i saw a commercial last night for cuplicolor and in one of the scenes he was spraypainting the seats. i was considering some seat covers but once i saw that i began leaning towards painting them - either myself or have a friend do it. has anyone else done that? does the paint come off when you want to use sprays to clean your seats? did you have to remove the seats from the car or did you just leave them in. thanks for the help.

 

I would be very hesitant to try this. If you screw up or it is bad product you will have to get the seat covers.

 

spraypaint seats

 

there is actually vinyl / carpet paintable dyes that you can get in spray cans at auto zone and pep boys. i am sure other retailers carry it. my friend actually just used this product to dye his headliner/door pannels/ carpet in his civic. after 3-4 coats, it looked like factory, i was surprised.. it was really hot here in L.A. the last few weeks, and i thought for sure the heat and arm sweat would make the dye lift, but after a few days of riding around in his car, none came off on me. mind you it is not "spray paint" but can be found next to the Krylon cans in the spray paint area. i was very skeptical of this product and thought it to be a very ricey means to an end, but once i saw the results i was amazed... then again though, my friend does drive a 10 year old civic, so the dyed parts are now the best looking parts on the car...

 

painting of fabrics,leather and vinyl can be done, however the results are variable. Vinyl dyes pretty well altho over time the dye wear off on rub spots like the edge where you slide in and out etc. Cloth dyes color well but tend to make the fabris stiff and rough feeling, they also tend to fade relatively fast. Results on leather are similar to that of vinyl. I recommend painting only as a last resort option on something you do not mind redoing in a year (or something you are dumping on someone else).

 

i was thinkin painting the middle part of the seats yellow and with a stencil painting the scion logo on the headrest the same color. same on the back seats but without the headrest detail. mind you i rarely have people sit in the back seats or for that matter in the front passenger seat. i've seen a few xb's with spraypainted designs on their headrests, so i think it can be done. i'm just thinking about low long it'll last before repaint.

 

very interesting...might just give it a try on the door inserts

 

This is such an autozone walmart diy project.

Do it right.

 

Hmm....Maybe I can spray my headliner black....I plan on painting the pillars Black soon. I dont like the off gray in the car.

 

i used that cloth spray paint in my celica for the head liner.. I have it in there for going on 3 years now.. paint has not faded.. i have cleaned it with carpet cleaner and its still looks like the day i sprayed it.

 

go with seat covers if you get over it you can just take it off you dont have to repaint

 

Headliner gets very little sun.

 

your right.. but i did clean my headliner a few times. and the color seams to be fine. and if you have tints and use a windshield visor you should be fin with the sun..

 

personally, i would get seat covers or get a sewing maching, and re-upolster the seats myself, but i know how to do upolstory. if i were you, i would go with seat covers. but hey, the best ideas were laughed at once, i hope if you do decide to paint, that it comes out good. post pics when done, i'de like to see how it turns out.

 

that sounds like it'll look good.

 

Yea, the vinyl dye stuff works well... but, on things that get a lot of wear, it can start to fade...

I'm planning on doing my headliner with this stuff but I'd be hesitant to do the seats with it.

 

i just painted all my pillars back, im for sure gonna due the headlinder down the road

 

^ Pics of the pillars?

 

all in good time, i'm still workin on a lil somthin else inside the car

 

I was thinking of a way of re-coloring the cloth parts of the doors in the tC (from black to deep red), and this seems to be the answer to that; no rub spots to worry about and they rarely get touched.