DIY helmet repainting
 

Hey everyone,
I want to repaint my helmet. Automotive finishes are quite expensive (it is better to buy a new helmet instead) so I think about any affordable paint that can be used for helmet. After several coats of paint I want to apply the polyurithane finish. Has anybody painted the helmet? What would you advise from your experience?

Bump, the consultants in a hardware store near me offered the spray paint https://www.mrosupply.com/paint-pain...901000_krylon/ Maybe it is not so hard to apply, but the mess will be awful I think. What if to use the acrylic paint and then use professional polyurithane finish? I’ll try to look it somewhere.

Never ever paint a Helmet! The solvents in the paint might brittle the plastic and make it less secure. One of my friends paints cars for a living and he painted an American football Helmet. It shattered on impact!

Best regards Peter

Peter: You did say plastic.... some helmets are "fiber" and most of those are painted in the factory..
Don't get the paint on the liner though.

I've painted helmets in the past (or rather had someone paint them for me) but only when I was certain that the shell was made of something that wouldn't react with the paint. Back then the two choices were glass fibre (safe to paint) or polycarbonate plastic (not safe to paint). The solvents in the paint were the issue so whether modern water based paints would be safe is something I've wondered. If water's degrades it you probably wouldn't want to wear it in the rain. :rofl:

A quick look through the pile of helmets we've accumulated shows four glass fibre ones (one of which has a sticker saying "glass fibre" on it, three that are definitely plastic and one I'm not sure about.

A few of these helmets are old enough to have their own driving licence so materials science may have moved on somewhat in the interim but certainly with plastic helmets not only was it no paint, it was also no stickers (the adhesive could supposedly weaken the plastic) and not much sunlight either to avoid UV degradation.

I've always been taught this as well!
Do NOT use spray-paint on a helmet. It makes them brittle.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk