M42club.com - Home of the BMW E30/E36 318i/iS
DISCUSSION => Interior => Topic started by: AcSchnitzer318is on November 04, 2009, 12:39:30 AM
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Well, kind of. The actual process of doing it is easy, albeit time consuming. I did mine in a day. I've heard of ppl doing this with the carpet in the car, but I prefer a more complete approach.
I've read about ppl doing this and was a bit skeptical, but I have a spare car with a spare carpet so I figured what the hell. Not much cash outlay @ about $20.
Needed:
3 cans DupliColor Vinyl & Fabric spray
Carpet brush
Spray Can top "gun" (saves your fingers from fatigue, trust me)
Process:
1. Pull carpet, you'll need to pull the center console front and back, seats, side sills, speaker grill things, gas pedal from bottom clips, round rubber thing in drivers footwell, and seat belt metal bar. Then cut around the HVAC stuff, shouldn't need to cut too much carpet. Like 3 cuts on each side all less than 6". After all that you can begin to wrestle the carpet out. Don't be shy... cuz it won't. Don't forget the little piece covering the rear seat bottom area.
2. With the carpet out pull it somewhere well ventilated. This stuff gives you a rowdy headache if done in an enclosed area. Ask me how I know. Then THOROUGHLY vacuum the entire carpet. Now take a dish soap and water mixture with a toothbrush and clean the heel pads and side kick pad on the drivers side. After clean, dry them. Then rub them down with rubbing alcohol. Let dry.
3. Now spray on 2 even coats of the paint. Spray in multiple directions. Don't over do the vinyl with spray or it will run/drip. It's a paint not a dye and will leave your carpet hard and crusty. This had me worried at first, more on that later.
4. After the other coats are dry, ~20 minutes, take the carpet brush and brush the carpet in the direction that let's the original color of your carpet show through. Now spray the last coat to cover the exposed original color.
5. If you had good coverage you should now be able to brush the carpet with your hand in any direction and not see the original color. If this is not true, put on more coats in the areas that need it. You can always go back and touch it up later once it's in the car if you find a spot later.
6. You should be happy with your new looking carpet now, but less than satisfied with the feel of it. Well kick off your shoes and get to walking on it. Seriously, spend 15 or 20 minutes walking, kneeling, or otherwise stamping the carpet. Brought mine back to 98% stock plushness.
7. Now as they say the installation is the reverse of removal... but slightly harder. Can be a BEAR to get the carpet back in place. Took me longer than removal for sure.
And here are the results... I did find some spots (with the help of the flash actually) that needed some touch ups. This is easy to do with the carpet in the car and since the paint dries in like 15min, it's not a big deal.
Before:
(http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/3981/img2017w.jpg)
After:
(http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/1152/img2018.jpg)
(http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/5950/img2019z.jpg)
(http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/9808/img2020g.jpg)
I was intentionally light on the areas under the seat... reason for the different color.
(http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/2245/img2021s.jpg)
(http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/3050/img2022w.jpg)
(http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/2502/img2023k.jpg)
(http:// http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/9684/img2024s.jpg)
Last one is because I'm a pic whore. ;) But for the cash outlay I think the results are ridiculously good. And the paint seems to be super durable as I was rolling, crawling, scraping, and otherwise roughing it up pretty good while reinstalling it and the rest of the interior. Questions, berating, and comments welcome.
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Nice. Also which side skirts do you have?
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ford tarus
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I think it looks very good. I did the same thing to the rear deck in my car because it was fading and looked like crap. I was hesitant at first but it turned out pretty well, you took it to another level. Thats a lot of paint....
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ford tarus
Mercury Sable... I wanted to be different. ;)
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Looks absutely banging. Makes the seats really pop in contrast to the black floor. Nice man. Loving the skirts too. Never seen the skirts off an american car on an e30 but I guess it actually works!
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Mercury Sable... I wanted to be different. ;)
Same ones I have....:D
Nice looking carpet BTW.....
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You are unequivocally my hero. I have the same ugly tan carpet and was wondering what to do- or if I could get it black. Now I know.
My one question is about the carpet material itself. Yours looks like the "nicer" stuff from a 325is and mine seems to be a bit cheaper and I'm certain OEM. Did you start with your original carpet?
