How To Dye Carpets Black DIY Style | BMW E30 Carpet Dye Guide for Car Interior | 042

How To Dye Carpets Black DIY Style | BMW E30 Carpet Dye Guide for Car Interior | 042
In this video, I detail the process I used to dye carpets black DIY style using budget-friendly carpet dye from eBay. I opted for the stronger solvent-based carpet dye over water-based because I wanted to be sure of a jet-black finish to the carpets that'll last. While I was at it, I also dyed the faded parcel shelf black too.
Here's what I used:
Black Night Carpet Dye 5L: ebay.us/TYQqyg
Spray Gun: ebay.us/SiCFWq
50L Compressor: ebay.us/nuMtj1
Painting Mask: ebay.us/gsQzot
Poly Masking Sheets: ebay.us/e4Ms44
If you're looking to find out how to remove the carpet from your E30 then you'll first need to watch this video where I guide you through the process:
But I do show how to remove E30 parcel shelf in this video.
If your carpet is already removed, you can crack on with the carpet dyeing process outlined in this video. Firstly you will need to clean your carpet thoroughly.
Mine had undergone a thorough clean with a steamer when I first got the car, so I could get away with just a deep vac. I also used hair trimmers to de-bobble the carpet which had for fuzzy in the high-wear areas around where your feet would rest when riding in the E30.
With a super clean complete, you will want to prepare the equipment for carpet dyeing. The 5L black carpet dye kit comes with a hand spray bottle, but because I have access to better equipment I opted to use a small 50L compressor and a cheap 1.8 spray gun to apply it.
As I discovered, it's very strong stuff this carpet dye so I'd say waiting for a few warm dry days and dyeing it outside is the best course of action. It's messy so you really won't want to do it inside a garage. You also absolutely must wear a painting mask because the solvents are bad for you.
I set up outside using a trestle table to raise the parcel shelf from the ground. I then laid poly sheets down on the patio to avoid having the black outline of a carpet on it.
I set the compressor and gun up on a scrap piece of cardboard and ended up setting it similar to how it is when painting. Following that I applied a very good first coat to everything being careful not to miss bits or leave streaks.
According to the bottle, you must wait for the first coat of dye to be touch-dry before recoating which I did. It actually dries quite quickly on a sunny warm day so it was only an hour or so before I was able to recoat.
I applied another very good coat of black dye and this made it a lot darker. The parcel shelf was a bit resistant to the dye so I ended up applying it especially thick on there, the equivalent of 3 or 4 coats maybe.
24 hours later, the carpet was dry and absolutely jet black in colour. This Black Night Carpet Dye really works a treat and the tired and faded grey carpet now looks brand new. I went ahead let it sit out in the sun for a few hours until I was confident in it being bone dry.
Upon moving it I found it was transferring a bit to my hands, it left a fine black dust over the carpet, probably because of how thick I applied it. I used a vacuum cleaner to suck up the excess and then set about reinstalling the E30 carpet and parcel shelf in the car. There's still some transfer, hopefully this will lessen over time.
For more helpful how-to guides and restorations: www.spannerrash.com/
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#bmwe30 #e30build #e30 #carpetdye

[@chrisrawle2967]

Looks good mate, coming along nicely

[@SPANNERRASH]

Thank you Chris, appreciate it mate!

[@GreatBritishBalls]

thanks for the videos i bought a m52 swapped e30 last year and im in the middle of doing some of the bits you've uploaded. helping a lot . cheers

[@SPANNERRASH]

Awesome, really glad the E30 vids are proving useful to you mate! Hope the E30 is good to you. 👍

[@polloloci21]

I was skeptical at first- but when installed it looked great!! I have a 325iS with old gray carpets- really thinking about doing this - thanks for the inspiration and info.

[@SPANNERRASH]

I was really happy with how this came out. If you have a good spec 325, you should have the better carpet too, which means it will dye even better. 👍

[@TheShittyCyclists]

Mate! Fair play to you crack on with it……love the video👌😎👍🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

[@SPANNERRASH]

Cheers mate! Glad you enjoyed it. 👍

[@iamyourfuture808]

Nice Job pal !

[@SPANNERRASH]

Cheers! 😃

[@rotateonthis]

Nice job! I have to try doing this myself. For the seats I went with some E92 335i leather seats with electric adjustment - fits perfectly after making some brackets to bolt it to the floor out of some square tubing, and the electrics are pretty simple to wire up.

[@SPANNERRASH]

Yeah it works really well, I recommend it! The 335i seats sound like a great upgrade, I'd have thought it would be a much more involved swap than that. I'm really hoping to keep the E30 seat style as I think they look cool and retro, but I bet the E92 seats are way better and sturdier... Maybe down the line I will do the same. 😄

[@harjunLFS]

really nice work, well done.

[@SPANNERRASH]

Cheers pal!

