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Okay, so I dyed some parts tonight and didn't get the results I wanted, they were all NIP white parts, front suspension mounts, rear arm mounts, stealth case and a couple NIP white bulkheads.

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okay, who wanted to kill me when reading that???

Acctually, they were old used parts, mostly allready dyed awful shades of purple and orange. they were pretty dirty and greasy so I soaked them overnight in diluted simple green and water, this evening I rinsed them off, and dyed them in a mix of black rit dye (1 package to about 1 gallon of water) and simmered it on the stove like I've always done for about an hour. I dumped the parts and several of them especially the ones that were orange only came out a dark translucent brown and the parts that were previously purple still had some splotches of purple on them I've allways had really good luck doing it that way, even with used, previously dyed parts, but this is the first time I've soaked them in simple green and I'm wondering if that had something to do with it??? So, anyone have any ideas or pointers on how to get my parts black as night???

Try using the liquid RIT, versus the powder.

I've never used the liquid, do you mix it strong or as the package says????

were the purple splotches somewhere that CA or maybe threadlocker would've been? Most of the time when I get splotches its been because of those two items. Even if its wiped off right away CA will leave a place that will not dye evenly. I've got several rims that have done that to me even though I cleaned everything off I could see with the naked eye. If not that I'm at a loss...
Todd

No, don't think it's any glue, and it's not like a purple spot, it's more like a light spot where the dye didn't set as well.

if the parts were heavily soiled /oiled the dye may not take. Give the parts a week and see what they look like before you do anything else.
see my experience with dying older parts here:
http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3435
after the above post, I tried soaking some of the parts in acetone, some in denatured alcohol for a week to try to get out the oil/dye and then re-dyed, and the color was inconsistent betweent the parts and slpotchy.

Okay, checked out the parts a bit more closely this morning, I think some of the blotchy stuff was/is oil that has soaked into the nylon so I put those parts in a jar of acetone. Upon further inspection the main parts that were brown was an RC10T bellcrank set which seems to be of a different material than nylon maybe??? it definitely has a smoother harder texture to it, but it's still a stock associated part, just doesn't seem to be the traditonal material????

the steering bellcranks, and servo mounts are definately a different material from the standard suspension parts. it will take dye, but it takes a lot longer, and it doesn't seem to get as deep a color.
I'll update the linked post above with the newer pics when i get the chance to show the difference.

So related but different:

If i only have a small batch, say 4 sedan rims, and I have a 2 pkgs of Rit dye. Do i need the whole package for just those few items or can I use part of the pkg? (say half)

Also, how long to boil said items?

BTW, Im dying some sedan wheels. I have Green and Orange. Im looking to do a 2 different sets of wheels.



MOmo

I don't think you're going to be able to go from green to orange,,, pretty sure you'll end up pukey brown. From my experience when dying parts they only like to go darker, not lighter.



Nevermind MoMo,,,, I misread your post, I thought you said "green to orange"..... Sorry.

MOmo,
Depends on how much water you need. Read the suggested amount per box and cut it down accordingly. If it says 1 gal./1 box and you only need 1/2 a gallon just use half the box. I've done it like that before and it works the same. What I ended up doing was getting some buckets from one of the local convenience stores that had tight fitting lids and just mixing full amounts and keeping it in the buckets after it cooled. If you got the room it works out good and you can experiment mixing colors that way. Green or orange will make for some cool colors for sedan wheels. I get kinda tired of all the yellow/white/chrome ones out there.
Hope this helps.
Todd

okay, had much better luck with the acetone and denatured alcohol method. Thanks for the pointers!

I mixed up some black months ago and keep it under my work bench in a huge ketchup tub. I have a set of wheel that have been in there for over a week now. I think they are ready to come out

But for the first couple days, you could slosh the container around and see where the die did not want to take. They look much better now.

Thanks for the tips.

Anyone know if there are marks (sharpie) on wheels parts etc being dyed, will it cover it up, or will the marks show through the dye?

Longer time in the dye = darker color?



MOmo

MOmo wrote:Thanks for the tips.

Anyone know if there are marks (sharpie) on wheels parts etc being dyed, will it cover it up, or will the marks show through the dye?

Longer time in the dye = darker color?



MOmo

Black will cover just about anything up but if your not using black or a very dark color it won't cover marker in my experience.

Yes, longer times=darker colors. Another thing about even dye jobs. It seems easier to me to do all parts at once if you are trying to get them evenly dyed. Tried timing some rims one at a time but in the end they looked different even though I used same times and methods for each wheel. Didn't want to mix up more for the truggy wheels so I just did them individually and they ended up black since they didn't look right to me .
Todd