Cleaning/restoring discoloured 'cape cloth'

[atlas]

So I received two used sandtrooper minifigs that have suffered some sun damage. Exposed areas have yellowed to a degree and the parts of the pauldron that were presumably in direct sunlight have faded. What used to be a fairly strong orange has faded to yellow and the bright white cape has also yellowed.

I learnt that yellowed parts - plastic - can be restored in a solution of hydrogen peroxide. But for sun damaged cloth pieces, how can you restore the colour? Ideally I want to retain the stiffness of the cloth as it comes out of the box in a new set, but my main concern is restoring the original colour of the pauldrons. Thanks in advance. I've attached a photo below

http://i.imgur.com/EFtq2WA.jpg

Edited June 29, 2016 by atlas

[AmperZand]

To be honest, your best bet may be to order replacement parts on BrickLink. If you do, make sure to tell the seller to send the cloth parts in their original boxes or sandwiched between pieces of stiff cardboard for protection. I once received a LEGO cape from a BL seller who used nothing more than a grip-seal baggy and a padded envelope. The cape was heavily creased in transit.

Edit: Removed suggestions to use staining/dyeing. Just realised the cloth parts are combinations of black and another colour. Staining or dyeing would ruin the black parts.

Edited June 29, 2016 by AmperZand

[brickmasterben11]

How did you use hydrogen peroxide to un-yellow lego pieces?

[AmperZand]

How did you use hydrogen peroxide to un-yellow lego pieces?

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=7167&st=0

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=7167&st=200#entry2058714

[Japanbuilder]

Not sure of the composition of the stiff cloth used for most LEGO capes. But getting that off sounds like it would be an ordeal (similar to removing yellowing in curtains) Not sure if it would be worth the expense specially if they get damaged further by the process.

[LordLEGOtube]

Coming back to this a year later I’ve had problems with one-colour capes in my collection fading as a result of exposure to direct sunlight for prolonged periods of time. Some dark red capes, brown capes, and black capes have been faded. Most disappointingly the black Nazgûl capes which were exclusive to the LoTR weathertop set became a faded light brown/pink colour. I’ve reversed the capes so it’s not as obvious but it’s still there on the inside. On other capes the difference can be seen in the area exposed to sunlight and areas covered by hair/neck. How would I go about staining/dyeing the fabric to restore it to its original colour? What I really don’t want to happen is to dye something black and it comes out navy and I’d like to keep the same stiffness.

[MAB]

16 hours ago, LordLEGOtube said:

Coming back to this a year later I’ve had problems with one-colour capes in my collection fading as a result of exposure to direct sunlight for prolonged periods of time. Some dark red capes, brown capes, and black capes have been faded. Most disappointingly the black Nazgûl capes which were exclusive to the LoTR weathertop set became a faded light brown/pink colour. I’ve reversed the capes so it’s not as obvious but it’s still there on the inside. On other capes the difference can be seen in the area exposed to sunlight and areas covered by hair/neck. How would I go about staining/dyeing the fabric to restore it to its original colour? What I really don’t want to happen is to dye something black and it comes out navy and I’d like to keep the same stiffness.

For solid black capes, use a black sharpie or an alcohol based marker pen. You can use fabric dyes like RIT dye, but it is a faff compared to just colouring them with a marker pen and the results are just as good. There is no colour matching problem either, being black. Any other colour is a problem with colour matching.

[LordLEGOtube]

31 minutes ago, MAB said:

For solid black capes, use a black sharpie or an alcohol based marker pen. You can use fabric dyes like RIT dye, but it is a faff compared to just colouring them with a marker pen and the results are just as good. There is no colour matching problem either, being black. Any other colour is a problem with colour matching.

Thanks for this! I’ll give it a go on a normal Black cape that has faded first.

[MAB]

By the way, if you use an alcohol marker, give the cape a couple of hours / days to really dry out before attaching it to the minifigure. It won't matter on a ringwraith since they are black anyway, but the colour can come off on a lighter torso.