[@adamhaycroft5610]

You know you've completed KZbin when you're watching a man give carpets a haircut 😂 end result looks great. Tempted to dye the faded parcel shelf of my e39 now!

[@SPANNERRASH]

KZbin... Completed it mate! 🤣 Haha! You might be right with that Adam, carpet haircuts are a pretty niche topic to say the least.. Did work well though. Yeah absolutely, I'm eyeing the faded shelf in my E46, it's turned like a pale purple, more than due a re-dye. I suspect the E39 has a similar style one.

[@adamhaycroft5610]

@@SPANNERRASH yep, same purple :-) I wonder how well the roof lining etc whould take to dye. My E39 is a ALPINA b10v8 with a somewhat stained pale grey roof lining. 99% common with the base BMW except for the little panel with the build plaque so would need to dyd at least that bit to swap to a nice black roof

[@SPANNERRASH]

@@adamhaycroft5610 If its the same type of fabric headlining an E46 has, I bet it would work beautifully. Sounds like an awesome E39 that!

[@PrimeG2]

Yes, a nice trim lol (PERFECTION)

[@johnmason1693]

Just dyed my old grey carpet today.....used 3 1/2 cans of black Dupli-Color Vinyl & Fabric specialty coating...used a brush as I sprayed and it turned out great. All in all your carpet is in good shape. I had a couple of minor stains but the black took care of it.

[@SPANNERRASH]

Hi John, that's interesting that you only used 2 and a half cans, was that enough to get a good even coat over the whole thing and avoid it being patchy?

[@johnmason1693]

@@SPANNERRASH I had to use 3 1/2 cans....just a tad left in the 4th can. It turned out great....using a hair brush does help the finished look.

[@SPANNERRASH]

@@johnmason1693 Interesting indeed, good tip!

[@notsobeardeddad9024]

Heres a note for future dying use a carpet extractor to remove the excess that transfers to your hands as any die clothes and other should be washed before wearing ive done this on st's vxrs and my current golf r32 let it soak for a good week then extract for best results

[@SPANNERRASH]

Excellent suggestion, I really do fancy one of those extractors.

[@shanechiddy4303]

The black looks awesome, good choice. Wonder if there is a way to seal the paint / dye once applied ? Great job, love watching you rebuild my favourite car.

[@SPANNERRASH]

Thanks Shane, I suspect a few more goes over with the hoover and the shedding will stop. It's a fine black dust, probably where I went a coat too far... I'll report back on it, but it seems like a great result overall! 😄

[@TheNorthernmunky]

Brilliant, should’ve said, I’ve got tons of sound deadening I never used.

[@SPANNERRASH]

Thanks Logan, that's a shame as I came up short. 😂 It was a last-minute extra though. To be honest I wasn't planning to add any originally but a bit has to be better than nothing.

[@e30_318is_project]

Looking good. Also planning on doing this in the future when installing the new seats. And also some sound deadening. Doesnt the carpet feel very crispy now after spraying it ? Or did it already feel crispy haha

[@SPANNERRASH]

It worked really well, I'd recommend the stuff I used. Pretty inexpensive for what it is! Interesting question, to be honest the carpet feels identical to how it did before, its just jet black now. I suspect if I'd used a paint rather than a dye it would be crispy like that though. Only negative to speak of is there's some transfer of fine black dust, but that's probably because I put it on extremely thick. Hopefully I will vac it a couple more times and that will be gone. 😃

[@dhilankerai3585]

Looks great. I plan to do this but wasn’t sure whether to use carpet dye or fabric spray paint. I hope I don’t get any black transfer as I love my white shoes! If you don’t plan on already I’d like to see how you go about the cracked dash or the beige headliner. As for the seats I think black leather with red accents would compliment the new mora red paint. Keep up these great videos!

[@SPANNERRASH]

Thanks Dhilan, I did a fair amount of research and so far so good on the choice of using the solvent-based dye. It's a shame its transferring, that might be because I went ham laying it on very thick. I'm sure in time it will be less and less, it was a lot less as soon as I vacuumed the whole thing. It's more a fine black dust than anything. I'm deffo planning to look at the dash, unfortunately some wally decided to drill some holes in it in the past which will need sorting at the same time as the cracks. In the meantime though I'm going to stick a cover over it to prevent it from getting any worse. Did you have any ideas about the headlining? I'd really like to be able to do it in situ to avoid damaging it. Other than being grubby and beige it's in mint condition and I'd hate to spoil it. Maybe if I used a flexible vinyl paint I could mask the whole interior off and apply it. Another thought I had was brush painting it, with a little foam roller or similar. Not sure I want to try and stick a suede-effect fabric over the top or anything like that. The anthracite sport headliner in the normal material would be my ideal probably. 👍

[@dhilankerai3585]

@@SPANNERRASH I have done plenty of research and the most common way of repairing the dash is to fill the cracks with filler and then paint or flock it. I’m not a huge fan of the mess flocking makes and it’s not my cup of tea. As for painting nothing you do will ever match the original colour of the vinyl. Unless you have it reupholstered in new vinyl. I plan to fill the cracks at home and take it to a buddy of mine who is good with leather and get him to recover it in leather. To me this sounds like the best option for the plans I have for my car. As for the headliner it’s a pig to remove as all the windows need to come out and even still it could tear as it’s 30year old fabric. I am fortunate enough to have the original anthracite sport headliner but I’m sure a fabric and vinyl spray paint would give great results especially if you get the good stuff. Just make sure to cover and mask well!

