Removing Vinyl Dye

[Thomas]

I have a black 69 Camaro headrest, which someone has dyed white.
The white dye is already flaking in some places.
Is there a chemical, which I can use to remove the dye.
The headrest does not have to be perfect as it is for my Stock Eliminator and I am missing the passenger headrest, which is required, as per the rules.

Thank you in advance.

[olredalert]

----I'm not sure there's anything that wont attack the vinyl as well. Maybe someone else has the answer?.......Bill S

[big gear head]

I'd like to know as well. I have a blue '67 Chevelle bench seat with head rests that someone died black. I'd like to remove the dye.

[fsc66]

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...dye-seats.html

Paul

[Thomas]

I have tried paint thinner and it has made a dent in the dye, but...
It will be a long and labourious process to get it back to black.

As this is for my racecar, I may leave it as is. It will add some "patina" to what is a very clean car. I only need the headrest so that I am "legal".
I can always swap it out, once I find a clean black one.

[big gear head]

Or you could die it black.

[Bob_D]

I had a 68 Corvette interior that had two separate coatings of vinyl dye over the original Dark Orange interior. You could clearly see the build-up. I used a water soluble paint stripper and it worked very well. Followed up by I think mineral spirits. Forgive the lack of detail, this was over 20 years ago. After stripping all the vinyl pieces I re-dyed them to the correct color. The original surfaces were fine, but very faded so they needed re-dye. When done the car was a Triple Crown Award winner.

[Starship]

I've removed black dye from an entire 1968 Nova interior (except headliner) with thinner and tooth brushes. Very labor intensive but worth it when the beautiful original Ivy Gold was revealed. Even did the metal dash and plastic on the column with no harm at all. Headliner was too porous for the process to work.

[firstgenaddict]

I used goof off to remove black vinyl dye from Neutral - (off white) colored door panels, It took nearly half a gallon to do 2 door panels... I used a 2" wide chip brush and a dish, brushed it on and used an old hand towel to wipe off, (paper towels do not have enough tooth) kept going until I made a dent and then used a tooth brush to get into the detail areas.
I bent the tooth brush to a 75-80 deg angle right at the neck then take a pair of sharp snips and take a few light snips out of the bristle face - (makes them uneven so the longer ones work into the recesses and the shorter ones stay on the upper surfaces) and then work slowly clock wise and then counter clock wise with enough pressure that the bristle tips do not roll over-