How to Change Car Interior Color with Dye: BMW

hey guys on today's episode we're gonna be going over the step-by-step process for changing the color of your car's interior without replacing the leather itself in a process called dyeing so we're gonna go from this old ratty tan color over to this beautiful cinnamon I'll show you how to do that today on this episode of Drive and protect have you ever been on the internet and found a cool car at an amazing price only to realize the interior is unique to say the very least reupholstering the entire interior is obviously a lot of work prohibitively expensive and sometimes impossible to find your desired colored leather or the replacement part in that color at all but there's actually another way the color can be changed without reupholstering or paying for new parts and can be done with a limitless color palette all for less money than reupholstering today I'm in Raleigh North Carolina at the shop of Brian marks from fiber new to watch the step-by-step process to transform the interior color of any car to complete a project of this size the first step is pretty obvious remove all the parts that require a color change in our case this is a 1995 a 34 v series with an engine from a later a 39 m5 and a brand new paint job so the car is highly modified but the interior is a bit tired with mismatched colors and in some areas wrong parts as well as broken and missing pieces the fiber new team has a bit more work than usual on this labor of love first is the front seats then the back seats center console door panels steering wheel dashboard and so on was removed from this Frankenstein interior leaving behind a nightmare of wires and confusion however NIC is a BMW Master Tech so this was all controlled chaos to him more on this later with all the parts out of the car and on various tables step 2 is a serious cleaning first all the parts are scrubbed with fiber news concentrated all-purpose cleaner to remove surface dirt and contaminants a power drill with a nylon brush can be helpful here but I wouldn't recommend this level of aggression as a regular maintenance technique in this case we really needed to clean and scuff up the material in preparation for the dye in the next few hours with the big areas getting cleaned the smaller more intricate pieces needed to be disassembled before they can be cleaned properly during this process Brian noticed the doors had been redyed in the past with an amateur rattle-can process notice the black overspray on the tan edges and the tan door pockets sprayed black after the heavy scrubbing the black is removed revealing more of the original tan underneath next the parts are put through another thorough cleaning process then a leather prep product is wiped on allowed to soak into the material and then flash off before wiping with another prep formula that encourages dye adhesion and the next steps once everything is prepped the parts that need to be repaired are brought over to the other side of the shop where Patrick and Brian are filling in any tears holes or cuts in the vinyl before dyeing in this case the door pocket has a gash in it that requires a special repair procedure for vinyl the paste is applied and heated up then textured then reapplied heated up textured and so on until it fills the gap as desired much the same concept or theory as bondo and paint repair prior to repainting however for the record this is not bondo so don't try that on your interior then Brian showed me a cool trick to repair faded red seat belt release buttons he first scrubbed the plastic clean then slowly heated it up with a Stine l HL one nine one zero e with a direct nose cone for precise heating and a number wheel from nine to one for an exact temperature setting typical high and low settings lack the precision needed for these types of pro he sanded the tight spots with 600 grit and repeated the steps with a heat gun now this is a very effective process but wildly unforgiving if you overheat the area so if you choose to do this work slowly with all the parts prepped and repaired the next step is to dye the material for an effective color change there needs to be at least four to six coats to mask the previous color to do this Brian first filters the dye into a smaller bottle with a metal mesh screen to remove any solids in the liquid and to avoid any possible contamination in the future once satisfied the jar is secured to an airbrush and all the seams are dyed with a precise stream to thoroughly cover tight areas that are commonly overlooked next the dye is put into a larger gun to cover larger areas and fewer passes this process is repeated on every part much the same as a concours paint job the final results heavily depend on how well the body panel or in this case the leather is prepped on a side note as you can see brian is using a white colored dye as sort of a primer so to speak and to help smooth the transition from black to cinnamon now using a standard color like white as a transition color saves on the specially mixed dye for the final coats which makes sense now after each coat the team dries the part with a hair dryer while brian moves on to the next piece notice the masking tape on the top part of the door card the owners decided to have the door multicolored more on this later on natural creases or seams on the seat bottom or the seat back the team helps brian by spreading the crack open while he lays down more dye to cover up any hidden areas this type of fastidiousness is why the end result is virtually impossible to discern what is OEM and what has been dyed after two or three coats of the white primer ich die each panel is ready for the first layer of the customer's