[@SPANNERRASH]

@@dhilankerai3585 Ahh yes, I'm not a big fan of the flock too. I think it looks at home in a race car but that's not really what I'm going for with this build. I guess filler and vinyl paint the whole thing a similar dark grey might be the cheapest option then, but getting it trimmed up in leather sounds awesome. I bet that will be extremely difficult to do with the shape of it. You'll have to let me know how yours comes out. Damn I didn't know changing the headliner was a windows-out job, that is not something I want to be doing... I guess I will explore painting it then. I'll start looking into that soon. Seats first though I reckon. 😁

[@mcjjordan]

I dyes my e21 carpet with autoglym aerosol…. The plastic pile doesnt seem to absorb it too well & it left it crispy in some places & sticky in others. Also need to reapply annually as it wears off. So very interested to see how this works

[@SPANNERRASH]

I'm impressed by just how good this carpet looks now with the solvent-based dye. I did put a heck of a lot on though, it would have been very expensive with spray cans. I'm hopeful it's a permanent result. Or at least as long-lasting as the original grey. 😄

[@HenryIsGaming]

Would you use the same product on the headliner?

[@SPANNERRASH]

Hey Henry, that totally depends. The E30's headliner is like a plastic vinyl, and I'd say this dye wouldn't work for it at all - it's too runny so would just bead off and leave streaks. HOWEVER, if it was a headliner from a different car, the fabric type like in an E46, I absolutely would! But I'd 100% be removing it from the car first. 😂

[@mmetalfingers]

what dash mat do you have? love how snug it is

[@SPANNERRASH]

Hi Rob, its branded "Shevron", I picked it up used so not totally sure where you can get them from, but I like it. Covers up the cracked dash too. 😆

[@user-sq2ir4yy4t]

Hi, was wondering after 2 months now, do you still have the transfer of the black ink? Great job but that’s what is holding me back … so really curious on your comment.

[@SPANNERRASH]

Hi Paul, to be honest its not changed since I closed out this video. As the car is an ongoing project I've more or less just closed the door on the interior since. When I actually get the car on the road and I vacuum it out a few times as part of regular cleaning and maintenance I reckon there will be no more black dust transfer. But I wont know for sure until then. Ultimately I think its a fine black dust, probably excess thanks to me applying it maybe a bit too thick!

[@user-sq2ir4yy4t]

@@SPANNERRASH thanks for the swift reply

[@william_lynch]

Interested in trying this but did it look better in real life? than in the shots? seemed kind of patchy but maybe thats just cause carpet is catching the light (no offence meant)

[@SPANNERRASH]

it was patchy before it fully dried but now its back in the car it looks perfect.

[@william_lynch]

Great. And no rubbing color ? @@SPANNERRASH

[@SPANNERRASH]

@@william_lynch There was a fine black dust transferring but now that seems to have stopped after I've vacuumed it a couple of times. I think that was due to laying it on too thick. 😆 For a DIY job, it's pretty brilliant, I'm very pleased with it.

[@yorkshireman7025]

Hows the dye holding up. Does it still look good

[@SPANNERRASH]

Hi mate, it still looks perfect, jet black. But the project is still not on the road so its not endured any regular wear and tear yet. I'm pretty confident in it and will report back down the line. 😁

[@yorkshireman7025]

Does the carpet still feel the same? I know if you rattle can carpet and leave it to dry your left with carpet that feels like burnt toast. Is they any dye transfer when you rub hands on it also. Thanks

[@SPANNERRASH]

@@yorkshireman7025 feels absolutely identical to before, definitely not like burned toast. I imagine if you use paint that's what you'll get. Yeah there's some transfer, its like a very fine black powder that washes right off. I reckon after its been vacuumed a few times that will stop. I put it on a super thick as you may have seen in the vid. 😃

[@polloloci21]

“Poverty-spec” 😂

[@SPANNERRASH]

Haha only way to describe it! 🤣

[@DigwithAthelstan]

The fibres are not absorbant. You will probably find it will rub off 😔

[@SPANNERRASH]

Hi Martin, yeah I was gutted when I found out there are two types of carpet and I have the one which takes to dye less. But to be honest I'm pretty happy with how it looks right now. I'll be surprised if I have an issue any time soon, the dye is hardcore, like paint. And lord knows paint never comes off a carpet! 😂 We'll see how it goes over time, I'm sure I'll report back.