Dyeing interior bits

My M3's interior (e36m3'ty parts...never gets old) is showing it's age. It's first 10 years were in Albuquerque, 3 in San Antonio, 2 in Boston and now 5 in Corpus Christi.

The C-pillar tabs are the latest to break. Black interior. The parcel shelf had faded to a medium blue so I pulled it and used a rattle can 'fabric paint' to return it to black...worked ok, but the material is stiff now, as if I painted it with regular spray paint. When I reinstalled the shelf, one of the c-pillar covers only had one functioning locator tab left, it hung in for a few months and then fell off one day on my way to work (Corpus has HORRIBLE roads).

I found a new c-pillar cover but the only color available was cream. Now that I'm ready to install it I'm considering using Rit dye to change the color instead of the fabric paint.

Will it work? Will it last? Should I not bother and just get another rattle can? If yes to the last, should i just buy krylon?

Ive never tried rit.

However, o have never had a bad experience with the sem products when used properly. 

Might not be your thing but the A pillar covers on my E36 were constantly falling down no matter what I did. I finally ran a black screw through them into where the tab mounted. That did the trick for me. 

spandak said:

Might not be your thing but the A pillar covers on my E36 were constantly falling down no matter what I did. I finally ran a black screw through them into where the tab mounted. That did the trick for me. 

The c pillar trim in my M3 just did the same thing.  After seeing what a used one with intact tabs goes for, I'm thinking this is a wonderful suggestion.

Ooh, thread is timely.  I have a red vinyl headliner that I want to dye black.  I don't want to "paint" it with interior paint because it needs to remain somewhat flexible.

I'm also interested in what the gang comes up with since I recently ran into this very same question. Got a full set of door cards for my E34 after helping part out a car for a buddies 530 five speed swap. One problem they were Dove grey. 

I didn't come up with any definitive answer for a recommended dye, so I went the interior paint route as well. Specifically this stuff.

It's a little shinny for my taste and we'll see how it holds up but it seems to adhere just fine to the soft insert section of the door card.

Just some food for thought.

The duplicolor doesn't seem to age well. And its too shiny. 

Thats why i was reccomend to try sem, and have since become a believer of almost religious zeal in their products. 

If you want it to look good, it may be worth paying somebody to do it.

I used Vinyl dye on some red interior parts to turn them black. It didn't match perfectly, but it was much better than having two different color interiors.

If you use fabric dye, absolutely let it dry, then use a Little Green Machine or something on it to get any "bleed" out of the fabric because otherwise you might dye your pants.

SEM makes a good vinyl/plastic dye.  You can also call up JustDashes and they'll mix you whatever color you want.  I redid the plastic panels inside my 73 Impala Wagon with stuff from Just Dashes and it was fantastic.

The SEM dyes come in multiple colors and gloss levels.  Prep is key, I scrubbed 3-4 times with dish soap and fully dried before painting on a warm day.  Rabbit interior is good 10 years later.