Again, well done!
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It's funny you ask that. That carpet is actually out of my 325i coupe that I am restoring/frankensteining. The other car was already torn apart so it would be easy to pull the carpet and try the color change on that. That way if it didn't work... I didn't have to touch my 318is.
I thought they were exactly the same, but I didn't pay too much attention I guess. I'll check and post my findings.
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Just thought I'd bump this. I did my carpets this weekend following what AcSchnitzer318is said to do. First I cleaned the shit out of them and de-greased all the oil spots. It looked like the previous owner had spilled a quart of oil in the driver's footwell and coke all over the back footwells. I started by using carpet cleaning stuff for a Bissel and then used some biodegradable stuff I got at CostCo to get rid of the oil. Then I hosed everything off.
It cleaned up ok, but you could still see the stains. It looks a LOT better in the pictures than it did in real life.
(http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/4903/img0622cl.jpg)
After I let them dry for a week, I vacuumed them really well and . . .
(http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/3763/img0634d.jpg)
(http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/8357/img0636w.jpg)
Turned out awesome!!
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Awesome indeed. Has me thinking about doing mine. I assume you used the method as the OP?
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Awesome indeed. Has me thinking about doing mine. I assume you used the method as the OP?
I did. Took me three cans though.
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I did. Took me three cans though.
How did I know you were going to post here? :D
I hear a lot about degreasing and the like. I'm not sure on mine if I can get all the gunk out. I'm thinking I'll just be power washing mine and letting it dry for a couple weeks (since flippin' winter is here). I'll just be painting over all the stains methinks.
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How did I know you were going to post here? :D
I hear a lot about degreasing and the like. I'm not sure on mine if I can get all the gunk out. I'm thinking I'll just be power washing mine and letting it dry for a couple weeks (since flippin' winter is here). I'll just be painting over all the stains methinks.
LOL!! :D
In my case, it looked like the PO was a mechanic or somebody who walked through oily shit all day and who didn't believe in floor mats. It was really greasy and grimy in the driver's footwell and I was concerned that the dye/paint wouldn't stick. I wish I had a before picture. The 'before' picture above doesn't show what it looked like when I was done either because it was practically white in that area.
For the coke, chocolate milkshake (I hope :eek:), and bubble gum I just cleaned as well as I could and the paint covered those stains just fine.
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LOL!! :D
In my case, it looked like the PO was a mechanic or somebody who walked through oily shit all day and who didn't believe in floor mats. It was really greasy and grimy in the driver's footwell and I was concerned that the dye/paint wouldn't stick. I wish I had a before picture. The 'before' picture above doesn't show what it looked like when I was done either because it was practically white in that area.
For the coke, chocolate milkshake (I hope :eek:), and bubble gum I just cleaned as well as I could and the paint covered those stains just fine.
And I forget, did you just use the spray stuff to do the do the vinyl areas?
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And I forget, did you just use the spray stuff to do the do the vinyl areas?
Yes, just used the spray stuff on the vinyl. Just have to be careful you don't use too much and get runs.
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to the OP, how did it hold up after a year? that is my biggest concern with doing this.
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I really want to do this bad now...
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As soon as the the summer is here I will be doing this
Got to be one of the best mod ever
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looks awesome, how about durability, do you guys see it fading or pieces of paint falling of after a while?
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Very interested into how this is looking now...
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I used brydana colorbond product, the carpet stylin line with skid mark black as the color, i did this in probably late july early august and have not noticed any real fading or discoloration on either my headliner or carpet...
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I'm doing this right now. Using SEM ColorCoat. It's working out great so far. I'll get some pics up when everything is done.
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Does anyone know if the carpet from a 4 door is the same as a coupe
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Does anyone know if the carpet from a 4 door is the same as a coupe
The front part is the same, sort of. For the coupe they fill in the channels that the sedan's rear air vents go through with foam. To use coupe front carpet in a sedan, just tear the foam out of the channels. I don't know if you could use sedan front carpet in a coupe because the empty chanels would probably sag.
The rear bit is different, the sedan has longer wider "ears."
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Thanks mate
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Any updates on this? How's it held up?