Hey everyone. I read this whole thread through and from the sounds of it, it looks like I should go with PlastiKote. Luckily I do have a CarQuest store near me. I have a question about scratches. I have some minor scratches that don’t seem that bad but you can feel it if you rub your fingers through the area. Can/should I sand my case to clear up those scratches and then use the dye or should I just suck it up and use the dye without fixing the scratches? I would prefer to fix the scratches and have my case smooth. Please let me know. Thanks
Eh, if it’s glossy then it would be a paint not a dye. Don’t buy it. A dye will not add a gloss or a matte look, it should look exactly like the plastic as it is except the color you want it to be. So if you have matte plastic, the dye shouldn’t change that, and if it is glossy, the dye shouldn’t change that either. Dyes are micro pigments that get into the plastic to change the color.
I could be wrong, but I never heard of it changing the luster of the plastic unless it was a paint. Double check that can before you buy and apply to your stick!
Dye it first, if it is a true vinyl dye then you can color it and fix up the scratches afterwards. Sand it with 600 grit to smooth it out, then hit it up with a 1000 then a 2000. After that, use a rubbing compound. Should smooth the plastic up. Shouldn’t be a problem since a dye colors the plastic to it’s core so sanding a bit here and there won’t kill the color.
Plastikote is a true vinyl dye. It does add a very very tiny layer of thickness, I don’t know if that would fill scratches though.
Thanks for the responses. I think i’ll just dye it first and see how it goes. If I am really bothered by it i’ll fix it after.
Sorry for posting back to back. I just want to make sure I get the correct product.
It’s this one right?
Yeah, that’s the product you want.
Do a search of your zipcode to find a place that carries the PlastiKote before you waste time and gas.
Call the stores that show “in stock” first to be sure that they actually have PlastiKote!
I’m going to try and get some PlastiKote in the future, too.
Definitely stay away from Rustoleum and Krylon. They’re just too inconsistent and awful to deal with.
Dupli-Color’s okay but the problem is that it’s harder to find now. Several chains of auto parts stores have stopped carrying it.
If I just want to dye my TE bezel, it’s red and I want it black, do I have to worry about sanding or anything or can I just look for the Plastikote stuff and throw it straight on there?
How did you get the case by itself?
Had a recent close-call with Dupli-Color and Rustoleum spray gloss on an Agetec case.
The Dupli-Color I got was red because I figured for what I want to do next it will really, really stand out well. (Turns out I was right – it’s one of the better paint job successes I’ve had!)
Anyhow, I had some problems spotting some areas because there are usually some stubborn areas that have a hint of light grey/off-white on these cases. I like to keep the VMU internal case to glue on to the case exterior as an ornament/frill. Painted that and of course had some white areas on that, too, that needed to be spotted…
… BIG mistake! Should have waited a day because earlier I had sprayed Rustoleum on top of the Dupli-Color. The combination of the chemicals partially melted a small bit of the top of the VMU. Not a huge deal; I peeled off some paint, sanded a bit in the melt area, and expoxy-glued on some scrap (PVC?) plastic on top of the melt area. It’s going to be in the back of the Agetec case and won’t be seen really. Thankfully, the main Agetec case didn’t experience melting like that!
Lesson of the Day for me – You CAN spray on coats of Adhesion Promoter and Vinyl/Fabric Dye (both Dupli-Color products) in the same day but DO NOT spray on gloss coat that same day! Wait a day for the paint job to dry out completely… two days would be even better.
The Gloss is STILL safe to use just NOT when the Dupli-Color is still drying. I used on a Mad Catz TE case I sprayed semi-gloss white last year (also Dupli-Color white) and it turned out nicely with the gloss/shine that I wanted. Before, the case was just so dull and lifeless with no sheen.
The red color as it turned out had a decent semi-gloss. Not sure of the value of using Gloss with this but the adhesion promoter definitely did its job well! Excepting some original off-white patches, you can hardly tell the case wasn’t red to begin with.
Look, I can’t find Plasti-Kote to save my life in the area and Dupli-Color just got restocked at Advance Auto Parts (except the white vinyl/fabric color!!!) so I’m sticking to what’s worked best for me so far. If I save enough case, I might try Plasti-Kote for some button mods. I see the point about layering of the “spray coating” as opposed to the “dye” paint. Those were definitely some layers I peeled off the VMU before I finished its paint job. Just a bit nerve-wracking. I thought I might have to throw away a piece I wanted to use!
