Undye-ing quest

[219]

I had the day off today , so went round a few breakers to see what was in - found a very nice late model 500SEL with leather interior - only it is BLUE .

What the car did have was the roller blind for the rear window , so I acquired this - again the cloth trim attached to the frame is a lovely dark blue , which matched the parcel shelf and interior of the donor car but won't match mine ; my car has mushroom leather and creamy-white parcel shelf .

I did check firstly that the blind actually works and the nylon drive cord is intact

My problem is to get the cloth trim to match my interior - the first thing I tried was a little bleach as I thought I might just be able to bleach it to near white , which would have been fine . Unfortunately , the dye seems to be extremely colour-fast , although Domestos' finest did a good job of discolouring the sleeve of the old jumper I was wearing .

If the worst comes to the worst , I can peel the fabric off the aluminium backing plate and replace it altogether . It just struck me that discolouring the existing fabric might be easier .

I was somewhat tempted by the guy's offer of the full interior for £100 , but don't know if I want a dark blue interior in a 199 blue/black car - still holding out for a nice facelift style mushroom interior .

 

[wemorgan]

My mother is in to arts and crafts and gets her lambs wool professionally dyed, sheep skin tanned etc. I'll ask her for thoughts and get back.

 

[jonnyboy]

Derek, can't you just encapsulate the blue fabric with something generic and creamy white?

 

[wemorgan]

The verdict of my mother is that it's a 'no'. As in, going from dark to light colour is not something she's ever seen done successfully. She could only suggest speaking to a restorer of classic cars, but even then wondered about the prohibitive costs and successful outcome.

 

[Lugy]

More to the point, which breakers do you go to? You always seem to find good stuff, through this way it's mostly all toss!