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Post by jayhoops on May 22, 2014 6:22:12 GMT
Soooo after OSNS I got bored and decided to take the visor off of my T8 racer and start sanding it down with some blood orange griptape. Basically I'm wondering if anyone has any tips for sanding/painting a full face helmet. I know I gotta tape it all off so I dont get paint all on the interior I'm just not sure how far back I need to sand it or if I need to use some type of primer? Does it matter what kind of paint I use? What about clear coat?? In theory im guessing sand, prime, sand, paint, clear, boom. I just have not done this before. So like, any tips people?? I'll post pics once I accomplish something.
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Post by jayhoops on May 23, 2014 14:13:05 GMT
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Post by Hines Woodworks on May 23, 2014 14:21:14 GMT
First off as far as I understand from the research I did when I painted a full face just taping off the inside isn't good enough. You need to actually remove the soft foam from the inside or the evaporating solvent from the paint will eat away at the foam. This I'd unless you use foam safe paint from a craft store and that's probably the better option. Also you gonna want to use a finer sand paper then grip. I would go with 150 then 220.
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Post by frenique on May 23, 2014 15:11:34 GMT
Defiantly take out the foam. And defiantly use a fine sand paper. Id recomend going up past 220 to be honest. I helped paint helmets for itech, and a few other name brand hockey and baseball helmets for a few years. Is the helmet fiberglass? You may need to add a bonding agent to the paint or you would be able to scrape the paint off with your nail, im assuming you want this to last lol
you need to get an automotive style paint for it to be "right". Then again i sprayed my bucket with ouy sanding and with a water based paont when i was board and it will acratch off easy. It depends on how much time and $ you want to put into it
Hope this helps, let me know if you have more questions dude!
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Post by jayhoops on May 23, 2014 17:11:35 GMT
SO how would I go about removing the foam inside? I was planning on taping it better than this by the way.
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Post by frenique on May 23, 2014 19:04:05 GMT
It depends on the helmet. Gotta remember, it wasn't made with the foam. They installed the foam after the shell was made. So if they got it in there, you can get it out. They could of glued it (which will make a huge hassle of getting it out in one piece) or there could be Velcro or buttons or who knows what else holding it in there. SO try your best to get it out of the helmet. If you can't remove it easily then just use painters tape (That green stuff, I use it on all the paint jobs i have done and do currently), and make sure you have it covered good OR ELSE!!! ahaha In regards to how much sanding.... Well how lazy are you You should sand all the paint off truthfully. If it is a fiberglass shell, it probably has a gel coat on it, and if it does you want to try and not sand threw the gel coat. When it comes to paint. You could use the canadian tire spray paint (from their automotive section). Its an automotive grade paint, which will help the paint stick! (but I have used lots of different brands from walmart, art stores and so on) Its hard to tell you, this type of paint will give you the perfect result to be honest. There are a lot of different factors in spraying a bucket, but for a quick and easy paint job can be done with out "over thinking" the situation. Just sand it down, depending on the color you are spraying your helmet you may not need to use a primer. Just do small even coats, let them dry, keep going until good coverage. If you get a blotchy section where the paint looks messed up, either sand it out when it dries or live with it! lol You can also sand out imperfections in the clear coating stage but I dont know if your looking for that factory finish or just to refresh it! In other words, say there are bumps of dust from when your letting coats of paint dry, after you spray 2 or 3 coats of clear (let it dry) you can sand it with a 600 grit to remove the bumps without sanding your paint job (as long as you dont sand too much), then just apply a couple more coats of clear and BAM! NEW HELMET lol I hope this helps dude, let me know if you need anything else I will try and give you good advice
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Post by jayhoops420 on May 24, 2014 2:58:40 GMT
so I sanded the rest of the paint off and hopefully tomorrow I can grab some painting supplies. Is there a brand/colour of primer that I should look for or is it all the same. Should I skip this step and just paint it? Questions!
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Post by frenique on May 24, 2014 13:08:49 GMT
Thats good man, umm it depends on what you want to use lol if you use a primer, use the same brand of paint. In other words if you buy the spray paint from canadian tires automotive sectiom buy the same branded primer, paint, and clear coat. There is not perfect choice in this situation dude. Unless you have access to a full on spray booth with paints and prepping materials to complete the job you just have to work with what you have near by and try your best mang! But primer is typically white, because painting ANY colour on white is easy, it shows well lol
good luck dude, post pictures up when its done!!!!
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Post by Hines Woodworks on May 24, 2014 14:07:54 GMT
Post some pics!
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Post by jayhoops on May 27, 2014 19:11:31 GMT
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Post by jayhoops on May 27, 2014 19:12:40 GMT
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Post by jayhoops on May 27, 2014 19:16:58 GMT
So I sanded it a bit more with legitimate sandpaper and tried to get all of the original graphic off before painting. I taped the inside of the vents as well as the bottom and front with a combination of painters tape and duct tape. Also, the paint I chose (I will post a picture of the can) is acrylic and alcohol based and is designed to be used indoors as well as less or non toxic... something like that. It seemed as though it would potentially cause less damage if I get it in the wrong places. I taped the edges with the painters tape and cut them with an old knife with pretty good results. While i had it taped last time i tossed a bit of paint on it to see how the colour came out. I like it.
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Post by frenique on May 30, 2014 19:03:05 GMT
Looks good so far dude!
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Post by jayhoops on Jun 1, 2014 2:05:11 GMT
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Post by jayhoops on Jun 1, 2014 2:06:56 GMT
The colour looks distorted because of the flash but I have finished the first colour I have taped off a pattern and added a second colour to the helmet. I will post more pictures when I remove the tape Does anyone recommend a clearcoat brand? And how many coats of clear would be reasonable
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