Hirobo Zerda - dyeing red parts black.

[Bormac]

I will have to admit that I have not tried dyeing any parts ever so I'm looking for any helpful advise. I recently picked up a black caged Zerda and have thought about dyeing what red parts are on it black. I will no doubt test a red item before doing the full lot but am looking for advise in what product I should use and some recommendations on how to go about the process.

[Toasted Coastie]

If you are dying any color to black, the black will take. I dye using the liquid RIT black.

I pour some into the pot with some water, throw a little salt in there, and get up to a boil.

I tie the parts with thread, and dip into the dye. Bring heat down to low, and leave in for 5 minutes. Then I take the part out and dip in clod water. Repeat a couple times until you get the desired blackness. Sometimes you don't have to repeat, but I do because I'm OCD like that.....

[Mr. ED]

Are you sure all parts are nylon?

the original red wheels are not I found when touching them with aceton (nylon doesn't melt when in contact with aceton, right )

[RedScampi]

Yeah, i was going to say that if the parts are plastic you probably won't get them to accept the dye.

[highwayracer]

hey Jason,

I recently dyed my zerda parts red. The arms are rear bulkhead had some fine scratches and I sanded and polished the parts, but it left a white haze on them. The other parts didn't look so bright either...so I decided to try some RIT fabric dye.

I heat the water / dye as high as I can without boiling over. You need to watch this because it boils over really quiclky. Tie the parts on a string. Then begin the dying process...check the parts frequently to see how the dye it taking. For my zerda, I only had the parts in there less than 1 minute...since I just wanted to bring the color back.

After you've reached the desired color, put the parts in hot water and rinse (while still on the string). Slowly add warm water. If you go from hot to clod, it makes the parts brittle becasue the outside is cooling quiclky while the inside of the part is still hot.

hope this helps...

Roger

[highwayracer]

Actually, I have too many red roll cage cars (zerda, gallop, samurai), so I decided to dye my zerda green to match my HPI wheels.

I used a special dye called Photoshop

[Bormac]

Thanks for the help guys. Wow Roger, your 'green' caged ZERDA looks fully kustom mate..... Im pressive job with photoshop I might add. I realy had to look twice (well maybe 3 times).

Thanks again. I'll update with my progress.

[tiger1]

Oh crap!! Photoshop??


I just get a bunch of dye boiling and have been dipping my parts the whole of last night wondering why mine did not turn out green!!

[old_rc_lover]

There was an article on dieing RC car parts. Here is a couple of pics of it. If you can not read it, PM me and I can send you the article. They used a MRP Stage II in the article.