Can I dye a canvas convertible roof on a Mustang? Do you know if that is possible?

Name: Karen

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Forever Black Black-Top Dye for Vinyl Convertible Tops

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Vinyl "dye" is not dye at all, but instead a paint made by suspending insoluble pigments in a mixture of petroleum-based solvents such as toluene and butane.

Country or region: New Hampshire, USA

Message: Can I dye a canvas convertible roof? My husband has a mustang with a beige/tan roof and he would like to dye it black. Do you know if that is possible?

Probably not. Any convertible roof must be coated with some sort of durable water repellent finish, to keep it from getting soggy every time there's a little rain. Durable water repellent finishes can never be removed thoroughly enough to allow for good dyeing. The water repellent finish will repel not only water, but also both dye and paint. A true dye will just sit on the surface, unable to fully contact the fibers of the fabric underneath. No real dye that you apply will last long. Even paint will fail to penetrate fully, and will tend to wear off relatively quickly.

Furthermore, there's the question of what fiber the canvas is made of, since the type of dye used must always be matched to the specific fiber. It's certainly not the cotton canvas some of your clothes may be made of. Cotton is extremely easy to dye, because there are excellent fiber reactive dyes available that will form a permanent chemical bond to cotton at room temperature; no heating is necessary. Unfortunately, a water-absorbing fiber like cotton is not the best material to make a car roof out of. In contrast to cotton, synthetic fibers such as polyester can be dyed only in the presence of high heat, meaning you have to boil them with the dye: clearly an impractical proposition for a car roof, since you can't possibly own a cooking pot large enough to hold it. Your convertible roof might be made of polypropylene canvas, which is impossible to dye at all, after manufacture has been completed. Polypropylene is dyed by adding pigments to the liquid the plastic is made from, before the fiber is even made.

There is a product which is called "Convertible Top Dye" which might work for you. Ironically, it is not a dye at all, in spite of the name the manufacturer has given it. It is a type of paint, designed for use on vinyl plastic, which contains insoluble pigment particles suspended in petroleum-based solvents. It is not permanent, in spite of the brand name that implies it will last forever. This product is claimed to work for up to one year, but must be reapplied whenever it cracks or fades; it will probably stay dark for less than one year, so be prepared for many reapplications. Putting the top up and down will cause stress to the paint job, encouraging the paint to show creases or to flake off. The manufacturer likes to call this product "dye" because it implies a product that will not flake off, but, since the product is truly not a dye at all, only paint, it will indeed show wear.

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Posted: Wednesday - April 25, 2012 at 08:31 AM

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Can I dye a canvas convertible roof on a Mustang? Do you know if that is possible?

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