AH 3000 - vinyl colour change

[davidb]

Afternoon Gents

A buddy of mine bought a used rear seat bench/seat back/squab for his BJ8 that needs some work, which I'm taking on, since the cost of a new one is above his pay scale. The vinyl is currently dark blue, and I'm changing it over to black. I've used shoe dye in the past and it works OK, but thought I might try that spray-on treatment for changing colors. Anyone used it? And does it last or does it peel? Any particular brand that you might recommend?

As usual, your opinions and experiences are valued and much appreciated.

With thanks,

Dave.

 

[bighealeysource]

Hey Dave,
I used a vinyl dye/paint on another Healey and got it from Color Plus Restorations in Milford, PA. It's called Surflex and worked very well. Don't have their website but do recall them having one so take a look. I changed reds from a burgundy to a Healey red and turned out well. Now, those covers were leather fronts and vinyl backs versus all vinyl like the BJ8.
Regards
Mike

 

[RAC68]

Hi Dave,



A while back my son bought an orange TR7 with a black dash and black and red plaid seats and panels. Deciding that this was less then attractive to me, I decided to change the body color pearl white with a blue soft top, dash, interior seats, and panels. I went down to a local auto paint supplier who a batch of mixed matching blue interior paint and provided a solvent to cleaned the vinyl panels an dash prior to spraying dash, arm rests and a number of other interior plastic and vinyl components to match the reupholstered seats and door panels. To date the upholstery paint has lasted for the past 10 years of use with only a little ware appearing on the driver's arm rest that required touch-up.

My recommendation would be to go down to t he local auto paint supplier and ask their advice if you need a color match. However, I would expect the local parts store would probably cary a spray can of black Duplicolor vinyl spray for an expensive price.



Good luck,
Ray (64BJ8P1)

I have found this paint to provide a sufficiently deep color to make the dash and other components look as though manufactured in that color. However, if you don't need a color match to be performed by the paint supplier, I believe I saw an inexpensive spray can of black bynal paint by Duplicoror at the local your choice of black should be easier to cover the dark blue and I saw a spray can of black Dduplicolor vinyl color spray at th local parts story that

 

[glemon]

I have used the Dupli-Color Vinyl spray on various interior parts over the years and never had any problem with coverage, appearance or durability, I have never used is on a seat (although the back seats in a 3000 doen't generally see a lot of use) but have used it on door panels, dashes, and other interior parts. It is remarkably cheap and easy to make an interior color change using this stuff, or use it to cover up discoloration or repairs

 

[healeyblue]

I have used the SEM brand vinyl paints with good success and good wear properties.
Jim

 

[Marvin Gruber]

I have used duplic color as well to touch up black interiors. Works very well.

Marv

 

[Jerry]

I used SEM to match my mini seats to the rest of the interior. Works well, sticks and has not flaked off in months of use so far. I have a friend that does upholstery for a living and he uses SEM. By the way, they can custom match any color! I bought a quart of custom to match the leather I put into my TR3A. Perfect match and I used it to make the steering wheel match the interior.

Jerry

 

[davidb]

My thanks to all of you who took the time to reply to my post. Your comments and experiences were quite helpful as usual, and I'll probably try one of the paint suggestions (the Dupli-Color, Surflex or SEM products in particular) as opposed to my previous shoe dye method. And you're correct Ray (RAC 68) - dark blue to black should be a fairly easy fix.

Hey Mike (Big Healey Source) - I'll be in your neck of the woods from mid Feb to end of March (Hilton Head), so I thought I'd give that legendary "southern hospitality" a test. If you'd care to loan me your 100M for a few weeks I can trade you my Ford Ranger half ton pickup in return. Now I know what you're thinking..."Whoa, that's a might risky, and if there's an accident (God forbid!), it would cost a fortune to rebuild or replace the parts". Maybe so, but as I said to my wife, "what the heck, it's only a truck"

Cheers to all
Dave