Dye grey rat fur black?
 

I bought some ugly cabs with grey rat fur

Anybody ever tried to dye their rat fur cabs another color? I want to match the black cabs I use for the PA

Recommendations?

I have never tried to dye rat fur but I am pretty sure it would be much easier to recover them with tolex or black carpet.

Don't know how you'd dye the rat fur, but I can tell you that removing the rat fur and replacing it with tolex isn't cheap nor easy. The biggest hassle is getting the old stuff off. I replaced the rat fur with tolex on a Crate combo last year. It turned out nicely, but was a bit more work than I bargained for.

There's threads on applying Tolex to cabs, just search the forum.

:D

My GUESS would be that Krylon Fusion spray paint for plastic. Rat fur is just plastic carpeting anyway.

That stuff really adheres to plastic.

Test first. Of course.

i'm a big fan of line-x. it's def pricey, but it's d**n near indestructable. and i agree that i don't envy you stripping the old stuff off. i think trying dye would be an ugly mess, and the cabs will probably end up blotchy. how much are you trying to spend? there's really not any way to refinish a cabinet on-the-cheap (or easy), unfortunately, unless you are ok with bare wood, painted.

Not sure how well spraying or painting ratfur will be. Massive surface area that will likely go crusty.

Can but try, make use of the underside of the cab!

I think I'd be pretty cautious about dyeing it for fear of the dye rubbing off and staining things later. IMO, of course.

All of the above.

Seems that a lot can go wrong or poorly. Factor in the value of the time you'll spend on any fix and methinks you're better off living with the gray.

If its dirty, powerwash it and thoroughly rinse. If it is shaggy, buy a hair clipper/trimmer and give it a clip. Those little fibers will suspend your coloring agent at the tips and keep the color from getting all the way in to the carpet and it will likely be splotchy and rub off on everything it comes in contact with.

Accept the funk and remember - nobody notices or cares.

Though I haven't tried it myself, I would think that a dye job would be a huge mess.

How about simply dismantling the cabs and adding a layer of black fur over the grey?

Rat fur is a synthetic that has the color chemically bonded into the fiber. It resists being dyed. I've had lettering and logos painted on rat fur covered flight cases. It covers well enough to read but not well enough to change the cabinets color. I've found that the paint comes off with acetone (strong stuff) and a stiff brush but the rat fur stays like new. There was no fading of the color.

I've removed rat fur from cabinets. Sometimes it comes off easily. If it is affixed with something like contact cement, forget about it. You'll need to grind it off. Remove the speaker and hardware then go at it with a belt sander. Just be careful not to change the round over along the edges or the corners will no longer fit.

There are some good tolex tutorials out there like this one. Search on YouTube as well.

you can shave a tennis ball, maybe you can shave a cab?

That was my first thought as well.

As said above, you can't dye it, because it isn't "fabric" in the traditional sense.

Removing rat fur from cabs is a job best left to the professionals:

I dig the Line-X. To cover up something with the surface area of a 4x12 guitar cab it could run about $120-150 (though maybe a better deal could be negotiated).

You stole my thunder! ;)

I've spray painted carpeting for my theater group and it worked fine. Krylon.

Rit die available everywhere will probably do it.
Try a test patch on the bottom.
Follow the directions, it won't rub off.

I pulled the rat fur of off a couple of 210s and then covered them with duratex.

The Duratex was easy..getting the fur off sucked...had to scrape it off

http://store.acrytech.com/Speaker-Cabinet-Coatings/