Coloring a Tyvek Suit

[William S]

In my homewrap experiments, it seemed like after the first couple of times of trying to rinse and buff the color off the tyvek, the colors seemed to be pretty waterproof. But any surface rubbing on the colored surface continued to pick up small amounts of the tint from it.

[David Gardner]

While doing some internet research on colored Tyvek suits I stumbled across Kimberly-Clark's "Kleenguard A70" suit. It’s made for chemical spray protection, with 1.5 mil polyethylene film coated spunbound polypropylene fabric. It has a wick-away lining, liquid-resistant extra long zipper, softer and quieter fabric, a taped storm flap, and taped and bound seams. It’s also supposed to be breathable. Ordered one from Amazon for $15 to give it a try and see how it does in the shower test. If it passes that test, we’ll see how the acrylic ink works on it. Bright yellow is just as bad as bright white for stealth camping.

[Gregory Allen]

That would look awesome walking through a high meadow in spring full of wild flowers. Bees and hummingbird attacks might be an issue! Those hummers could really screw up the waterproof thing. The visual in my mind makes me laugh!

[Justin Baker]

Have you considered cutting the suit into a separate pair of jacket+pants?

[David Gardner]

Justin,

I considered cutting a suit into jacket and pants, but from my experience skiing and motorcycling there is nothing warmer and more weather-proof than a one piece suit. For hard hiking with a pack in the rain, for the best ventilation, I typically use a polycryo poncho/ground sheet I made. The suit is second choice for that use unless conditions are extremely cold and/or windy, but first choice for rest stops, after setting up camp, and for winter/snow camping.

Also I can't sew, so it was an easy choice.

[Author]

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