How can I dye faded car mats back to their original color?

Name: Marcus

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Country or region: Australia

Message: Hello, I have some original OEM car mats out of a car I am restoring. They have faded/worn to a bluish colour. I don't know what material they are made of, but they are a thick almost shag pile carpet backed with rubber. They are a valuable item and no longer available so I want to restore them to black. I have tried using iDye Poly (black), but this was unsuccessful. This was most likely due to the fact I was unable to get enough heat into the process. The mats are heavy and large, so I can't just put them in a pot on the stove. I used hot tap water and let sit over night, but the final result was poor. Would you be able to recommend a dye/process that might allow me to return these mats to black?

There are four possibilities that don't involve immersing the mats in a huge cooking pot for boiling. None are ideal, but perhaps one would be better than what you have right now. My favorite of these ideas is the last one, but I can't be certain that its results will look good.

You'll want to test any of these on a less valuable material before risking your original mats. You should also take pains to thoroughly clean the mats before applying any treatment to them, since even invisible stains can resist dyes or paints, resulting in uneven coloring.

Here are the four options to consider:

1. Disperse dyes, such as the dyes in your iDye Poly, must have high heat to transfer, much hotter than hot tap water, but, for some forms of the dye, the heat can be provided by a hot iron, instead of immersion in boiling water. The crayon effect of the disperse dye in Crayola Fabric Crayons is probably not what you're looking for, but they are very cheap and relatively easy to find in local stores, so they might be a good test. (See Iron-on Fabric Crayons for Synthetic Fibers.) If they work for you, you could then consider ordering disperse dyes for transfer from a company such as Batik Oetoro or Kraftkolour, both of which are located in Australia and do mail-order sales (or, in the US, PRO Chemical & Dye). It would take a lot of work to get a fairly even black color, involving many repetitions of the ironing on. What I'm most worried about is the question of whether the heat of a hot dry iron might damage your mats, either the pile of the carpeting or, in particular, the rubbery backing. If you test this, do it on the most inconspicuous part you can find on the back part of the mat. (Is there any possibility that you could find similar mats that are no longer any good, for testing your methods?)

2. A thin fabric paint, such as Jacquard's Dye-Na-Flow, could possibly be used to color the pile of the carpet, but it would not work on the rubbery backing. Fabric paint is better than other paints because it is softer and does not create the scratchy stiffness of regular paint that's not intended for use on fabric. The fact that it won't work on the rubbery backing is a big problem.

3. Krylon Fusion for Plastic is a spray paint that works much better on most plastics than other types of paint. It might work for the rubbery part of your mats. It will coat over the carpet pile, however. It might help to work it in with a stiff brush, such as a toothbrush, quickly, after spraying, before it dries, but it's not something I can recommend without careful testing. (If you can't find mats just like the ones you're trying to color, as a test, maybe a trial on a scrap of carpet would help; ask for a scrap at company that sells carpet installation.)

4. One other product might be worth testing. It's called vinyl dye, although it's not really a dye but instead a type of paint. The pigments in vinyl dye penetrate a short distance into the plastic it's painted on, which means that it doesn't chip off the way other types of paint do. Unlike true dyes, vinyl dye is somewhat opaque, so much so that lighter colors can be used after applying a base coat of white. I have not tried vinyl dye, and I have no idea what it will do on pile carpeting. It is recommended for use on many different surfaces, including hard vinyl, carpet, and even leather. You can find this product in an auto parts store. Given that the label claims it can be used on both plastic and on carpet, this seems to me like it might be your best bet.

Please do not try any of these ideas without first testing them on a bit of scrap carpet of some sort, as similar as possible to the material you want to color. And please do let me know how it works out, especially if you try the vinyl dye.

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Posted: Monday - January 31, 2011 at 01:41 PM

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How can I dye faded car mats back to their original color?

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