Dye job for gray belt covers

[Mudflaps]

Insane. Ill be doing this. Nice write up.

[muskrat]

nicely done.  I'm going to give that a shot on the wife's bike 

[greenohawk69]

Very nice, and thanks for the write-up. 

Cool guns. 

[Monsterlover]

+11tyb to everything mentioned above.

I always thought RIT dye was for clothing and tie-dying hippies

[ducatiz]

I always thought RIT dye was for clothing and tie-dying hippies

i've never tie-dyed a hippy, but that sounds fun as long as you wash them first

[Monsterlover]

[Doctor Woodrow]

How hard is it to degrease the belt covers, especially if they are really dirty and permeated w/ grease. Is it more about making sure the grease near the surface (where the dye will penetrate) is gone, or getting them reslly purged of all grease whatsoever. My covers are off right now for my oil/filter/belt change /valve service, so soing this right now would be perfect, and I have the dark monster and this would look great.

The Doc

[csorin]

How hard is it to degrease the belt covers, especially if they are really dirty and permeated w/ grease. Is it more about making sure the grease near the surface (where the dye will penetrate) is gone, or getting them reslly purged of all grease whatsoever. My covers are off right now for my oil/filter/belt change /valve service, so soing this right now would be perfect, and I have the dark monster and this would look great.

The Doc

I first wiped mine down thoroughly with WD-40 brake cleaner.  This cleaned 95% of the dirt/grease off.  Just keep wiping them down until you aren't moving around dark streaks.  Then went to the sink and used both mechanic's soap and dish soap to finish the job.

[Doctor Woodrow]

I first wiped my down thoroughly with WD-40.  This cleaned 95% of the dirt/grease off.  Just keep wiping them down until you aren't moving around dark streaks.  Then went to the sink and used both mechanic's soap and dish soap to finish the job.

Thanks, I went Degreaser, liquid dish soap, then mechanic's orange pumice hand soap. cleaned 'til they looked practically new, then cleaned a bit more, dried off. Then cleaned a bit more until I realized the streaks I was trying to get off were dark line left by the trellis frame casting a shadow across the covers while the bike sat out in the sun and they faded a bit. So I stopped cleaning. They are now brewing.

I used a combo 5-gallon bucket inside an old garbage can that I had. This way I could lay down a towel in the bottom under the bucket, line around the bucket with towels, and then when the brew was all set to stew for a while, cover the top with more towels, and then pop the lid of the garbage can on top to keep more heat on. This also allowed me to do it inside in the kitchen and not stink up the house, or worry about my two year-old (read 'curious') mess with it and spill scalding water all over himself, or his 5 month old sister. Plus the whole thing will help to keep the heat in; putting it outside wouldn't have worked as it is currently about 25 degrees outside.

The Doc

[forFREEDOM]

Doc! You can never be too clean, bro! You should be good to go on your setup. Can't wait to see how they turn out.

[Heath]

Have any pictures Doc?

forFREEDOM... in your first post you said you could use a cooler.  Like a Coleman or Igloo cooler?

[battlecry]

If you use a cooler, Heath, you may want to use a large plastic trash bag inside. 

[forFREEDOM]

Yeah Heath... An old cooler would be ideal because they keep in the heat really well. And then you can wheel it away and unplug it. If you still want to use it, you can. It'll just be dark grayish/black inside. 

Battlecry...The trash bag liner is a great idea. Maybe line 3 or 4 and then you can just lift it all out and discard it easily.

[Doctor Woodrow]

Okay, here we go, pics as requested:

This is my set-up first (minus the insulating towels which have been removed.



Here you can see the space around the bucket that I filled with "old nasty towels" as my wife calls them, I keep them in my shop for cleaning up spills and other things like this that would get me killed if I used good towels. I used the towels under, around, and on top of the bucket to keep it all warm and toasty. The towels are also good for making a path to the sink so that when you spill it goes in the towels and not your wife's kitchen floor.


I pulled one cover out after about 8 hours, rinsed it off, dried it and found out it was dark grey, so it went back in the bucket with the others for another 8 hours or so. Next time they came out they were nice and dark black, so if you pull yours out and they aren't dark enough, just stick'em back in and let them simmer for a while longer.

Here are mine after about 16-18 hours, cleaned off, dried, and them wiped down with good old WD-40.


Since I was taking pictures my son decided that he needed to have his picture taken too, so here he is.


Let me know if you have any questions. This turned out great!!. I will thry to post up pictures when I get them back on the bike, but that might not be for a while since it is Thanksgiving weekend, and I have to finish the valve service before these go back on too. Thankfully I just put a wall heater i9n my shop, so it will be above freezing when I get out there again.

The Doc

[forFREEDOM]

Happy Thanksgiving, Fellas!

Nice job, Doc! Good setup for doing it in the house. Thanks for posting pics too. Also a good tip regarding putting them back in if not dark enough.

What year and model Monster do you have? I'm wondering if it needed to soak longer because the material is an older, more dense composite. Or maybe the water didn't come to a full boil when you pored it in? Did it still seem pretty hot after 8 hrs? Regardless, the pieces look awesome!

I did mine in my basement. I boiled two deep pots of water at the same time which equaled almost 4 gallons. Immediately, I boiled another pot to finish it off. I too insulated it under the bucket and fully wrapped it. Wish I thought of the garbage can idea too. That would help to contain any minor accidents.