My son Cody started racing go karts several months ago so to help drum up some business for his sponsor (me) I painted a helmet for him to match his kart. Hopefully this will get us some work as other racers see it and want their helmets cus- tom painted, certainly worth a try. On the following pages are my techniques for adding graphics to a full-face helmet I hope you can take some of these and apply them to your next helmet-painting project. If you haven’t tried painting a helmet yet I encourage you to do so, it’s not nearly as hard as it might look with a lot less sanding than say custom painting graphics on a motorcycle or car. Custom painting helmets has become my chosen surface to custom paint; it
can be just as rewarding finically as those bigger projects (motorcycles, cars, trucks) with a lot less work. What I used for this helmet project: House of Kolor base colors, Base Pearls, Kandy’s ; Auto Air could have been used and you could achieve the same results. For masking materials I used one eight-inch fine line tape, masking tape. Scotch Brite pad, prep cleaner, tack rag, helmet stand round out the supply list. To apply the paint I used an automotive touch up spray gun like a Sata Mini Jet, double action grav- ity feed airbrush; any brand name airbrush works just fine for helmet painting.
Here we have a picture of the graphics on his kart, which we will try to incorporate on his helmet. Pull all the trim, visor and hard ware off; tape any of the trim off you can not easily get off. To start I based the helmet the appropriate color which in this case is blue; after which I clear coated it with UC 35 House of Kolor clear. I prefer not to lay graphics out on unprotected base paint using a two part clear to protect it works out very well.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Scotch Brite pads I have included a picture there to the left. After the clear has been given twenty four to thirty six hours to dry the entire helmet surface is scuffed with a Scotch Brite pad. When doing this you are just looking to knock the shine off the clear providing some tooth for the paint to adhere to. Be sure to blow the entire helmet surface off and wash it with good water based prep cleaner before moving onto painting.
A few tips on painting helmets for customers. Working on a old used, beaten up helmet can be more of a pain than it is worth. Try and talk your customer into providing you with a good new helmet to paint. Working on helmets that already have factory graphics is a big mistake you will never bury those factory graphics; they will continue to bleed thru any
new custom design you paint over them. The best helmet from a custom painter standpoint is a new solid colored helmet. As far as pricing your work ballpark you should be any where from $400.00 to $1500.00 for the art work on a helmet the customer provides you.
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