C3 Shark Tank

The other day I was helping a buddy change the color of his 66 Dodge interior to black, it's currently a hideous red color. After tearing out all the inside body panels, seats, trim and other fun stuff we drove up to the local supermarket and bought a box of RIT dye for $2.50. Now keep in mind the seatbelts were originals from 66 and had never been out of the car. To clean them I boiled a big pot of water and had pre-soaked the belts with a cleaner, once the water was ready I put the belts into a plastic bucket then poured the boiling water on them.

After they sat for about 30 minutes I took them out and we boiled an even bigger pot of water, once the water was boiling we added the dye powder and stirred it for 5 minutes. Once that was ready I dropped all the seatbelts into the pot of boiling dye and let them boil for 30 minutes, stirring with a wooden stick every 10 minutes or so.

Believe it or not the seatbelts look brand new! I was amazed at how they came out, they look so good. All the chrome on them was not affected as they dye is for material, the pot didn't turn out bad either but will need a little scrubbing. The whole job was really easy and didn't make a mess at all...what little mess there was wiped off the stove with a sponge.

The only drawback is that if you have white tags sewn to the belts they will get dyed black, although you could cut the stitching off and re-sew then on later. I wouldn't hesitate to do this to my Corvette belts now that I have seen the results. I can't help with other colors but people with black belts are in luck.

paintdaddy

Thanks for the tip :thumbs:

mapman

C3 Shark Tank,

You can also use RIT dye to make your (milky white) nylon tie wraps what ever color you like. Same technique.

Sting Raycin

what exactly was the dye that you got? I have been wanting to change my dingy looking oyster belts to black.

Monkeywrench

Scott in the kitchen? :eek: You gettin' all domestic on me now? :lol:

I'll have to give it a shot...let's see I jut added it to the "to do list". Yep there it is... # 1235.... :(

john's '81 mouse

I strongly recommend that anyone thinking of dying their seat belts, check further to make sure that subjecting them to the boiling water treatment does not weaken the material / fabric / stitching in anyway............I could be wrong on this, but for some reason I vagely remember reading some artical about seat belts that advised against dying them for safety / reliability reasons.............Just wouldn't want to read about someone coming to a fatal ending because their seat belt failed and reason was that the owner wanted to change the color of the seat belt.

lbell101

I dyed some cloth seats in a camaro with RIT black once. They looked like new. Just don't let your seat get wet again and then sit on it. It will turn your azz black.

Larry

Smokehouse69

Seat belts are made out of nylon, nylon is a plastic and you really shouldn't boil nylon material. There are cold water dyes that are just as effective as boiling. A good cleaning with a mild detergent solution and a good rinse in warm water is enough to get rid of most stains. If more cleaning is needed use a cleaner designed for nylon carpet and upolstery and rinse again.
An equally effective way of coloring seatbelts is to mix a concentrated dye solution of isopropyl alcohol (90% alcohol) and the dye. The paint the belts with this solution, using rubber gloves and a sponge. Save the unused dye solution in a sealed container. After the dye solution dries, soak the belts in a warm soapy water solution for an hour or so. Then rinse in plain water several times, allow them to dry.
You can put the belts in an old pillow case and wash them in a washing machine (use a public washer if you can, you don't want all that dye in your washer :D )
Test to see if you can wipe any of the color off with a wet white paper towel. If color rubs off, then wash them again.
If after you are through and you aren't satisfied with the coverage, do it all over again (usually not necessary.)
I've used this method on carpet and upholstery, and it works pretty darned good.

C3 Shark Tank

jdharkey- it was RIT dye, found it in the laundry soap area of the store.

Sean- Me domestic? No not really, we were doing car parts not toll house cookies :lol:

john's '81 mouse/Smokehouse69- good point, didn't really think about that. But the car is a 66 with lap belts only and is the size of an aircraft carrier so if he gets in an accident chances are he won't know it until he gets home :D

Monkeywrench

If you can find the cold water dye that would be my first choice but Nylon's melting temperature if 450F and it's deflection temperature at 320psi is 300F. Since the water isn't boiling when you put the belts in (just really hot) it will be well beneath both of these so I don't think you are going to see any physcial deformation of the plastic.

My two cents...


[Modified by Monkeywrench, 4:48 PM 12/17/2002]