Hi Guys,  

Calling all the experts

What can we use to restore faded seats (don't think there leather!) colour? 

also if I am offered or have an opportunity to acquire a "donor" car albeit my own '58 convertible is original condition needing some TLC, what if any part are more valuable to me ?  Trim, body or mechanical parts????

P.s I do not have enough room for holding a complete donor car coupled with fact it is 110 miles away from me at present...............

Any advice/suggestions are welcome.

Karl

1958 hillman convertible (Jubilee version)

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Vinyl paint-sold at most Auto Paint stores.  I am told they can mix it to match the color.  I will be checking that out soon as I need to paint a green seat light blue.

Jan Eyerman

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I have used the spray cans of this paint (black) to re-colour some faded trim in the Alpine and it worked realy well.  My only concern is that the stuff I got was quite toxic, so check the can, use a mask and spray in a well ventilated area.

Vic

I was wondering if anybody has dyed their vinyl seats and if so, how did they turn out?  I'd like to go this route and wonder if one brand of dye is better than another etc.
Thanks,
Alan

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On my '51 Minx I tried "vinyl dye".  While it did darken the color (the panels were red and faded and I wanted them new looking), I was not impressed with result.  I then tried a vinyl paint (I believe from Eastwood company) and it worked much better.

My son changed the color of an interior from green to gray and used the spray can paint from Eastwood company-it worked great EXCEPT on the seat surfaces where it wore off pretty quick.  So, it will do door panels and seat backs, but not so good on wear surfaces.  I have been told that he had not cleaned the surfaces well enough.  That could be true as he did not use any special cleaners.  In both cases above we used spray cans.

My daughter's boyfriend did the vinyl pad on the dash of my Cricket with auto body paint store black vinyl paint and took great pains to use the special cleaner.  He used his large compressor and spray gun and this came out very well.  For any future interior paint work, I will borrow him and his spray gun and get an auto body paint supply store to mix the paint.

Jan Eyerman

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Thanks for the info, Jan.  I'll look into the vinyl paint.  Of course the place it needs it most is on the seat bottom where it's going to wear off first.  The previous owner re-did the door panels so they're ok.

Thanks again,
Alan