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If you were ever wondering: Follow the directions from the website and SEM Color Coat does a TERRIFIC job of restoring the 240 carpet. The paint does not make the carpet at all stiffer than before, and after only a few minutes, the paint is dry, and already seems to be well-adhered to the carpet. Because of the low-pile of the carpet in the rear of the wagons, I do not think it will show any wear problems either.


I wish I had taken photos at the same time of day, so the lighting conditions would be identical, but . . . whataya gonna do?
The slight unevenness you see in the after pic is, I think, due to the carpet pile, not uneven paint. I applied three coats to some panels and they looked perfect, and some panels still have a a blotchiness after 5 or more coats.
I used the "Camel" color, which is a near-perfect match for the interior trim, but looks darker on the carpet. I would probably try a lighter shade the next time. "Palomino" or "Light Oak" might match the original shade of the carpet better. It will take two cans to do all the carpet and trim in the rear of a 245.
On a spare panel, I even tried painting the carpet dark blue, and it took a few more coats, but worked just as well. Which means that if you are looking to go wild with this stuff, it will work. I would worry a bit more about even wear with the dramatic color changes.
I plan to do the front carpet as well, but I think I am going to try to turn it black. That may be a 2-part process. Stay tuned.
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posted by
someone claiming to be Tillman
on
Wed Nov 27 10:31 CST 2013 [ RELATED]
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Which SEM CC product did you use - aerosol or brush-on?
Thanks
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Aerosol. I don't think they offer a paint intended for brushing, and I can't even imagine how badly that would work on carpet.
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Congrats on a great job, and a BIG Thank YOU!
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posted by
someone claiming to be MJ
on
Tue Oct 8 11:41 CST 2013 [ RELATED]
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What is the website? Sorry, I don't see this listed in the thread.
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Where do you buy this paint? Local store ? Autozone? Pep Boys? Is there a website?
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posted by
someone claiming to be Tim
on
Sun Sep 29 14:52 CST 2013 [ RELATED]
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Looks great. What SEM Color did you use on your 240? Thinking of doing the same process on my very faded 940.
Tim
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"Camel" for the back, and satin black on the front carpet. The "camel" looks luxurious, but a lighter, yellower color would have matched the original carpet better. Actually, the original carpet would be near impossible to match. The tiny pieces I have seen untouched by the sun appear to be a goldish color with a yellow/green tint and maybe some metallic flake. Very distinct.
At $15 a can at my local store, it really wasn't cheap enough to buy a few and try them out, but I think "Palomino" might have been nice. Great paint; worth every penny.
If your carpet is as bad as mine was, you'll want to scrub it with a brush and vacuum first, before even cleaning. So many fibers of the sun damaged carpet came off that it clogged up my carpet cleaner.
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Wow! What a transformation! It looks like new!
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We just finally started refinishing interior "soft" panels again recently. I've used carpet sprays and such in the past and was always disappointed with how much brushing one needs to do afterwards to get rid of the stiffness. Did you have that problem with the SEM product?
Because of that, we have moved away from "paint" and now we dye everything. Rit's website has a complete color pallet--even mixing instructions! We buy the basic colors and then mix to match. Did the incredibly bleached out interior of my sons '84 245 GL this way--even the cloth on the door panels. Looks beautiful and very economical, easy cleanup, easy to change colors. Did a hat shelf in blue this way and also a black one.
But I must say, your interior looks fantastic!
DS
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Thanks David! I did use a nylon brush on the carpet between each coat, as the instructions dictate, but I wouldn't call it excessive, and certainly a small price to pay to keep the carpet soft (not that the sun baked carpet is especially soft to begin with). I was very thorough, but I think a single swipe in each of the four cardinal directions after each coat is sufficient. I REALLY like all of SEM's products.
I used Rit years ago to dye faded black carpets back to a perfect black, and they still look good today. I am going to try to turn the front carpet in my wagon black, first by dying, then going over with SEM Color Coat, if I cannot achieve the darkness I want. I will take photos.
The SEM product, btw, is truly remarkable on the flexible vinyl as well. I am tempted to say it would work well, and hold up, even on seats.
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Well, going from faded tan to black on the front has been a complete success, after I found Rit dye. I tried four different stores that used to carry it before ending at Michael's Crafts.
The dye left the carpet blueish-purple in the most badly sun damaged areas, so I used a can of SEM Color Coat satin black to deepen and even out the color, which is what SEM recommends anyway. And of course, the vinyl heel pad on the driver's side and the vinyl edging did not dye, so I painted those black. We'll see how they hold up.
Photos forthcoming.
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Photos, as promised. I wish I had taken an intermediate photo, after dying but before painting. Either way, it looks nearly perfect, and only took a few boxes of Rit dye and less than half a can of SEM color coat. I am very pleased with the result.

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What did you use to dye the carpet in? Washing machine, tub, etc...? What was your process? Thanks!
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If you have a tub big enough, soak it. I had nothing even close to big enough for the stiff molded carpet (you won't be folding it up) so what I did was mix up a big pot of the dye with very hot water and use a brush to slop it on/scrub it in. The dye will work better the hotter it is, so I used my turkey fryer to heat it up right next to the carpet.
Obviously, keep in mind that anything around or under the carpet will be dyed.
It's a lot of work, but very worth it, considering the results and the low cost. You couldn't even buy used carpet for so little, and it would still be dirty and faded from 20+ years of use.
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That's an interesting look with black carpet and tan interior.
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I've done it on both my cars with tan interior. All of the lower plastic is black - the tan carpet always looked terrible, in my opinion. To say nothing of how dingy the tan carpet always looks.
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Beautiful! How do you shift/use that custom made gear selector?
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It pushes down to release the detent which locks the shifter between gears. The OD cutout button has been relocated on my 240s, so I only had to figure out how to retain the locking feature to guard against accidentally knocking the shifter from Reverse into Park.
I originally intended to create a custom shifter head that looked polished and stock, but once I started playing with it and designing the mechanism, I kinda liked the look of the exposed parts. What a friend of mine called a "steampunk" look. I made the actual knob out of a transmission pump gear and walnut. The spring is from the transmission too, I believe. It made sense to me.

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Hi Sean,
You are a creative person who can bring it to the table. Great craftmanship that I haven't seen it for a long time. I look forward to see more great work from you.
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Thanks, SB. While I'm posting up pics, here's a panel I made after I broke the brittle tan plastic putting the seat back in. Had some extra material from the dash trim. It isn't a perfect fit, but it hides the hole and stand out too much (except for the plaid).
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Beautiful shot and composition! Now, I can scream like a kid again.
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! :D
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Thanks, I'm pretty impressed myself. Normally, I am the kind of person that would prefer to strip the panels and reupholster. I've been curious about the viability of carpet paint for a while now. So far, I'd say it works great.
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It does look really good. Have you tried any of the SEM products on the seats or vinyl/nauga/whatever panels?
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I have sprayed vinyl with the Colorcoat before, and it looks great, but I've never tried painting the seats. I just have my doubts that any product will hold up well on a part that sees so much action. I encourage you to try it and report back : )
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Beautiful + Delicious looking. Great job!
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