desired color for the e34 he's chosen BMWs OEM cinnamon the special cinnamon die and then the thinner are added to the paint gun and the first light coat is added to all the parts for a project of this size and complexity Brian decided to disassemble the seat side bolsters to ensure the die covered every square inch and nothing would be seen by the customer if the seam was pulled open during an inspection after each light coat the team dried the parts with the hairdryer while they leapfrogged over each other to keep the project moving on the other side of the shop nick was still disassembling the BMW to replace the carpet which was way past its prime now to do this the owner actually purchased a junkyard owner BMW for the extra parts and pieces including the rug dashboard and various clips in trim to complete his master project once all was removed the floor is vacuumed and ready to accept the donor carpet Nick and Paul reinstall a carpet and work all the wires and controls into the appropriate holes in preparation for the dashboard installation so instead of dyeing the original dashboard which could have easily been done the owners chosen to replace that part completely with a slightly different style from the donor car which was already black nick has already removed the original dashboard but we're gonna be reinstalling this other slightly different style dashboard in the car because the VIN number for the vehicle is attached to the dashboard itself in order to keep everything correct for the owner we're going to switch the VIN number from this dashboard to that dashboard but after the VIN changed they realized the air ducts were not compatible from the 91 donor to the 95 project car so Nick had to remove and replace the old ducts with the new ducts to make it work which was a completely different project ended up itself but he made it work the next day while the team was preparing for the final coat I asked Brian to summarize the most common types of leather he works with and how to tell the difference between them a lot of people think that leather is leather but that isn't necessarily the case there are many different types but in the wild you generally see two different types we've got annalen leather here and we've got fully finished leather here in your car you most likely have this one but some vehicles like the Ford King Ranch do have annalen leather for the seats there's a very easy way to tell the difference doing a water test by dropping a little water onto the AnnaLynne versus dropping a little water onto the fully finished you will see that the water soaks in so the annalen leather where it does not on the fully finished leather think about it like this you've got a deck in your backyard it's made of wood you can stain it or you can paint it if you want to see the grain of the wood you stain it that's your annalen leather if you want to color you would say yellow or white or brown that's your fully finished leather that's this that's the simple difference between the two so this is clearly fully finished leather or what it's described as a painted deck in his example the next step was to inspect the color code for any missing spots or seems that when exposed are not completely covered and dye these spots are typically overlooked and scream read I if found later by a discerning eye so Bryan has the guys exposed every seam prep the area and dye the hidden spot for an undetectable finish as a quick safety note I asked why it was okay to spray dye outside of a spray booth what I learned is that these dyes are water-based non-toxic and vo C compliant the same idea as painting your home walls with waterborne paint the overspray is very narrow or defined microscopic droplets that settle out quickly the last step of the dyeing process is called the topcoat think of it like your paints clear coat here's a basic chart to see the similarities between repainting a car and read eyeing an interior the body of the car or the metal is equivalent to the leather or the vinyl the primer is the same as the prep solution the paint is the same as the dye and the clear coat is the same idea as the topcoat now the topcoat is where it gets super interesting if you notice the seats as they are right now are extremely shiny but the OEM seats have a muted or matte look to them to match the original look and feel Brian can mix any ratio of gloss and matte top coat with an activator to achieve the customers desired Sheen while protecting the materials finish which is pretty cool here's a perfect example I asked Brian to leave one side of the steering wheel column plastic died while the other with a top coat over it after a few minutes of drying look at the before and after although both clear coat and top coat increase each respective finishes durability most paint jobs seek to increase the gloss with a clear coat while the interior top coat looks to dull the gloss which is the opposite of what you might think again this can be regulated by the customers desires if he wants a glossy Brian can make it glossy if he wants it om you can make it om on the very last piece I got to lay the final top coat myself to get a feel for how different or this is the painting of vehicle to me the same concepts or theories apply keep your arm 90 degrees from the surface same distance away 50% overlap release the trigger as you come off the part and so on your goal here is to avoid runs or thick coats while laying down enough to minimize try spots or low areas once done I use the hairdryer but I learned a new trick that I'd never heard before okay so these areas and this area back here can collect dust from the air it's sucking it in that's already in air when those particles