Coloring the Stock Black

The original stock on an SL8 is a nice "slate grey" - hrm... S-L-8... "slate"  :)

ANYWAY... the good 'ol RIT Dye job was a requisite.  I built the magazine well filler with Marine-Tex epoxy and so I was doubly curious as to how the epoxy would take the dye.

I had to do the dye work twice - as you may already know, the "voodoo" is to immerse in a tub with three liquid black and one liquid green.  The green will offset the purple tint that will develop if only black is used.  Technically, yellow will offset purple, but the yellow contained in the green still works.  You don't need much!

The first time around, I couldn't find anything but liquid black.  The whole town was sold out of liquid yellow and green!  So I figured "what the heck"... let's try liquid black and powdered green.  To be honest, it didn't look too bad, but I had ordered some liquid yellow from www.ritdye.com and had some time to play.

Marine Tex

The Marine-Tex DOES take the dye job - fairly well, I might add.  Apparently, it is pourous enough to pass the hot solution and cause some blistering.  This was after four hours in steamy-hot water and dye.  This is after the black-and powdered green bath:

Here is my "heater method" - I tied a rope to the handles on the pot so that the full pot would not crush the heater's screen and spill.  That would be bad.  That pot was found at Wal-Mart for $20.  It takes about 90 minutes to 2 hours to heat the solution to the point that steam begins  to rise.  I put the heater on the minimum setting.

I filled a 3-liter soda bottle with water to take up the extra space, thus increasing the concentration of the dye solution. 

Finally, I put on the lid and wrapped a shop towel around the edge to contain the steam.  If you don't use a towel, check the water every 20-30 minutes to top it off. 

If the solution is allowed to evaporate, the top of the receiver won't get full saturation with the dye.  You'll have a stripe.  That part is covered by the handguard so arguably it wouldn't matter...

Results with the Plastic Pieces.

Phase 1: Liquid Black & Powdered Green

and in daylight...         

As previously stated, not bad!  However the yellow dye had arrived and so I followed-through by adding one liquid yellow to the mix:

Phase 2: Liquid Black & Liquid Yellow

NOTE:  The yellow looks like orange juice when it pours out so don't be alarmed! 

The yellow does indeed "cancel out" the purple, just like the good 'ol color wheel said it does!  :)  Daylight pics are forthcoming...