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Anyone dyed their polymer gun?

Peglegjoe

Peglegjoe

Professional
Founding Member
So, I pick up my FDE Hellcat on Saturday (waiting period). I'll need to see it against my body and clothing, but at the moment...I'm just not sure about the FDE coloring, and concealability. But given the current climate and market...it was there, so I bought it.

I'm considering dying it either a darker shade like brown leather or even bakelite-brown (making kind of a 2-tone brown combo, since you can't just dye the metal slide), or potentially taking it closer to black and having the slide re-coated. Reading up, it looks like Rit color dye can be effectively used on polymers - has anyone here done that?

Most of my clothing is black-based (I work in an auto shop, grease and oils are everywhere) and dark (again, to hide any spots or stains). The FDE would be great in warm weather, under a shirt and against skin in a horsehide or tan leather IWB...but wintertime, against black clothing, I'm afraid it would scream "look at me!" if it even peeked through a gap in clothing. It's not a legal issue here in Maryland - we don't differentiate between concealed or open carry; if you have a Wear & Carry permit, you can do either. I prefer concealed for obvious reasons, though.

My XDs (gen 1) is gray, so I'm not used to carrying all-black anyway, but (and again, I need to have it in-hand for a while to get used to the shade of tan) it is a pretty dark gray and has a black slide so I think it conceals better than the tan potentially will.

We'll see.
 
I think it could be done with synthetic clothing dye.



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The question is, can you tie dye it? Or stipple it with a scale pattern and lightly sand it so the tan peeks through on the edges.
 
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Cerakote for the metal, sure. "Coat".

Dye soaks IN to the polymer, doesn't sit on top like a coating. Coatings don't really bond to polymer or plastics, since they're flexible - coatings have to have the exact same flexibility or it will pop off / flake off.

Rit was what I'd been seeing for a dye to be used. Easy to get, plenty of color choices. I've used it before for scenery and clothing, it's good stuff and easy to work with. Just wondering if anyone here had done their gun with it before.
 
I did so, two possibilities for introducing colorant exist: by dyeing the polymer material in mass or by adding a concentrate, which includes the polymer, colorant and special additives. Both methods have both pros and cons. I tried discoloration with this bleach, and it worked. Any discoloration of organic matter actually depends not only on the temperature, but also on the time of the test. It took me about 10 minutes. In fact, you can use a higher heating temperature than indicated on the certificates, it doesn`t damage polymer at all, of course if you raise the temperature within reasonable limits.
 
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I had bought some white 30rd magpul mags for $5. Hated the white but price was right. LGS who sold them told me to use RIT dye and dye them any color I wanted. They were dyed black, it worked and has not faded or wore off from use.
It worked on the mags.
 
Peglegjoe said:
If my shorts are showing, there's other issues happening....! o_O
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Concealed means concealed....that said I wouldn't worry about. The vast majority of the public is too concerned about themselves and likely would hardly notice if your piece showed a bit due to a shirt riding up or something.
 
I've done Rit dye jobs on polymer gun stocks with only moderate success, as some polymers just don't take dye well. If it were me, I'd just cerakote it and call it a day.
 
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