get stuck to the screen and you turn the hairdryer on the force from the air being sucked through the back can dislodge those particles before you put those particles into your wet top coat when you turn the hairdryer on you're going to tap it a few times then hold it steady away from the leather until you're sure that there's nothing stuck or nothing will come out from being dislodged in the back and then gently transition to the leather same as before you hold the cord out you don't want to get it on on the wet top coat and you just make an even pattern smooth all the way through with two layers of top coat on the team reassembled the seats using hog rings pliers and lots of patience while that was going on Brian masked off the door panels to dye the uppermost part of the door where you would rest your arm in preparation for a fresh layer of black to create a two-toned door afterwards he touched up the hidden spots with an airbrush and a small paintbrush when necessary now with every part ready to go the moment of truth is here reinstalling all the parts and avoiding any bumps or scratches in the process with the donor dashboard already in place Nick and Paul installed a new center console ebrake housing shifter boot buttons panels and so on while Brian and Jeff are reassembling each door panel in the other garage next the original tan seat belts are swapped out with the donor cars black ones and covered up with black trim to match then the glovebox steering column plastics and passenger side front seat were reinstalled at this point this is the first time I could really see how well this project was going to turn out the contrast between to seeds and the new floor looked fantastic then the upper backseat the bottom cushion and then the four door cards and window buttons were put back into place along with the brand-new M sport steering wheel completing this total transformation in just a few days after all this work maybe you the viewer on YouTube you don't care for the color or maybe you think it wasn't worth the effort that's totally understandable but the finished product that's hard to argue with no matter what the color or the style you choose the bottom line is this it's actually possible but the real question is how much does it cost a small hole or a seat bolster repair is usually a couple hundred dollars while a fully custom complete interior can range into the thousands but it's still typically way cheaper than traditional reupholstering I'll post an email in the description below so that you can ask about pricing on your specific car and specific repair or upgrade to narrow down the pricing hey guys well that's it as you can see the car looks absolutely phenomenal this is not what I was expecting when we were done it's better than I thought the difference between what was originally in here and what we have now is clearly night and day and I want to make a few points before we get out of here and the first one is a lot of you have asked on Instagram like hey how long is this gonna last the way that Brian did it it's gonna last at least equal to the OEM and probably even longer because we did so many steps and he's so fastidious about everything now the flip side to that is if you find something that's the rattle-can or whatever over the counter and you fixed it on your on your own you may have somewhere or dye transfer that kind of thing but in this case he put so many layers of topcoat which we showed before this thing is super I mean it feels just like it did you know in the OEM in fact we compared it to that OEM car a little while ago then it looks exactly the same so the moral a story for me is if whatever your imagination can come up with you want green purple and yellow fine that can actually be done because you're mixing paint but if you go in and you think hey I want to change the leather itself not only is it you know way more expensive it's very challenging to fix the door cards that's where it kind of separates what if you want to change you have like this cool color scheme you want to do the door cards or where it becomes challenging because you're not going to necessarily put a leather all over the door cards you follow saying so doing this process it's much faster much cheaper but it actually gives you a more range to kind of be creative with your car so hopefully that makes sense if you have any specific questions about the material or whatever I'll put this link below and you can contact Bryan and ask all the questions at fibre new the guys have been great lastly as you could tell there was a whole team of people that volunteered to help Bryan out and of course me to get the shoot done in a short period of time so huge thank you to everyone I've met some really great people down here and I think I'm gonna be a you know a longtime friends with them because they're just very very sweet so as always if you guys found this video helpful please subscribe thanks for watching and I'll see you guys next time [Music] [Music]

Channel: AMMO NYC

Views: 1,229,191

Rating: 4.8837199 out of 5

Keywords: Larry Kosilla Detailing, AMMO Detailing Products, AMMO Products, AMMO Detailing, AMMOnyc, AMMO Car Care Products, vinyl paint, how to paint car interior, how to paint interior, vinyl dye, car interior dye, fibrenew leather repair, fibrenew north raleigh wake forest, How to change car interior color, painting car seats, how to repair leather car seats, duplicolor vinyl and fabric paint, car interior paint, change car interior color cost, fabric paint, dashboard paint, how to

Id: ke57Vxj_SeM

Length: 16min 10sec (970 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 21 2019

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