Colored hoses, Are they still available? Or has anyone tried dying a hose? Options

[TonyA]

Maybe i ma crazy but are these available anywhere, or has anyone ever attempted to bleach and dye a hose?

[StarBear]

All; I opened my cannister a few months ago to refill the charcoal per the thread/video that had just been posted then. Easy!
IIRC, there was no long inner tube; just a short stub.
Again, my Virgo/Engineer mindset provides two routes:
1) The specific arrangement doesn't really make much operational difference to the engine's running/performance - only emissions. So either way would work just fine as far as engine operation. With the long inner tube inside the cannister, the straight pass through design would make sense for the same reason as indicated below in 2).
2) I believe, being a former environmental air emissions engineer (one of MANY job paths during my working career), the purpose of the cannister was to capture the gas fumes as the tank was being filled (as JB noted), much like an industrial unit emissions absorber. So, the engine (hopefully!) wouldn't be running at the times of vapor entry and absorbtion into the cannister, with no airflow in the larger entry/exit hoses. Thus, vapors would tend to collect more so at the vapor entry point. The VW criss-cross hose design would make more sense, with air from the fan shroud pushing the vapors from the less-concentrated end of the cannister to the more-concentrated end so that those vapors wouldn't get absorbed unneccessarily onto the deeper charcoal nuggets. Industrial air filter design concepts for purging/evacuating absorbers.
Meanwhile, I'll check with another 1.8 owner around here that I know to see what his configuration looks like.
As always, thanks @jeffbowlsby for all you do to keep our heritage alive and cars running!
SB