Dyeing a steering wheel

[Purple73Cuda]

I am helping a friend with his 70 Super Bee. He has green interior and a black steering wheel. He wants the wheel to be green.
Isn't there a company that is usually at the Nats that sells interior paint and dyes in a spray can? What is their name? HGs anyone used their products?
Is dying/painting the steering wheel a bad idea?

[UKcuda]

There's some popular stuff called vinylkote that's supposed to be good but for a steering wheel it would have to be very very good.

I have coloured my seats and door panels with a 2 pack ink used commercially for printing onto plastic products.  It really desn't come off.  They even use it for printing onto machine control knobs so it should be good for a steering wheel.

Its called tampographic ink.  I'm sure you can get it in the states.  It's pricey though and I've only seen it in 1 litre sizes and to mix the right green you might need to buy more than one.

You can buy special thinners and hardener for it but it works fine with ordinary 2 pack paint products.

Here's a link to some

http://www.marabu-inks.com/01_produkte/produktportrait.php?Produktgruppe=Tampondruckfarben&ID=11

[dutch]

that`s some really cool info      thanks

[UKcuda]

It's fantastic on E-body ABS door cards because it seals the surface and helps prevent them going chalky in the sun.  It also bonds up any chalkyness that is already starting. 

It won't work miracles on badly degraded or scratched panels but on anything half way decent the finish comes up really "new" looking. 

I was only going to do my seats as I thought my door cards were pretty good, but after doing the seats with this stuff the "black" door panels looked so drab and grey I did them as well.

It seems to cure really fast on soft vinyl like seats but takes three or four days to bond properly to hard plastics (although it is touch dry in seconds).  After that it's a really tough finish.

You have to play about with how much thinners you use.  If you spray it you get a really high gloss so I have found it's better to put it on with a soft brush and then immediately dab it with a rolled up inky rag which gives a nice even covering that's not too glossy.  On seats it comes out about the same look as the finish you expect to see on a dash pad.

You have to make sure everything is really clean and dry before you start.  Its really a job for a warm day or a dry heated workshop.

I've only used the black but I believe all the colours are very high pigment content so should cover really well.

[dutch]

do you have pics of the results you got?

[UKcuda]

I will have some pictures soon as I will be doing an update of my project progress.

I just got the car on the road and my interior is still scattered all over the house.  Next job is to organise everything and start putting the interior in the car.  Hope to get started on Saturday.

At the moment I'm driving it with just one seat and the dash in it 

[UKcuda]

OK putting some pictures up - don't know how good they will come out.

OK my pictures are way too big

will try again later

[dutch]

www.photobucket.com     

[UKcuda]

I know I know - give me a chance.

[72rtchallenger]

that`s some really cool info      thanks

 

[UKcuda]

Trying again, I've reduced the image sizes.

[PlumCrazyChris]

That looks really great!  Nice job, do you have pics of the door panels and dash too? 

[dutch]

hey UK,  that looks pretty sweet.  still seems a bit glossy to me, but its hard to tell from a picture though...
do you think its too shiny when you`re inside the car?

[UKcuda]

I think it looks OK in the car where there's not so much light, not too glossy, but it probably is a bit more glossy than original on the panels.  The seats are just right though.

I'll photograph the door panels next time I'm in the garage.  I'll try to do a close up.

I haven't done anything to the dash except clean it so nothing special to see there.

It's taking me ages to get the interior back together what with sound proofing, headliner and fitting speakers etc. etc. - it's taking for ever.

[dutch]

      everything on these cars seem to take forever to do....       unless your name is
 chryco psycho.... he looks at the car for 29 yrs, and then slaps it back together in a week and a half....     
thanks for posting the pics