painting your own helmet design?

[izzi81]

I've been wondering about this for a while, I thought I'd ask you knowledgeable people
Is it too much of a hassle to even consider painting your own design? Everywhere that does it seems to charge the earth to do it. I'm quite artistically minded so I'm sure I could paint the thing, but I'm not sure how much hassle there would be 'unfinishing' and then finishing it again.

I've a couple of old helmets lying about which I got from the guy who sold me my current bike and it occurred to me that one might make a good experiment! Anyone around here do this sort of thing? Anyone tried? (and do you *have* to paint with an airbrush or can you do it the old fashioned way? )
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[Sparks!]

You will want to air brush definetly, and use fine line tape to mask it off instead of masking tape, as fine line tape acheives better and crisper lines usually.

You'll need to sand all the laquer stuff off the helmet, then primer it etc then paint it, then lacquer again. Same as painting anything else, as far as I know.

But definetly air brush or at the very least some spray tins!
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[Clanger]

airbrushing would defo look better, but I have seen some good looking acrylic hand painted helmets - but up close you can see the brush strokes.

If you have a spare lid, go ahead experiment - you've got nothing to lose. Use acrylics, if when dried you dont like it - acrylic will peel off
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[MarJay]

Erm,
I would be EXTREMELY careful about spraying a lid yourself.
The solvents in the paint will eat the polystyrene in the lining unless you mask it off well enough to prevent even the fumes from entering.

A lot of professional lid painters remove the shell and dismantle the lid, but I'm not sure I would trust it if I had stuck it back together myself.

TBH its probably best left to the professionals IMO.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[izzi81]

surely if I use acrylics then there are no solvents involved? I don't know about primer/lacquer as I guess there may be specific versions that it is best to use, but even if I used an airbrush I'd probably use acrylic paint. Or non-solvent based spray tins?
____________________
"The problem with the French is they have no word for 'entrepreneur' " George W Bush
Age doesn't matter unless you're a cheese
https://www.bikepics.com/members/izzi81

[MarJay]

I don't know about that. You have to use the correct paint because some paints will eat the polystyrene and some paints will weaken the shell. I don't think that these two types of paints are the same.

I read an article in one bike mag or other a few months back, (I think it was RiDE) that showed the effect of different paints on the shell and polystyrene inner of the lids. It wasn't too pretty.

If you can find the correct type of paint that will work in an airbrush, that won't weaken the shell or damage the polystyrene inner, then go for it.

I suppose you could always try painting a polystyrene cup or something to gauge the effect of the paint etc...
____________________
British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.