Re-dying carpet on package shelf

[CJ]

I was cleaning my car this weekend and I noticed that the carpet on the rear package shelf was completely faded so I have everything apart and will re-dye it tonight.

There are some tricky things to remove like the headrest. To remove the headrest do the following:
1. Put them in the down position.
2. remove the carpeting in the trunk.
3. Climb inside the trucnk and look up at the headrest mechansim.
4. Where the post of the headrest go into the mechanism you will see a spring loaded lever. Pull this lever back and remove the cylinder that locks them in place.
5. Go to the inside of the car and remove the 4 trim peices that have the holes in them, in which the headrest poke through.
6. Pull the headrest to the up right position and then pull the poles out towards the REAR of the car.
7. You are done.

To completely remove the package shelf, you need to remove the following in this order.
1. Lower seat cushion.
2. Upper seat back cushion.
3. Two side trim panels in which tops of seat belts feed through.
4. Top seat back brackets in which seat belts feed through, under the cover.
5. Emergency first aid kit and plastic hold downs.

I hope this helps somebody out there and saves them some time!!

[CJ]

Here is the latest. I let the first coat dry and it looked better, but it did not match the darkness of the "virgin" carpet that wa under the seat, never seen by the sun. I took a scrub brush and combed the carpet so it was not stiff anymore, actually it is now very soft. I now just applied a second coat and it is all as dark as the virgin carpet. In case anyone is wondeing, my car is Astral silver with dark blue MB-tex interior. The dye I am using is by Plasti-coat. The color code for the dye is #520 mid-night blue.
The results look great!!!

Now I do not have that grey-whitish rear deck, it is all dark blue.

This thread is being posted so I can help anyone out that is in or is going to be in the same situation.

[seattleMBowner]

CJ, is that a Volvo you re-dyed or a Mercedes?

I need to re-dye the rear shelf on my 1990 300E. Was wondering if you have to take the shelf out in order to do it.

[y2kimmel]

My speaker covers in the rear (not the metal mesh, but the plastic that surrounds it) has faded from gray to a beige-like color that doesn't match my car at all.

Has anyone dyed these plastic parts back to the original color?

Thanks,
Troy
1995 E420 82k

[jbaj007]

I've used SEM with success on those parts. Remove speaker cloth if spraying that area.

http://vinylpro.safeshopper.com/29/cat29.htm?582

Many of the wreckers yards use it in my area to make a part the right color if they don't have the correct color in the yard.