Refurbishing old plastic

Master Mech asked that I do a thread about dying the plastic on ugly old Stihl clamshells...
So here it goes..
There are a ton of old Stihl 1127 and 1123 series saws out there, and they can be brought back to life usually with salvage parts and elbow grease. 2 years ago, there was a claamshell build off at a GTG, so I decided to try and restore an old 039 for it. It had been hot so many times, the case was burnt brown. Gas tank had a hole punched in it, AV mounts were gone/trashed... The crank bearings came apart in my hand when I tore it down. After scrounging a half dozen misc. parts and a salvaged 029 case, we came to the conclusion there was no way to "NOT" make this thing look like frankenstein. Nothing matched...
Well, you can't paint plastic to any good end, and saws need to be durable... So a buddy of mine mentioned Dying it... So that's what we did...
First we had to scrounge up a metal bucket or drum that could take heat and hold enough liquid to submerge saw parts into.
Then we filled with water and added 3 large bottles of RIT dye.. Black...


All the parts had to be run through the parts washer, then cleaned with hot soapy water, to remove the impregnated oil and grease.


Then the heat was put to the brew, and we submerged the parts and let em' boil for 4-6 hours.
The heat is important...



Then we had to remove and wash all the unused black off with cold water, and let dry.
Then put the emblems back on and see how it's gonna look..


I then went through the motor and made some mods... Nothing too crazy... But after 2 years of abuse, oil slops, gas over fills, and hedge tree goo, It comes back swinging and still cleans up pretty good.

 

It's the original jug, but a Meteor piston and rings.
I used a welded popup on the piston to try to up the comp, but found it helped very little...
Did a little port cleanup...

 

I have tried the orange dye, but it just don't do the trick, unless you have very clean plastic... The browned out areas stay brown...

 

Or...
Maybe black over black....
Meet "The Hammer" A 372xp... A very fast one...
Did this one up for a friend who built saws...

 

That's my son racing his 023 in the 45cc and under.. It was restored black too...

 

Hedge's line of stealth saws - as long as you don't start one up!

 

That 023 of Levi's may as well not even have a muffler on it...
Just a can with 2-1" holes in it... "His design"
Cuts fast for a little clamshell though!!!
Just Ask anyone that has to race in that class!!!

 

I need to find a video of it... It cuts badazz!!!

 

Really nice work Hedgerow, just awesome looking!

 

Is this the one?

 

That looks like one of Hedge's dye jobs.

 

I don't know... I can't watch the vid on my phone... Reception sux here...
But yes, stumpy ported it, he just didn't know he was gonna end up with it...

 

Does pink dye work, Jack want's pink one

 

Here's a pic of Levi's 023 "super"...

 

Hey Hedgerow did you get my message?