Dyeing a Propper Flight Suit

So, the time has come to answer the very important question: can you dye a navy Propper flight suit charcoal grey? 

No, you can’t! 

Now that that is out of the way, let's talk about everything I went through with this Propper navy suit, what results I did or didn’t have, and then I’ll share my process and results dyeing a Tru-Spec navy flight suit instead. 

“The Propper must be made of Kevlar or something…” 

I bought this particular suit because, like all the other off-the-rack suits, it was made up of a polyester and cotton blend–65% polyester to be exact. This has caused plenty of trouble with dye consistency and stripping, but has never been bulletproof in my experience. Well, I am here to tell you, this one might be. In recent years, Rit has also introduced charcoal grey dye. So there would be no messing with ratios of pearl grey, kelly green, and denim blue. This should theoretically take a moderate amount of color stripping and a dye bath of charcoal grey. After all, the dark suits mostly shown during the montage of Ghostbusters 2 shift between a dark grey and deep blue during certain scenes and in promo shots. It was a hotly debated topic two decades ago. Were they black, dark navy, or a hybrid? The “they’re charcoal!” group of the fandom was proven right over time with Ernie Hudson wearing his suit to various Comic Cons, and other suits coming up in auction. The new suits in Ghostbusters 2 are, in fact, charcoal grey and were once again made by Flight Suits LTD.  

My instincts were wrong.

I figured this would be a simple task. Wash the suit in hot water with detergent and brighteners, wash it again with several packets of Rit Color Remover, wash it again with more detergent and a capful of bleach, dry it well, dye it, then wash it again. That would be the whole process, and I would have my charcoal suit. It did not work. Not even a tiny bit. I was shocked that the suit looked exactly the same as when I started, not even a hair lighter in color.

Obviously, this would need something a bit more drastic. Before my second attempt in earnest, I gave the suit a bath of a 4:1 ratio of water and white vinegar. After some research, I found that this would soften the polyester and lighten it. It absolutely did nothing. So I washed it with the detergent, whitener, and a little bleach. No change again. For the second full attempt, I switched to the tub and boiling water method. I boiled 3 gallons of water and added 3 packets of Rit color remover to a plastic tub outside. This was actually somewhat successful; the water turned light purple. My hope had returned, and after almost two hours of soaking and agitating a blazing hot tub of water in the hot sun, the water had completely cooled. I took the suit inside and washed it as I had previously, expecting it to look a little more grey and ready for a dye bath. Once I had dried it, the suit was the same color as it was before. 

Now I was just angry. After another 4:1 vinegar bath and a wash and dry, I did it again, same method, 4 gallons of water and 4 packets of Rit color remover. The water turned a darker purple! I washed the suit and dried it, and it was STILL NAVY.

I dyed it anyway.

I convinced myself that even though the color was the same, I saw plenty of color in that water; it had to be able to take some dye. So, I boiled 4 gallons of water again, added a half cup of salt and a tablespoon of dish detergent to the tub, and added an entire bottle of Rit Charcoal Grey and half a bottle of Rit Synthetics Graphite. I let that bath sit for one hour. After which I took it out, gave it a quick rinse with cold water, and then washed it in cold with a mild detergent. It was still navy. Maybe slightly darker navy, but still navy. If anything, I had just reset myself back to zero. 

“This time it’s personal.”

So Rit makes stronger stuff; Rit Proline it’s called. I ordered a 1lb bag of Rit Proline color remover and a bottle of dye fixative. I told myself this has to work; if I can start to get purple out of the suit, even just a little with the regular color remover, then the Proline would ace the task. But it didn’t! I just pulled a bunch of brown out, likely whatever little had stuck to it from my previous dye bath. In that bath, I started with 4 scoops (it comes with a scoop) of the Proline and boiling water. When it just settled on that brown, I dumped it and did it again with 6 scoops and 4 gallons of boiling water. Same result as always: a little dye came out, and after a wash and dry, it was still kind of the same navy blue color. I didn't event take any photos this time I was so annoyed by it.

Throwing in the towel

I was pretty much done with it all by this time. I wanted to throw the Propper suit in the trash. After several baths of color remover (around $35 worth), $20 in dye, and so many washes in various acids and detergents, I still had a navy color flight suit. I will probably come back to this suit, but for now it is in the closet, and there it stays for a while. So I ordered a Tru-Spec, still in Navy. This has worked for other people; different results based on the process, but I knew I could make something happen. I’ll pick up in a different blog entry on that entire process; that way it can be referred to without all of this preamble. 

So again, can you dye a Propper brand navy Flight Suit?

Seems very highly unlikely. Their suits are nice, but unless you want one of the colors they provide, I would get a Tru-Spec. Join me in the next blog where I walk you through how to dye a Tru-Spec suit to GB2 Charcoal Grey.