Helmet Respray

I have had this helmet for over a year now and always wanted to spray it. But also to keep some of the colour, so using a stencil was the best idea.

I should have planned the steps better but i made up for it in the end.

The main idea for this was to keep some of the original colours in a stencil and spray the rest a darker colour for contrast.

I was going to use a trackable for geocaching and have the code underneath.

I used masking tape stuck to the screen of my laptop and made a stencil from a google image, transferred the tape onto the helmet and cut it out.

It all worked well until i sprayed the first coat of black paint.

I used the wrong type of paint. I dont know why, as the rattle can i chose told me that it was specifically for plastic, but it had such a horrible spray. It was very drippy and thick which would make removing the tape difficult.

I let it dry and sprayed again after sanding out some of the drip marks and the first layer started lifting, so i gave up on that paint and went and bought a different one.

When I realised that sanding off the old paint actually started removing the original paint I changed the plan.

There was some red and white left down at the bare level which worked pretty well for a maple leaf. The stencil idea was still effective at least.

I picked up some more spray paint. The best option as it turns out was some matte finish grey paint which i bought along with a can of lacquer.

This time the paint was a lot better at taking to the helmet. If only the layers underneath were sanded better it would have had an even better texture.

A few layers later and it was finished, and the stencil ready to be removed.

They came off very easily which just left the final layers of lacquer to be applied.

After all the hassle of changing it turned out pretty good. The matt grey paint was covered with a few layers of protective lacquer which also covered and protected the maple leaf. On the other side I put a little lions head for no reason other than to put something else on the other side.

For a minute it looked like the lacquer was going to dry in a not-so clear colour but the next day it was crystal clear and ready.