Re-inking printer ribbons

[Jules Richardson]

Has anyone had any luck re-inking printer ribbons?

I spent a few minutes looking at this Vic 1525 printer that I got the other 
day - turned out that the carriage was just gummed up and there was a blown 
fuse in the PSU section (probably related to the former problem).

Of course the ribbon is completely dried out. I'd originally intended for 
the printer to be a static "Hey, that looks neat" item, but looking at it 
briefly, it's a good example of how to make a printer as cheaply as 
possible, so I'm wondering if there's a way of breathing life back into the 
ribbon so that it can print again in all it's noisy, glacially-slow glory :-)

I don't care if it's not as black as an original ribbon would have been - 
it just might be nice if it was able to print something legible.

cheers

Jules