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my recent order of mul t lock keys came in green and red, of course i wanted the standard blue interactive keys. multlockonline failed to inform me that they were out of the blue keys, cut them and shipped them to me. i have used this method to dye car parts, rc car parts, pretty much all plastics.
items you need
rit clothing dye - liquid or powder is the same


stove and a pot - items need to fit inside the pot
started with these


metal clothes hangers - used to hang the items in the water above the bottom of the pan


mix the dye and correct amount of water in the pot on med to med high temp. cut the wire hangers down to hang the items from, i taped the keys to them. keep the items from getting too hot, pull them out every couple minutes to check them. the longer you dye them the deeper it will soak in, rc car parts that get grinded on concrete get a longer bath.


finished product

good job bro didnt know that would work!....lol those keys look crazy in the pics......

Sweet little DIY tutorial.. Thanks for the info.

Awesome post, great work.

Pretty cool on dying the bows, but I don't know if it's very helpful if it melts the key blade... (j/k)

Cool idea.

I haven't tried it on Mul-T-Lock key bows specifcally but the paint and dye markers specifically made for taggers and graffitists (I didn't know companies were catering specifically for that market until very recently) will deeply and permanently stain virtually all surfaces including plastic and metal. Markers and "mops" such as the Illadel Buff Resistant Squeeze Mop are designed to be buff resistant i.e. to resist efforts to remove via abrasion and they do this by deeply staining, they penetrate deep into the material. Some will also resist some of the solvents commonly used to remove graffiti and tags. Also, the inks that these mops and markers take are available in bottles to refill the markers. These will not require elevated temperature to take to the material. These are really nasty. I have started using them for layout purposes to mark around a stencil of a pick to leave a "positive" outline of the pick design. If you use templates and spray paint to transfer a pick design these markers are a good alternative if you live in a flat/apartment. They will mark the metal as well as any paint (in some cases even better) and will not fill the room with fumes.

For layout work I use the Molotow 440PP Burner Paint Marker. It is nasty. To colour an item I would use a deeply staining ink mop/marker (eg. Illadel or Krink marker/mop because they are designed to seep into the material) or a bath in Illadel Bombing Ink or Illadel Heavy Pigment.

Is that a Photoshop effect that you used to obscure the bittings? I'm interested to know how that effect was achieved.

The dye i used penetrates the plastic just like some of the inks you mentioned. The dye is easy to handle, use pots you cook with without damaging them. Its a safe and odorless dye that can be bought at grocery stores, walmart etc. The effect is from photobucket editor under distort.

Great tutorial thanks