Hey guys i have a question, i just read the whole thread and got some nice info on what to use to paint my stick. Question here is i painted my bezel a few months ago with some krylon spray paint. I should’ve read this thread before doing that because the crap is chipping. After reading the thread now i know that my best options were the vht and plasti kote vinyl dye. Unfortunaly i couldn’t find those here in my little town so i had to go with the next best thing the duplicolor vinyl and fabric dye, my issue here is that after i applyd the dye the surface came out rough and grainy. Was this due to me applying many coats of dye or the fact that i had already painted it with krylon? If i sand it down gently with some 2000 grit paper might that make it smooth? Any responses would be greatly appreciated!
Sorry to inform you but the Dupli-color stuff is not dye its also a paint and will chip as well sorry. Does your town have a car quest? they carry plasti-kote
I live in a small town all we have is o’reillys, auto zone,and advance auto parts no car quest sadly. Their sites all showed they carried vht dye i heard that was a good one but when i got to the stores all the had was the heat resistent one so i settled for the duplicolor. it’s a shame the duplicolor is just another paint looks like ill be ordering online, Wish i still lived in the dfw area 
there was a caequest over there.
well I have used all of them and VHT is hands down the easiest and best and is the most true dye of all of them you can order them on amazon and as long as you spend $25 you get free shipping just make sure its not 3rd party then you have to pay
Ok thanks for the info tomorrow im going to hit up o’reilly the site says the carry vht i forgot i didnt go there. If by chance they have it is it ok for me to apply over the duplicolor? will it still soak to the plastic since now its been covered in so much crap?
dont try to dye over the painted plastic
pick up some break fluid while your there and let the case soak in it
it wont damage the plastic and will remove the paint with ease it does stink though
I dont think o’reillys carrys the vht I check my local one and they don’t
All righty mate thanks i appreciate the responses i will do that. If i dont find the vht ill remove the paint first and order some vht of amazon like suggested! If you hadnt told me about using break fluid i was going to use some of my dad’s paint stripper thanks once again.
Yeah trying to dye over a paint job would have been a really, really bad idea even if you sanded the surface “clean.” Paint gets deep into that stuff, especially Krylon Fusion, I had to sand that paint off my SE case and even when I got most of it off I could still see speckles all over the case. Didn’t matter because I was respraying the paint on it, so I didn’t need it to be free of paint before I applied the new coat. Paint stripper also contains acetone I think, which would melt your case if you soaked it to remove the paint. I’m also glad Rosser made a not about the break fluid because I never knew about that myself.
Just out of curiosity, did you ever clear coat your Fusion paint? If you didn’t, that’s probably why you had such a bad time with it. I know the paint can says you don’t need to do anything but paint, but that is for stuff that doesn’t get handled. If you handle it a lot, you’d need to clear coat it, and that goes for any paint you decide to use on any type of control panel wood or plastic.
Good luck on the dye job!
If I want to spray paint the metal part of my SE, should I clear coat it afterwards?
Also, since I’m not putting artwork over it, the screw heads are visible. Would it be effective to spray those as well, or would the paint just chip off when I try to screw them back in?
yeah you should clear coat unless you are able to powder coat then that a better option if your worried about chipping paint off screws apply tape (masking tape) to screwdriver head to keep from having metal on paint contact less likely to chip
also if you can replace them with flat or hex head screws easier to paint and looks cleaner
I’m in the UK and interested in doing some dyeing possibly. Anyone else in the UK got something akin to the VHT vinyl dye or Plastikote vinyl paint to recommend? I went to a car shop today and asked if they had vinyl dye and the guy said yes, but only in black, then when I was talking to him he said that if it’s in a “high use” area, it might rub off, and I explained that what I am after is something that sinks in, etc. etc.
I found this website http://vinyldye.co.uk/ but they sell brands like Brillo, Image and Magix/Grison. Has anyone used these brands and are they any good?
Now for another question, how much vinyl dye does it take to do the different parts of a stick, ie., 100ml for a set of 8 buttons, 400ml for TE wings, etc.? I’m thinking that it could easily get quite costly buying from that site depending on what I want to dye and how many colours I decide to use.