Dyeing plastic

**Brian d marge** · 28th May 2006, 01:56

Now as you all may know I have a CR errr Fetish ...anyway this nafarious activity has left me with a lot of plastic.....

Now this plastic,, rad panels , fenders etc ,,is scratch free BUT has been been well and truely seen to by the sun ... faded , etc and the filler in the plastic ( or what ever plastic is ) has come out ,,, ie you can scrape it off and get a nice surface underneath but with a funky color ,,,,

Does anyone know a way of dyeing it ... Not painting but actually putting a unifor color back into the plastic

Seems a shame to throw it a way ,,,!!! and I have a lot of it

Stephen

**GB-Canada** · 28th May 2006, 02:11

Here in Canada there is a product called Marhyde. It is used to dye automotive interiors (dash & door pannels) .It is sprayed like paint but it is as thin as water(viscosity).You get it where you buy automotive paints.....give it a try

**crazyxr250rider** · 28th May 2006, 02:20

Plastics renewer is good

**sAsLEX** · 28th May 2006, 08:54

crc or the like gives it a nice colour for around a day or so!

**ZeroIndex** · 28th May 2006, 09:08

you could always chuck on plastic primer, paint it the desired color, and then ALWAYS REMEMBER, about 3-4 coats of clear-cote

**crazyxr250rider** · 28th May 2006, 09:32

Its for a mx bike so when the plastic flexes the paint will stretch giving it a lovely wrinkled old lady look.
Painting plastics is pointless

**ZeroIndex** · 28th May 2006, 09:33

Originally Posted by crazyxr250rider

Its for a mx bike so when the plastic flexes the pait will stretch giving it a lovely wrinkled old lady look.
Painting plastics is pointless

ahhhh.... ok..

**Brian d marge** · 28th May 2006, 12:43

up been there tried that, Paint can be done , in fact the fork shrouds on my 250 are painted , as was the old fender and its lasted ok , but Rad shouds flex a bit ...

I would ideally like to replace the color of the plastic ..in a perfect world chuck it in a big pot add dye and bingo perfectly new looking plastic!!

but I dont know anything about the stuff.. That vynal spray looks interesting but its vynal spray ...not sure what this plastic is

happy days

Stephen

I have bought new plastic , it just seems a shame to throw this stuff out when all that has happened is it has faded

**R1madness** · 28th May 2006, 15:33

Try heating it with a hot air piant stripper. It softens the plastic and lets it reobsorbe the waxes that leach out of the plastic (the major cause of fade or discolour). Keep the stripper gun moving and watch closely for the colour to begin to change. Its only a few seconds from colour change to melted and bubbled plastic. The girlfriends hair drier works just as well but it takes longer. Less chance of melting stuff tho.
Regards
Ian

**crazyxr250rider** · 29th May 2006, 08:06

Hey B.D. how about some pictures of your 125 Pretty sure you said you have one.

**Brian d marge** · 29th May 2006, 16:44

here you go .... not much to look at, at the moment ....will be finished this week ...

Stephen

and that the resident mechanic ...with the allen key in the mainshaft

**grantman** · 1st June 2006, 20:55

your Cr must be about the 92 model
this colour was named Nuclear Red

(my brother had one and would get very angry when I called it pink!)

I cleaned up the plastics on my XR250 by using a Jiff type cleaning and buffing up the plastics......looks like new

you could try a buffing compound
But it sounds like you have new plastics

cheers
Grantman

**crazyxr250rider** · 18th June 2006, 09:29

Originally Posted by Brian d'marge

here you go .... not much to look at, at the moment ....will be finished this week ...

Stephen

and that the resident mechanic ...with the allen key in the mainshaft

Nice clean frame how long did that take? My frame could do with a "Touch up"
around the engine rails you get the odd chip here and there where I ride......

**Brian d marge** · 18th June 2006, 12:51

Well USUALLY I leave the factory paint on then Just paint over, as the factory paint is a good base .

This time I used a wire brush ...( Not just any wire brush , I have this Dremel thats been smoking P ...The health and safety would have kittens if they saw it ,,,but it can strip a frame to bare metal in 1 hour ..it usally take 2 hours , cos if I use the big wire brush it over heats ,,needs water cooling !!!)

Then I Just spray it up using celulose ..

I ususally do it Once or twice a year, touching up frame rails when motor is out

here is a photo of a 125 ( 91) I have , same thing with this one , back to bare metal

Stephen