Dyeing for new boots

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GinMonster · #1 Post by **GinMonster** » Sun Apr 14, 2013 6:56 pm

I have a perfectly serviceable pair of HG boots in blue/black, but due to a change of steed, I would prefer them to be just black. Are there products available for home dyeing, or are there companies that do them? I'll be blowed if I'm gonna toss out my old faithfuls.

randomsquid · #2 Post by **randomsquid** » Sun Apr 14, 2013 9:40 pm

Hiya

I got rid of the white bits on some old off road boots with tyre black and marker pen. Not the prettiest result but better than white.

GinMonster · #3 Post by **GinMonster** » Sun Apr 14, 2013 9:56 pm

I thought about black shoe polish, but I didn't want to screw too much with them.

MartDude · #4 Post by **MartDude** » Sun Apr 14, 2013 10:09 pm

Gill tells me you can get shoe dyes, & she's used them in the past.

BikerGran · #5 Post by **BikerGran** » Sun Apr 14, 2013 10:56 pm

I've used shoe dyes but they're not 100% reliable in the wet.

HowardQ · #6 Post by **HowardQ** » Mon Apr 15, 2013 5:35 pm

You can buy leather paint on eBay, that works well.

I bought some of this stuff a while ago -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USA-Angelus-L ... 3a74017a45

D-Rider · #7 Post by **D-Rider** » Mon Apr 15, 2013 7:17 pm

Many years ago my dad had a contract with a well known shoe dye company to fix the shoes that people had tried to dye but had poor results and had complained that the dye was no good. Actually dye is a bit of a misnomer except for suede - leather shoes are actually painted.
I used to help in this family sideline so do have a good deal of experience.

The key to making it work well is good preparation - and most were sorted by just doing the job properly that the customers had failed to do in the first place.
Some were a bigger problem (especially high gloss patent leather) - so a few of these required stronger solvents for preparation (this was back in the 1970s so I'm not sure you could use all of the solvents now - not that I can remember what we did use)

Some problem shoes we had to break out the special shoe paints .... the product of a rival brand ....

Most shoes could be painted reliably - and bear in mind we only dealt with the problem ones that had gone through the customer complaints process.

That said, I'd have grave doubts at the wisdom of painting bike boots that will suffer a lot of abrasion - particularly in the gear-change area. Guess you might get away with it in other areas.

OK so products might have improved a bit in the 30 years since I last did this stuff but I'm sure it is still true that the key to things working is good preparation before you start painting.