# Dyeing ACU gear.....ideas needed



## Kraut783 (Apr 25, 2017)

So....I got this great low profile TAG chest rig...love it, unfortunately it's in ACU.  Of course, they do not make this model any more, I would like to blacken / darken it for use at work. 

Any ideas? anyone do this with success.....dyeing, spray painting...??


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## Diamondback 2/2 (Apr 25, 2017)

I've done Ritts liquid black dye on acu's and turned them into a gray/black configuration.  But I don't have any experience with nylon gear. I imagine you would need something more aggressive to penetrate the nylon fibers. I have spray painted a lot of gear. It will cracking over time, and stinks like spray paint. For field gear it's not bad, breaking up outline, but you will smell like a paint can.

Some form of an aggressive staining would be my guess. I've got some old acu gear I'll mess around with and see, let you know here in a couple of days...


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## TLDR20 (Apr 25, 2017)

Lots and lots of McKall red clay and a little bit of black mud does wonders on the color of ACU's...


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## Kraut783 (Apr 25, 2017)

Diamondback 2/2 said:


> Some form of an aggressive staining would be my guess. I've got some old acu gear I'll mess around with and see, let you know here in a couple of days...



Thanks DB, let me know....I will be playing around with some old gear too.  The whole smelling like a paint can would suck.


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## Ranger Psych (Apr 26, 2017)

coffee.


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## digrar (Apr 26, 2017)

We used to take a piece of cam to the hardware store and get the paint department to colour match up some paint test pots. Then just dab it on.


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## DocIllinois (Apr 26, 2017)

I used a mix of green and tan RIT dye to color a couple sets for a JRTC OPFOR rotation at Polk.

It turned out a kind of nice mixmash olive drab.  The funk from two solid weeks in a defensive position in the summer gave them a permanent  putrid color _toucher._


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## Devildoc (Apr 26, 2017)

DocIllinois said:


> I used a mix of green and tan RIT dye to color a couple sets for a JRTC OPFOR rotation at Polk.
> 
> It turned out a kind of nice mixmash olive drab.  The funk from two solid weeks in a defensive position in the summer gave them a permanent  putrid color _toucher._



Yeah, RIT.

That smell, that smell of sweat, BO, and funk married to nylon and canvas, it's permanently imprinted in my brain


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