Re-Dying Seatbelts

[leddzepp]

Originally Posted by HOTFUN

Wow ...great post. I have to say though, with the value and rarity of those red shoulder belts I would have myself experimented with a common lap belt first, just in case something went wrong. It does look like it will work great. Good work.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I DID experiment with a crappy pair FIRST. I did mention that I was going to do so prior to doing it with these seatbelts in an earlier post, but I did not document it with pics. Good call...I definitely would not have done this the first time with shoulder belts!

[leddzepp]

Here is the first of my test belts. It turned out pretty bright...I am going to try and bleach it down a little bit to soften the color. I do like the color...my truck is dark blue, and this blue is VERY dark and actually looks pretty good in my opinion. The belt is very soft and supple, feels and looks new, with NO stiffness. I used the liquid dye, and the stovetop method, per the directions. Bleaching them white prior to dyeing no doubt allowed the full bonding of the color. I have washed them several times by hand in a bucket, using regular laundry detergent, and have NO bleeding out of the color.

[leddzepp]

My next Dye will be a lighter shade called "Evening Blue 27" The darker shade above was "Royal Blue 29" I am seeking to duplicate the factory color of blue, and in the next experiment, I will use less of the Dye concentrate and keep close watch of the shade it takes on.

After that, I have come across some custom color charts that require mixing and blending of different shades of dye, and some of them look EXACTLY like factory colors (not just blue) in just about every shade. I will experiment with those and see what I come up with...

[westbrookw]

Sounds great. Going to try the blue to black.