Dye for sun bleached black carpet

[BGlover67]

When I purchased no. 26 from my friend JD, he had informed me that he had installed a very nice carpet set about 10 years previous.  In that short period of time though, the sun turned it more of a nice shade of brown than it's original black.  It has no holes, or wear  throughs, it's just faded.  I contemplated replacing it, and probably will do that in the next off season.  I did stumble upon a you tube video detailing how to dye your auto carpet in situ, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  This isn't for the concourse crowd, but perhaps a few of you may find this interesting and will consider giving it a go.

I used Rit Black Dye, mixed 1 to 1 with water.  I liberally dabbed it on with a sponge.  In theory they have numerous colors to chose from, so if you wanted to try this on your 65 Mustang convertible with the red pony interior, you're good to go. The end result seems to be a freshly dyed black carpet, still soft to the touch, unlike what you might get with using carpet spray paint.

Here is the video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuyPiEGaNh0

Here are some test areas I photographed:   https://imageshack.com/a/wo3l/1

[Jimbc123]

Looks very nice! I will try it this weekend.

Jim

[Bob Gaines]

When I purchased no. 26 from my friend JD, he had informed me that he had installed a very nice carpet set about 10 years previous.  In that short period of time though, the sun turned it more of a nice shade of brown than it's original black.  It has no holes, or wear  throughs, it's just faded.  I contemplated replacing it, and probably will do that in the next off season.  I did stumble upon a you tube video detailing how to dye your auto carpet in situ, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  This isn't for the concourse crowd, but perhaps a few of you may find this interesting and will consider giving it a go.

I used Rit Black Dye, mixed 1 to 1 with water.  I liberally dabbed it on with a sponge.  In theory they have numerous colors to chose from, so if you wanted to try this on your 65 Mustang convertible with the red pony interior, you're good to go. The end result seems to be a freshly dyed black carpet, still soft to the touch, unlike what you might get with using carpet spray paint.

Here is the video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuyPiEGaNh0

Here are some test areas I photographed:   https://imageshack.com/a/wo3l/1

I don't think the carpet fibers are porous enough to absorb the dye so it is mainly sitting on top of the fiber. In other words it might/could re activate with water . Don't get me wrong it is another viable budget minded alternative . It is a great solution for original carpet but if not original carpet you could probably have put in a new carpet set in just about the same time start to finish. Of course at 170-270 .00 for a carpet set the new carpet is more expensive then a Rit dye job.  You have to ask special for the 80/20 blend carpet it seems if others install new. 

[stangman39]

I've done this before to help restore faded fold down carpet.
It worked well.

[Bigfoot]

On really worn carpet sometimes trimming with scissors can also help the look.
Time consuming and nothing to do with recoloring,...but thought I would mention because it's on the same topic of making carpet look nice.