Fun with Vinyl Paint...

[Calfdemon]

So rather than pay to re-cover perfectly good seats, I began researching vinyl and fabric paints online and reading reviews of how other projects have come out. After reading what I could find and watching numerous youtube videos, I decided on giving Duplicolor Vinyl and Fabric paint a shot. Figure that if it did not cover the way I wanted it to or did not turn out well, I could still pay to have the seats recovered and I am only out a few cans of paint...

I have not done my seats yet as my truck is still in the shop getting the frame straightened, so I do not have access to my seats right now. My plan is to make the used custom blue seats I bought, flat black. But in the meantime, CNM67 was able to score some buckets seats for his truck from another member here. When we picked up the seats, they were blue vinyl and blue fabric. He is doing a black and white ratrod type of theme with his truck, and wants bright red seats. We figured this is the perfect test of the vinyl paint since it will be red covering blue. We figured the black would cover anything, but the lighter red is a true test for how good this paint might be.

We bought 4 cans of the red vinyl paint to start with and I used 2 cans on each seat. The vinyl covered VERY well, but the fabric takes a little more paint as it absorbs some of the color and the purple we were fearing, shows a little more on the fabric portion. After a 5th can of paint just on the fabic areas, the fabric was red enough to make us happy. Its still a different shade than the vinyl, but the 2 tone look works. Anyway, here are how the seats turned out:

Here, you can see the original blue and then what it looked like once we put the red on it:


Here is how the fabric looks without multiple coats. The vinyl looks great, but the fabric is not quite red enough, resulting in the purchase of another can:


This is after the 5th can on the fabric while it is drying:


Once installed in the truck:


The truck really needed a center console for between the bucket seats. A trip to the pick-a-part resulted in scoring a perfect (yet dirty) center console from a 91 Ford Explorer that was the exact measurements, and flat bottom that we needed:



The only thing this center console needed was a good cleaning and another can of red vinyl paint!! :




And the final product:



Once installed, it looks like it was meant to be there:




We ended up painting the white sun visors with the flat black and the black vinyl paint covers even better than the red. But I forgot to take pictures of those. I will photo my blue seats to black in my build thread when i get the chance to do those. Point of this thread is to show that the Duplicolor vinyl paint is GREAT and definately the cheaper way to go if you want to make your untorn seats or doorpanels, visors, dashpad, whatever, look brand new!!

[SmoothJ69]

I'd be interested to see how the vinyl part holds up, if the paint is really bonded to it or if its just riding on top like normal spraypaint would...I mean, the pics make it look like you could scratch it off with a thumbnail. It does cover nicely tho.

[Calfdemon]

It holds up very well. They have been in the truck for about a month now (the seats), and they still look the same today as they looked when put in. We actually crammed a large ammo crate in between the seats before scoring the explorer console. The ammo crate was way too big for the spot and scraped the hell out of the seats on both inner sides. The red never came off. I am more curious to see how the paint holds up on the fabric with the constant friction from getting in and out. On vinyl, you slide more where on fabric you rub more. But so far, so good. Hey, its what the paint was made for, and it seems to be working so far. Besides, if it starts to wear, its nothing that a few shots from a spray can cant fix...

[67mann]

Those were perfect..color and condition....OH for my truck Looks like they turned out good

I am more curious to see how the paint holds up on the fabric with the constant friction from getting in and out. On vinyl, you slide more where on fabric you rub more.

Brings a whole new meaning to have a "red arse"

[michael69]

Did the paint make the cloth inserts hard. I tried some fabric dry years ago on a seat and it make the cloth really stiff and hard. Just wondering if this paint is the same way. Thanks for info. Oh they look good with the two tone look

[Calfdemon]

The fabric is a little stiffer than it was before it was painted and that is only because I put so many coats on it, but it not as hard as you would think. Still comfortable to the touch and it gets softer the more it is sat in.

[oldmopars]

I have used this stuff before, it does work great. It will wear off on high use areas after a while, but keep an extra can handy and just touch it up. Works really good on a used car right before you sell it. It makes the interior look like new.

[Calfdemon]

Just sprayed the seat from my 69 for the guy I sold it to on Craigslist. He threw me some extra in the deal if I painted it for him, and this gave me a chance get a good idea of how the flat black is going to look on my custom front seats, and the bench from my 72, which is going in the back of my crew.

So here are some before and after pics of the 69 bench. The flat black vinyl paint came out even better than I had hoped. Now I cant wait to get my seats done. Wont be this weekend as it is supposed to rain tomorrow, but soon enough. This bench took 2 and a half cans. I could have done it in 2, but I went another half can just to give it an extra coat and to cover a couple of spots I wasn't sure about. The damn seat looks brand new now and I almost wish I hadn't of sold it. But I cant fit 3 sets of seats in the crew cab, so unless I want to mount it in the bed, it was just taking up space.

Before:



After:

[70_F100]

There's a trick I learned MANY years ago from a reconditioning shop.

Get you one of these:

Sprayer.jpg

And some Rit dye from the supermarket.

Here's what my original carpet (42 years old) looked like before I cleaned it:

Carpet-Before.jpg

After cleaning it and dyeing it with the Rit, it now looks like this:

Carpet-After.jpg

Investment: less than $35

Should work well on seats and won't give you the "stiff" feeling...

[cdeal28078]

That carpet looks amazing 70_F100. I wouoldn't have believed it if I didn't see it. Rit? That is the stuff that has been on store shelves for years and years right? Found in most grocery stores as just plain old fabric dye? I'll be.
I used the Dupli-color on several interior parts over the last several years with mixed results. Seems on the hard plastic parts it does great. On something like an arm rest it didn't last as well before it cracked up. I hope you fare better than I did on mine. The black seat looked great afterwards.
clint