Red (or any color you want...) stitching

OKC S550 said:

I wanted to do red on my cloth recaros, im glad it isnt noticeable on the black cloth when you dyed the stitching

Click to expand...

I think that was posted as a what not to do. I think it has stained a little and the Recaro wording is extremely messed up.

But, I ordered a Blue Fabricamate marker and may try it this weekend. Starting in the back seat

My marker came in today, and I *may* attempt this on Sunday. I was pretty sure I'd do it when I ordered, but I'm having second thoughts. Not because I don't want blue stitching, but because I'm really worried I'll either frak it up, or it'll look like crap afterward.

In some of the pictures where I've seen this done, it looks very faded, and doesn't necessarily pop, even right after it's freshly done. I may try a small portion of the lower drivers side rear seat that no one is ever in because my seat is all of the way back. A fairly inconspicuous area to try it to make sure I like the outcome.

JeffreyDJ said:

My marker came in today, and I *may* attempt this on Sunday. I was pretty sure I'd do it when I ordered, but I'm having second thoughts. Not because I don't want blue stitching, but because I'm really worried I'll either frak it up, or it'll look like crap afterward.

In some of the pictures where I've seen this done, it looks very faded, and doesn't necessarily pop, even right after it's freshly done. I may try a small portion of the lower drivers side rear seat that no one is ever in because my seat is all of the way back. A fairly inconspicuous area to try it to make sure I like the outcome.

Click to expand...

Let us know how it goes. I'm so tempted by this. Would be nice to add a bit of pop to the interior...but like you...worried I'd mess it up.

Red stitching

Did my stitching in red ,nov.2015. I took my time and gave it a spot touch up a few days later. There has been no bleeding or fading but I did retouch the stitching on the console . Everyone thinks it came that way. I used an acrylic paint pen- Decocolor brand from Walmart. No regrets

Ran across this, is this a good or bad for those who’ve done it? Wondering if they have a grabber blue type color myself.

Blast from the past lol
I started this thread four years ago, and to this day its been the best bang for the buck mod I've ever run across and I wouldnt hesitate to do it again on any car. I get comments from people all the time, and honestly, it just makes me happy to see the red stitches. I went over the stitches on the center arm rest and on the driver seat once, probably about a year ago because the arm rest was looking a bit different than the passenger seat. Big deal. There are no visible stains, cracks, or other indications of trouble on the base leather or stitches themselves.

CMC#5 said:

Blast from the past lol
I started this thread four years ago, and to this day its been the best bang for the buck mod I've ever run across and I wouldnt hesitate to do it again on any car. I get comments from people all the time, and honestly, it just makes me happy to see the red stitches. I went over the stitches on the center arm rest and on the driver seat once, probably about a year ago because the arm rest was looking a bit different than the passenger seat. Big deal. There are no visible stains, cracks, or other indications of trouble on the base leather or stitches themselves.

Click to expand...

I red all the posts in the past days but I don't remember if you dyed the steering wheel's stitches too. If you did has sweat been a problem? Thank you

No regrets here, close to 2 years since I've painted the stitching and it still looks great. The only part that has some fading is on the drivers seat bolster from getting in and out of the car. Everything else is looking great.

FreedomPenguin said:

Ran across this, is this a good or bad for those who’ve done it? Wondering if they have a grabber blue type color myself.

Click to expand...

Has anyone attempted this on cloth seats? If so, does the ink bleed into the surrounding area?

5.0_SD said:

Has anyone attempted this on cloth seats? If so, does the ink bleed into the surrounding area?

Click to expand...

I havnt done it
But I will say don’t dare try. Itl ruin then

Ok. So I decided to risk the huge investment (couldn't buy just the red pen and had to buy a set, so a whole $13. LOL)
https://www.markersupply.com/zigtemabase6.html

I tried an area low into the crease of the passenger side front seat, and it works just as easily as advertised! A couple of words of caution/suggestions-

• I recommend wiping off the excess pretty quickly, like every 2-3 minutes. The fabric dye does wipe off of the leather fairly well but I tried doing a big section then going back to wipe after that (maybe 7-10 minutes) and I noticed some of the dye didn't want to come off. Downside of wiping it off so soon is you also dull the color on the threads a bit, so I ended up doing a very light 2nd coat being careful not to touch the leather.
• I have a convertible and doing this in direct sunlight, or really good lighting will help you see variations that you can fix to make it more uniformed.
• For the main coat, I ended up using the pen back and forth about 4 times on a thread before moving on to the next thread. My light second pass is really just 1 swipe of the pen barely touching the thread to darken it back up a bit after wiping it down.

I have to say I'm very impressed with how easy this is to do, and what an impact it makes for such a cheap mod!

Here's an in progress show, also showing the pen. The cap definitely looks orange, but the bar code shows it is red, and the dye is definitely red.


Here's an in progress of the back of the seat and head rest-


In progress of a door card-


Door card done-


Passenger seat done-


Very cool what a difference there is between the before and after!

The passenger seat probably took about an hour. The door card probably about 30 minutes, so yeah... it is tedious! But I think it is worth it!

Down side- My Color now forever will be stuck on red. LOL And Now I want to buy a cover with red stitching for the arm rest, shifter boot and e-brake. The red dye doesn't really show up on black thread. Oh, and I really want to change out to red seatbelts.

My convertible is Rapid Red with black interior. I used red fabric marker "Stained" by Sharpie. I used 3 pens and wiped the excess that got on the leather within 30 seconds. This was an extremely tedious project but once completed the effort was rewarded by the improved visual appeal. If one is motivated this modification is worth it.

btw: do not use a regular marker, like a Sharpie.

UnkTob said:

Ok. So I decided to risk the huge investment (couldn't buy just the red pen and had to buy a set, so a whole $13. LOL)
https://www.markersupply.com/zigtemabase6.html

Here's an in progress show, also showing the pen. The cap definitely looks orange, but the bar code shows it is red, and the dye is definitely red.

Very cool what a difference there is between the before and after!

Click to expand...

Am curious if your 2018 stitching was silver or white from the factory? The 2015 of the OP had white stitching. The 2016 had silver and so do the newer MYs. I have red stitching in my 2016 but recently bought a soft-touch console cover and knee panels with silver stitching.

Anyone know if the 2018s had silver stitching? Seems likely if Ford switched from while to silver after 2015 and is using silver today. If the 2018s were silver, those pics will show what my console stitches will look like.

My 2020 GT Premium Convertible had white stitching:

HoosierDaddy said:

Anyone know if the 2018s had silver stitching? Seems likely if Ford switched from white to silver after 2015 and is using silver today. If the 2018s were silver, those pics will show what my console stitches will look like.

Click to expand...

Answering my own question for future readers:

The 2017,2018,2019,2020,2021 order guides list "metal gray" stitching. So NOT called white by Ford any of those years order guides.

Pictures in post 86 are a 2018 (metal gray).

Also FWIW, the subcontractor (Eissmann) for my new factory stitched console made in April 2019 calls the stitching silver on their labeling on the inside. Ford metal gray = Eissmann silver.