Painting helmets?

[HOGwartsRIDER]

Bought a spare helmet I want to design myself. Watched several YouTube vids for ideas and came across several debates over safety and regulations. Any thoughts or helpful tips?

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

Given the majority of rider's helmets are painted/airbrushed there really isn't a safety argument assuming you use the right stuff. I ave no idea what the "right" stuff is though.
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[MCN]

Dulux Eggshell or any Matt Emulsion.
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Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

[Polarbear]

[Rogue_Shadow]

I've been reliably informed over the years, that adding any form of stickers, vinyl, bluetak or paint to a helmet will result in that helmet imploding.

This will make the ACU sticker void & million of kittens shall perish.

Alternatively ...
Avoid any contact with the inner polystyrene shell when painting to minamise damaging or weakening it. It's the inner shell that does the bouncing after all.
I'd personally leave it alone, unless your not intending to ride with it again.

[MarJay]

[thx1138]

As I was thinking about getting an old lid down pouring a solvent inside it to film results, I then wondered about what is the least safe legal helmet to wear in the U.K. But before I googled that, the thought occurred to me, that somewhere some fun police have probably already floated the idea of compulsory helmet checks at M.O.T time.

Wouldn't work, too bureaucratic, what about all the other helmets etc. But I bet someone somewhere tried "a thought experiment" to implement it and monetise it.

[MarJay]

[skatefreak]

Plasticoat?


What Rodge Said

[Rogerborg]

[ocatoro]

was always told the paint can wreck the safety bits... if it wasn't for the safety bits being safety bits there isn't much argument for having a helmet at all... is there? not saying can't have form, but function is wayyyyyy more importantererer..

if paint isn't a vile helmet parasite, then fair enough I stand open to the latest "so they say"
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[stinkwheel]

Arai helmets come with an instruction book telling you to effectively paint and sticker away on the shell but keep it (and any solvent fumes) away from the polystyrene inner.
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[Shaft]

As you may have noticed, virtually every racing driver/rider on the planet has a helmet painted to their own design, the key things are the material the shell is made from and the type of paint you use.

As has been mentioned, polycarbonate (now called thermoplastic) shells don't like solvents, which can be in paint and stickers - I've experimented with painted plastic shells and they can either become very brittle, or very soft, almost to the point of dissolving, depending on the exact type of plastic used.

Pro painters will strip the lid down to the bare shell (the real top of the line guys will get the bare shells direct from the factories) which obviates the possibility of the poly liner being damaged.

These days, water based paints are the helmet painter's friend, you can paint any surface without worrying about solvent damage, plus a lot of helmet designers use partial or full wraps, but wrapping a lid is not the easiest thing to do and you really need to research the vinyl you're using, to make sure you get the stuff that can be brutally manipulated.
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[Yorkshire Geek]

The pigment can make a difference too, not just the solvent. So says my Mrs and she has a PhD in this shit (specifically why certain pigments melt Smart cars).

[Kaya75]

Use Candy Colors waterbased paint. Strip the helmet first, so you just have the shell, Most damage is done striping the old paint off, remove all stickers and any shit, bugs etc. lightly sand the shell with 1500 wet and dry and the 800 wet and dry, use lots of soapy water. Then you need to build up a barrier coat really slowly like dust it once and leave for a hour and repeat do this all day after about 10 dusting you will have a solid and very rough textured base/ barrier. Now wet and dry with 1500 lots of water and be very light, you want to take the rough dusty feel off. Now dry and give it a few proper coat of the same base. Leave an hour in between. Next day wet and dry with 1500 and 800 then you can start to build you primer and undercoats.

What you are doing is building a good solid barrier that is well adhered to the base finish on the lid without having to touch the underlining shell. You are building on top of the manufacturers finish.. but too heavy on those initial dustings will cause sagging and cracking.

It is expensive to do for one lid. You will have lots of colour and compounds left over, even 12ml of colour is a hugh amount for a airbush. But prep is key. Its everything and will take a long time. Sometimes my airbrush time was a few minutes but prep and masks could take days.

Also now you can get custom laser cut masks cheap. Anything sticky do not leave on for any longer then needed to get paint down. I used to use a little clay moddelling smooth wheel tool to just press down the very edge of the masks and then drop the rest down. I did have the odd mask lift up paint and thats the worst and always impossible to truly fix.

Also get a cheap turntable from art supplier/ cake decorators they a worth a million scraps and drops trying to turn a masked up lid.

Idk where you are at but i used a fridge compressor with a moisture trap for my first two years. Free from local skip!

Watch youtube on finishing and cutting lacqueres. A finley finished topcoat makes all the difference. Pro to ameture and its all about the cut Goodluck 👍

Btw being twenty years since i painted a lid, still done a bit of air work but i moved Royal Doulton as a figure painter and closed my studio so no doubt youtube is more relivent now. Even so prep, and finish are key.
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[1198]

If you send / take your design, helmet and cash to many motorcycle sprayshops they'll do it for you.
It won't be cheap mind, but the quality of the ones I've seen done has been very impressive...