You can paint carpet/fabrics?

MikeLW

MikeLW

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I attended a workshop today held by my employer. They are a very large but independent coatings distributor. So we learned how to paint leather, vinyl, thermoset plastic, carpet, and some other kind of fabric. I was blown away that people paint carpet in cars! I guess they flip cars to make a buck and one of the things they do is paint fabrics. Or they just want to freshen up their interior. It looked good, but I think for me "painting" fabric would be a last resort.
 
Funny you bring that up, when I was 16 back in the '90's I worked for a dealership as one of the wash bay guys. We would scrub everything we could but when the stains were just to much and before the auction they would have me paint some carpets. We didn't do it much and I'm not saying that was right but I was 16 and you just did what they said. Back then it was just old rattle can paint. I don't think that would hold up to good. I'm sure they have some stuff that really penetrates the fibers nowadays.
 
Sometimes even vehicles' leather interior
appointments will also be painted...with the
vehicles then being sold (usually surreptitiously,
I'll add) to some unsuspecting party.


Bob
 
FUNX650 said:
Sometimes even vehicles' leather interior
appointments will also be painted...with the
vehicles then being sold (usually surreptitiously,
I'll add) to some unsuspecting party.


Bob
Click to expand...

My question was " You can paint leather? What is the advantage to that?" The answer: "People do paint leather."

I have the samples from the workshop. I should post the results.
 
Yes you can. And if done properly with the correct preparation it will last amazingly well.

I recently had to replace a torn leather seat in an Explorer and all I could find at my local junk yards were all the wrong color. So I painted it gray and it matched the original; drivers seat nearly perfectly.
The key to success was all in the prep. I took the seat apart so that every area could be sprayed and really went to town on them with lacquer thinner. It took many wipe downs to remove all the years of Armor All and whatever other greasy crap had been used on the leather. Then it was just a case of spraying the leather with many thin coats. I used an entire can of the spray finish and when fully cured it matched the "shiny-ness" of the original finish.
 
There's have vynil and carpet dye that looks just like spray paint. It can make carpets look brandnew and works really well long term
 
All carpet fibers are dyed

Using the term "painted" for the refurbishing process makes it seem unnecessarily scary
 
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