Vinyl and plastic dying recommendations?

[RadRod 2.0L Find all posts View Profile Close RadRod]

Some of my black interior parts are looking a little worse for wear. Anyone have any advice or recommendations for dying? Either DIY or professional?

[dogleg 2.0L Find all posts View Profile Close dogleg]

I've always used SEM products.

[JP aka LiveFromNY Find all posts View Profile Close JP]

I'll take a swing at this one.

Over the past 10 years, I've gotten very familiar with the SEM products and their Color Coat line specifically. It's a great product as long as you respect its limitations and understand the correct prep processes.

First, do not think you're going to take a set of brown seats and dye them black to any standard that you're going to be happy with. SEM advertises their Color Coat product as both durable and flexible, and it is, just not that durable and flexible. I've seen posts from people in other forums where they say they've successfully changed the color of their entire interior with color coat products and my position has always been that they are either a) lying or b) blind.

What you CAN do with Color Coat is re-color smaller pieces and even larger pieces that don't don't get a lot of wear. I've done everything from plastic trim pieces, to door tops, to knee pads, door panels, even complete dashes and, if they're done right, the dye should last years if not a lifetime. This is especially true when re-dying black parts.

Like any paint/dye process, preparation will get you 90% of the way there. SEM offers several products and I use almost all of them:

SEM Soap: Every parts starts with this. It's a blue, squeeze-on cleaner with the consistency of toothpaste. Step one for every project is a good cleaning with SEM soap and a scuffing pad.

After SEM soap, I use one of two cleaners. Both are spray-on aersols and apply the same way:

SEM Vinyl Prep
SEM Plastic & Leather Prep

Simply give the part a good spraying, wipe down with a cloth, and rinse. I usually do this 2-3 times. It's important to remove all the chemical residue by rinsing. I then use compressed air to blow the water off and out of the crevices and let the parts air dry. You may notice your parts are whitening a little bit. This is a good sign.

Now you'll need to decide on the products for dying. You'll be using some combination of Color Coat, Plastic Adhesion Promotor, and Sand Free.

For leather and vinyl: Use only the Color Coat aerosol dye. Do not use any adhesion promotor as it isn't flexible. Simply wipe off your parts with a tack rag and apply several light/medium coats of Color Coat about 15-20 minutes apart and let dry.

For most plastic parts (but not ABS/PVC parts): Wipe off your parts with a tack rag and apply 2 coats of Plastic Adhesion Promotor (one light, one wet) about 20 minutes apart. Allow to dry 20-30 minutes and apply Color Coat in multiple light/medium coats about 15-20 minutes apart and let dry.

For ABS/PVC parts: This is where the Sand Free comes in. Sand Free is an adhesion promotor specifically formulated for ABS/PVC parts that bonds the dye to the pastic and must be applied and covered wet. For best results, wipe down your part with a tack rag and apply a single, medium/wet coat of Sand Free. Then immediately apply a light coat of Color Coat and allow to flash. As the Sand Free evaporates, the top coat is drawn into the surface creating excellent adhesion. After this initial coat of color has flashed, continue as normal by applying 2-3 additional coats of Color Coat approximately 15-20 minutes apart and allow to dry.

As for colors, I've used most of them and it can be tricky to get anything exactly right other than black. Fortunately, most of the time I'm dying black parts. The best combination I have found for our cars is Landau Black followed by at least 2 coats of Low Luster Clear. Both of these dyes and all of the prep materials I've mentioned are available online from numerous retailers.

That's it. Hope some of you find this helpful. Let me know if you have any questions.

[dogleg 2.0L Find all posts View Profile Close dogleg]

Great write-up, JP!

[ProfessorJ 2.0L Find all posts View Profile Close ProfessorJ]

This is great advice. Have you used these products on leather?

[rick71T 2.0L Find all posts View Profile Close rick71T]

With the caveat that I have only used this on my black vinyl garnish rails, which had a bit of scuffing...https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HHM20M/...two years and 8k miles and I still can't find the repair. Like JP, I cleaned the heck out of it in advance...applied, wiped, applied, wiped, applied...wiped.

[JP aka LiveFromNY Find all posts View Profile Close JP]

With the caveat that I have only used this on my black vinyl garnish rails, which had a bit of scuffing...https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HHM20M/...two years and 8k miles and I still can't find the repair. Like JP, I cleaned the heck out of it in advance...applied, wiped, applied, wiped, applied...wiped.

I agree. I've used this and similar products for small repairs and had success.

For bigger leather jobs, I recommend Leatherique. It's quite a process, much more complex than the SEM process, but the Color Coat products are not designed for leather. SEM does make a product for leather, Classic Coat, but I have little experience with it and have not heard great things.