New chassis restore trick
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 2:39 pm
As I mentioned I've been reading this forum like crazy and getting tons of great ideas for restoration on my YZ10's. I followed the Acetone on a towel on the chassis trick and it worked perfect at getting all of the dried CA off. It only took 20 minutes of a soaking towel on top and the glue just wiped off. As a second step for chassis prep I wet sanded with 600 grit sandpaper (I actually ripped the 600 in half and sanded itself for a bit to make it even finer).
Here's where the new trick comes in. The chassis looked great after the Acetone and wet sanding but there were still a bunch of deep scratches and nicks that were bothering me. Nothing can fill these completely but since the chassis is the original black fiberglass some of the scratches showed up more because the fiberglass is white under the surface. I fired up the old stove and used black clothing dye in a large pot to help dye the chassis back to a deep black (even at the edges and all the scratches and wear areas). I used medium/high heat on the stove and soaked the chassis in the water/dye solution for about 30-minutes. It isn't perfect but it looks much better than when I got it and the black dye did help to reduce the visibility of the scratches. Here are some before and after pics. The middle pic is after the Acetone but before the wet sanding and dye (you can see the white marks more easily before the black clothing dye process).
Here's where the new trick comes in. The chassis looked great after the Acetone and wet sanding but there were still a bunch of deep scratches and nicks that were bothering me. Nothing can fill these completely but since the chassis is the original black fiberglass some of the scratches showed up more because the fiberglass is white under the surface. I fired up the old stove and used black clothing dye in a large pot to help dye the chassis back to a deep black (even at the edges and all the scratches and wear areas). I used medium/high heat on the stove and soaked the chassis in the water/dye solution for about 30-minutes. It isn't perfect but it looks much better than when I got it and the black dye did help to reduce the visibility of the scratches. Here are some before and after pics. The middle pic is after the Acetone but before the wet sanding and dye (you can see the white marks more easily before the black clothing dye process).