Painting your car from the outside is quite common. You can choose your favorite color and type of paint and get the job done. But what about the car’s insides? Can you paint car interior?
Of course, you can change the paint of your car’s interior. That includes everything that’s attached inside your car. However, you need to be very careful not to damage anything. So, choosing the right color, material, and application method is the key here.
This post will tell you every detail regarding changing the color of your car’s interior.
Types of Colors For Your Car Interior
Before you visit your nearby car paint booth, it’s better to decide what type of color is suitable for your car interior.
Commonly, there are two types of colors you can go for:
- Dyeing
- Spraying
Dyeing
If your car has a leather interior, go for a dyeing color. It’s because this type of color works well with the leather material. All you need to have is a colorant kit for leather material.
Moreover, you can also apply the leather colorant kit on plastic and vinyl surfaces.
Spraying
The spraying color is for the vinyl car interior. If your car has a vinyl-made interior, go for the spray paint and change the whole inside of your car.
Moreover, the spraying color works well if you got fabric seats. You just need to have spray paint with primer to DIY.
However, it’s recommended to first learn how to spray your car interior on your own. That way, you can avoid spray painting on unnecessary surfaces.
Now, let’s discuss how to change your car’s interior color on your own.
Change Color of Leather Car Interior
First of all, you need to have the following things:
- Abrasive Pad
- Adhesive
- Airbrush
- Sandpaper
- Clean Wet Cloth
- Microfiber Cloth
- Leather Putty
- Leather Colorant Kit
Step 1: Remove Old Finish
In this process, you remove the latest finishing from your leather car interior, especially from the seats. While painting your car’s leather seats, painters add a finishing layer as a final touch that protects the original paint and gives a fresh look.
Therefore, use an abrasive pad to remove the finishing. That will allow the new dyeing color to sit properly on the leather interiors.
While removing the old finishing, you will see cracks on the leather. They might look like the leather interior is cracked. But don’t worry, most of the cracks are due to the hardening of the paint’s finishing layer.
Step 2: Clean the Leather Interior
After completely removing the old finishing layer, it’s time to clean your car’s leather interior. First, take a clean cloth and clean the interior using an alcohol cleaner.
That will remove any wax stuck on the leather interiors of your car. This step is the easiest one. However, it might be time-consuming for you. But you will see how promising the result is.
Check out the Leather Detail Kit Black for your car interior.
Step 3: Repair
Not all the cracks you saw in step 1 are of old paint’s finishing. Old leather material is not sturdy enough, and it tears and wears in your vehicle. To fix the small cracks on the leather interior, you have to manually repair them.
- First, apply the liquid adhesive to the borders of the leather cracks.
- Gently press the cracks inside the leather interior.
- Take the sandpaper and smooth any rough surface. The roughness usually takes place on old leather interiors.
- You will see tiny particles sticking on the interior’s surface during the smoothing process. These particles are the residue, and you have to wipe them away using a clean wet cloth.
- After that, dry the interior using a microfiber cloth.
- Finally, use leather putty to fill any remaining gap on the leather interior.
Step 4: Apply First Layer of Leather Colorant
Once you have repaired the cracked leather and filled all the gaps, it’s time to apply the first layer of leather colorant.
To do that, use a piece of sponge. The high flexibility of the sponge makes sure that the leather colorant reaches all areas of the leather interior. Moreover, that will also make it easier for you to apply the spray paint in the future.
While applying the leather colorant, don’t press the sponge too hard. Instead, gently rub the surface of the leather interior using the sponge.
Wait until the colorant dries off completely after completely applying the leather colorant. However, you can speed up the drying process by using a hairdryer. That will reduce the drying phase to 5 minutes.
Step 5: Final Spray & Finishing
You will see that the first layer has a pretty good impact on your car’s leather interior. Now, you have to use the leather colorant spray to finish the dyeing process.
For that, use the airbrush. An airbrush is an efficient tool to paint your car from the inside as well as from the outside.
Have a look at the Multi-purpose Airbrush to paint your car interior.
Start with the edges and pipings of the interior parts of your car. These two areas are hard to reach places where paint doesn’t sit easily. Therefore, fill out all the borders first so that you can easily spray the easy-to-reach areas.
Additionally, you can spray multiple layers of dyeing color at the end. You can even make color gradients on any or all parts of the leather interior. But that requires expertise.
Moreover, make sure that the first coating is completely dry before applying the next layer of leather colorant spray.
Once you are done coloring your car leather interior, let it dry completely. It’s recommended to leave your car’s doors open. Also, make sure that your car is parked in a clean open space.
Moreover, it usually takes 36-48 hours to dry off the leather colorant completely from your car interior.
If you are looking for a car interior dyeing service, you can search for them online. However, these services are a bit expensive. While coloring your car interior, the crew might perform extra repairs that will double the cost.
Final Thoughts
It’s highly recommended to paint your car interior only if you own it. If you are planning to sell your car after coloring the car interior, that might not be a good investment. It’s because car interior coloring is more expensive than the exterior.
You can paint your car on your own, whether it’s the interior or exterior. However, first, you have to arrange all the car paint accessories.
Therefore, give your car interior a new look by coloring it on your own. That will save you money, and the overall look of your car’s interior will please you.
Hello Automotive Gear Lovers!
Sourav Biswas is here! I write for the VehicleOnly Automotive Blog and am passionate about automotive tools. I am also a publisher on Amazon & Medium.
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