Go easy on me fellas! I know this sounds extremely stupid to some people.. but I was wondering if rubber can be dyed? Rubber as in, Ame Tri-Grips rubber? A white pair for example. I'm going to look into it further but I figure it'd be a great way to color match an oldschool ride with a color that's either not common or wasn't produced. Does this sound even remotely possible?! I'll breathe now if you don't mind..

I tried dying red A'me tri's w/ black RIT dye and it did NOT work.

Funny John, I picked up two packs of black dye yesterday at Wal-Mart. I had thrown some yellow Hunt Wilde grips in the dye tank (cold) over a couple months seemed to work, didn't check if it would come off on your hand. Cornfed did you ever try some tuff wheels?

No, I think Randy did some Tuffs.

The dye came off on my hands. I boiled the grips at a pretty high temp and it still didn't take. I wanted Oakley's anyway

Why aren't you at Elkhorn today?

i've had a set of white tuff 2's soaking in red procian dye(the stuff for tye dying t shirts)for about 3 weeks now they are dark pink now and coming along very nicly...rubber should absorb the dye but dying any semi-pourous takes time...try the mushroom grips they take dye very well and it stays put...

ok i used to make tye-dye's for a living and left some info out...everything i dye no matter what it is,is cleaned first,bike parts like the grips i clean with rubbing alcohol.the tuff's were very mildly beadblasted....ok heres the key you should boil water then add about a cup of ''SODA ASH'' to the water....1 cup for every gallon of water...soak what ever it is your dying in this solution for 24 hours for pourus items,like clothing or pads...other stuff let it soak for at least a week...what this does is it acts as a sealer/primer so the dye has somthing to adhere to...after its soak in that solution let it air dry,than you can dye away...i hope this helps....tye-dye rules....grateful dead forever...

If the plastic is Nylon, like tuff wheels or a Kashimax seat or something, boil them in RIT dye. The plastic can handle the heat and it seems to allow the plastic to absorb the dye faster.

True, I dyed a Tuff wheel, it worked. I did the cooked method. The long soak in cold dye sounds like a better way to go.

I tried some Grab-On MX3 grips and they took the color but the heat shrunk them They will not fit on my bars now.

my dad just told me (he's sitting behind me) that he used to be able to find this stuff called STEEL DYE,to dye plastic motor cycle fendors--but the stuff only came in basic colors like red,black,blue and that it's like a stain?
but where to get it?

Randy, that sux about your grab-ons. Do you know what kind of plastic they are made from?

Randy, Those Grab On MX3s stink to put on anyway. Try puting them in the Mcrowave on high for 10 seconds right before installing.

Dying tuffs? This sounds awesome. I don't have anything remotely "big" to boil them in though (The Rit website says you should boil them over letting them sit, but I'd want to do both on two different projects) so do I buy a big pan or something and put them on my stove? This is kind of confusing. I'd never want to try painting them though, because it'd look like a ghetto school project gone wrong. =(

I remember hearing about a person on the internet who dyed plastic dashboard pieces or something.. but he dyed clear parts.. a tuff wheel always sounded impossible to me but if it actually worked it'd save me a lot of money. Like those impossible light blue tuffs!

So what list of products should I buy to start something like this? And Randy; do you have any pictures of the Tuff Wheel you dyed? What color did you dye it? Maybe you'd let me comission you to do a set for me..

Chris, say I already have a pink set of mags.. can the dye, say a "hot pink" dye make them become pinker over time letting them sit in the stuff? Just wanted to see whether white Tuffs are the only one's that can be dyed. The Skyway mags are kind of a pale pink color and I wanted to give them a richer look to match some stuff I had. But I don't want to waste a NOS set of these unless you guys are positive this works?

The trick and I stress trick is timing. You could put your faded pink tuff in some pink or even red dye and it will get darker and darker the longer it stays under.

You have to go darker too, you can't turn black into white unless you live in Neverland

I'm a chef, I have huge pots, some large enough to cook a goat I would guess you don't have any this size. I suggest going to wally world and picking up a 10 dollar trash can or rubbermaid tub. Do the cold/slow method. Mix your dye, throw the tuffs in, wait and watch. Pull them once you have the color/shade you want.

My OE Tuff was white. I used navy blue dye and over did it. It is now Donny Osmond Purple

Thanks for the info Randy! Yeah, this really bums me out because I just have a conventional stove with a couple of burners, probably couldn't do this even if I wanted to. I'm kind of worried about the cold dying method because Rit makes it sound like you'll never get the desired color, but in Chris' case he already has a white Tuff on it's way to turning red. What I really wanted to do is turn a white set baby/light/sky blue, which doesn't seem like that hard of a color since they have an "Evening Blue" dye and Rit recommends only puting in a small amount of it for the desired color (light blue).. Gah.
I guess I can try the other method and see what happens, I just don't really trust myself..LOL. If any of you guys get good at doing this with good results, you'll have to start taking comissions.. this could solve a lot of color matching bike problems.

Soda Ash? I didn't use that? Not sure where or what it is.

Plan on at least an hour or two. Could take several days going the cold route???

Start it early on a day off and watch it all day. Lat us know how it all works out.

I'll definitely let you guys know! Randy, what was the quality of the Tuff you dyed? Did it come out looking like an NOS Tuff or something homemade? I kind of have high hopes for this since I'll be dying the Tuff I have a light blue, like the existing one's (shouldn't take long to achieve that color on a white mag)

How about INK? Well ink, or that India ink, not sure about colors though. Black, Blue, Red, happy soaking

The quality was OK. I neglected to properly clean the wheel before soaking it so areas that where dirty are a bit lighter. The soda ash might have helped if I had some.

It was a total experiment. To my knowledge nobody had tried a Tuff Wheel at the time. I am sure it would much better if I really put forth the effort.

I used 3 packs of navy blue dye and 12 gallons of water.

hi ,guys...soda ash can be bought at any crafts store...as long as they have those cheap tye-dye kits, they have 1 lb. bags of soda ash trust me..i might be up for doing some stuff but we just bought a house and i'm working my tail off (looptail that is)hahahaha..drop me a line and we can talk turkey....turn around time will be slow....