?

 

Cheers

 

Al

[mrfirepro 127 1 Cars]

Al,

 

I was faced with the same thing. Changing a blue one to grey, tried the fabric spray from simply spray, which was no use as the surface fabric would not absorb the spray.

 

Finally found a grey on in the end.

 

Would be interested to know if you find something to do this.

[Clapton_Is_God 21 1 Cars]

I just used Plasticare. I turned my grey headliner and parcel shelf black, came out lovely.

 

That stuff has a thousand use's!

[dobboy 231 2 Cars]

What about the shoe polish stuff with the sponge on the bottle end? Never tried it but it might work!

[iPlod999 143 1 Cars]

They just used a black aerosol on Wheeler Dealers.

[iPlod999 143 1 Cars]

https://youtu.be/BLin79YVaiQ

 

Fast forward to 12 minutes 40.

[hoodygoodwood 70 3 Cars]

Autoglym black spray dye is worth a try , spray it on then dab it into the parcel shelf with a new washing up sponge to get it into the fibres .Have used this on my own shelf and its looks better than spraying it with paint .Probably will not get it back to jet black but its good enough after a few coats .

[SkyQuake 70 1 Cars]

I would strongly recommend that you ignore all of the sprays, and the Plasticare (which is a great product for what it's intended for!). I experimented with fabric paint, vinyl spray, spray dye and several other things when I did my restoration, and all of them cause other problems. They all result in the fabric (which is a strange wirey type of carpet) going crusty, and they will always start to break up over time and leave you with a car full of black powder. I certainly wouldn't use the Wheeler Dealers' method!

 

I would definitely recommend dying it instead. Unlike the floor carpets (which are nylon), the parcel shelf is a natural fibre, and will take a water based dye with no problem. I used simple dylon fabric dye for mine, applied wet with a roller. You then leave it to dry, and rinse out the delivery agent afterwards. I just hosed mine down, and job done. I've had it a couple of years, with no sign of it breaking up. It still feels like fabric, hasn't gone crusty or started to break up.

 

For the other carpets, as they're nylon based literally the only suitable thing I could find to stick was an alcohol based ink (such as Pinflair). This works out quite pricey, as you'll need at least 6 bottles to do a floor carpet, but it really does make them look like new again, and won't come off or dissolve in rain!

 

For further info on the techniques above, please have a look at my restoration thread.