Airbrush Automotive Carpet

M

MegaTitaniumMan

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Hi All.
Anyone airbrushed automotive carpet?
I have light gray carpet in my convertible and would like to do the whole interior Black/Red.
Some of the vinyl/carpet spray dyes seem to work well with vinyl but are not as dark or permanent when used on carpet, (from other forums I have read). Though the adhesion is supposed to be fantastic on vinyl.
Then I can airbrush some truefire flames or whatever I want on the vinyl over the black base coat.

I am thinking this should work for the carpet: Wicked Detail Black, slightly reduced, sprayed through a Paasche VL .5 tip.
The whole interior is coming out for this project.

So anyone have experience with this?
Thanks :)
 
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Intriguing... I suspect anything the airbrush applies will only be on the surface, you might meed a lot higher pressure than even the Tee shirt guys to push it in.
 
It should be able to push 85psi using 1/3 reducer with the VL .5. Its the highest rated psi airbrush I own. Like you said, it might not be enough.
Thinking of using a large sponge to blotch it in and spray from multiple angles. I have a heat gun to set it.
I could talk to a guy I know about borrowing an auto body spray gun. My compressor should be able to push one of those. Thing is, will the Wicked Detail Black take and not fade? That's the real question. Its not the same as a cotton T-shirt.
Other dyes are available online but the amount of AB paint I would use is less than half the price. Some dyes need to be heated in a 45 gal drum with the carpet for a week or more, I am not equipped for that.

I searched the forums before I posted this thread and didn't find anything related but I am sure someone has tried this before. Artists are naturally creative, curious and quite inventive by nature. I have a month before I take my car apart so hopefully someone will post up they tried it and it worked great.
 
Yes indeed - it is a rare question. Often the car carpets being synthetic are made to be non-absorbent so I'm not sure. I have recently come across guys dyeing plastics (golf discs) which are similar to PE plastics and PP plastics so dye may be the approach. I assume you are talking about the "permanent" carpets rather than just matts?

Will be interesting indeed to find out.

In terms of pressure I don't think even 100PSI will push it deep enough. I suspect given the nature of the product is will be surface only. You want something that will push through the weave and out the other side ideally. Maybe an airless spray unit would do the business. Having said that they are hungry product wise.
 
I dyed the plastic and carpet in my 76 corvette, it's been 8yrs and still looks like the day I did it. The car barely sees 1500 miles a year so not sure how it would on a daily driver.
If you want the brand/details about the stuff I used just let me know
 
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