Can these wheels be dyed?

[Saito2]

Some Tamiya wheels (like Top Force wheels) can be dyed. Others (like Wild One wheels) can't. Its all down to their plastic makeup. Does anybody know if these wheels can be dyed?:

20200101_191036 by Scott Weiland, on Flickr

They are from a Desert Gator. They "feel" (to my hands) like they might take dye. Has anybody tried a set of these? Thanks.

[WillyChang]

You want to differentiate between nylon (dyeable) & ABS (won't survive hot water!).

My easiest test is to dip finger in acetone and press against the plastic... if it dries off unscathed it's nylon. ABS will make a nice mold of your fingerprint.

 

The original WildOne wheels (Hotshot era) could be dyed I thought. Then later around time of Super Hornet did they change the white plastic to a brittler material?

[Snappy1]

I

40 minutes ago, WillyChang said:

You want to differentiate between nylon (dyeable) & ABS (won't survive hot water!).

My easiest test is to dip finger in acetone and press against the plastic... if it dries off unscathed it's nylon. ABS will make a nice mold of your fingerprint.

 

The original WildOne wheels (Hotshot era) could be dyed I thought. Then later around time of Super Hornet did they change the white plastic to a brittler material?

Great to know WillyChang, I recently tried to dye all the yellow and blue parts of a Bigwig, the yellow took the colour , the blue did not

[WillyChang]

yeah that blue is probably same as Boomerang blue bits huh? I think boomerangs ignored the dye too

havent tried bigwig bits, maybe the yellow is like CVA shocks material

 

[WillyChang]

Ok new info to hand  well to forgetful me anyway

1. those are called Astral Dish wheels 
2. been dyed successfully 
3. WildOne rear wheels dyed too

[Saito2]

5 hours ago, WillyChang said:

My easiest test is to dip finger in acetone and press against the plastic... if it dries off unscathed it's nylon. ABS will make a nice mold of your fingerprint.

Thank you! Good info there.

 

5 hours ago, WillyChang said:

The original WildOne wheels (Hotshot era) could be dyed I thought. Then later around time of Super Hornet did they change the white plastic to a brittler material?

Interesting. My first exposure to these type wheels were the day-glo variants found on my Super G. They were rock hard ABS. I've never had an original Wild One in my hands. I'm pretty certain the re-re Wild One wheels are ABS now (at least the fronts, afaik).

[Superluminal]

On those desert gator ones is the plastic type embossed on the back? Would be good to know which plastic type is 100% not doable.

I tried to Rit dye a set of FAV wheels from grey to black last year - they just shrugged it off and after about two hours all I had to show for it was a knackered saucepan and an empty sachet of expensisive imported dye. If anything the finished wheels were a brighter shinier grey.

[WillyChang]

5 hours ago, Saito2 said:

Interesting. My first exposure to these type wheels were the day-glo variants found on my Super G. They were rock hard ABS. I've never had an original Wild One in my hands. I'm pretty certain the re-re Wild One wheels are ABS now (at least the fronts, afaik).

Yeah the SuperG had the Orange SuperHornet wheels but in yellow. They're brittle & will fracture in a smash.

Original WildOne, mine is painted silver... which 20yrs later I soaked in acetone to wash off the paint. Paint gone, I repainted silver... all good  

 

Have built rere WildOne, the new wheels still feel waxy like old nylon afaik. Dunno have tested them with acetone, maybe next time I dig it up out of its box. They're new & unstained, no need to paint.

[Saito2]

 

7 hours ago, WillyChang said:

Have built rere WildOne, the new wheels still feel waxy like old nylon afaik. Dunno have tested them with acetone, maybe next time I dig it up out of its box. They're new & unstained, no need to paint.

I stand corrected. I just gave my re-re Wild One wheels a "feel" (boy that sounds weird, lol) and you're right. They do have that waxy nylon feel to them. Interesting Tamiya made the same wheel design in two different types of plastic. I wonder if it originally stemmed from reusing the wheel design on the Fox. The Fox would have required a more rigid plastic for plating purposes I'd guess.

[WillyChang]

42 minutes ago, Saito2 said:

 

I stand corrected. I just gave my re-re Wild One wheels a "feel" (boy that sounds weird, lol) and you're right. They do have that waxy nylon feel to them. Interesting Tamiya made the same wheel design in two different types of plastic. I wonder if it originally stemmed from reusing the wheel design on the Fox. The Fox would have required a more rigid plastic for plating purposes I'd guess.

Nah, Fox & NovaFox are the same white wheel just plated over. They're pretty flexy that's why the plating falls off (same with Supershot). They used to be yellow chrome so caustic oven cleaner will eat it pretty instantly, but the plastic is often stained spotchy grey underneath - needs painting. 

Otoh modern NovaFox might now be metal-spluttered chrome then painted clear yellow on top (just guessing!) as I haven't seen too many flakey cases yet... you? Won't be as fast to dechrome. Built mine but it's been mainly sitting back in its box hasn't run much.

The mold was changed for SuperHornet, at the back there's a ring around the 4 nubs. The ring is too small & won't go over the original WildOne wheel mount; need the slimmer SuperHornet wheel hub. Annoying as BiTD if you bought a WildOne or Fox wheel & tyre SpareParts set you got a pair of hubs too; but the slim hub only came on SH sprue. 

Raced "Hornet Cup" back 15odd yrs ago when SuperHornet was still bring sold. Ran an original Hornet with lexan shell vs everyone else who had SHs with hardbody. Bought orange SH wheels to mount modern rubber (modern-ish... 2" was on its way out) but many of those wheels didn't survive raceday; ended up having to raid the old WildOne fleet for their white wheels. Think I'm down to 1set of Orange SH wheels left.