Painting your motorcycle helmet is not an easy task. Nevertheless, this article will give you a comprehensive guide on how to paint your helmet. Read on to find out.
Steps To Preparing Your Motorcycle Helmet For Painting
Step 1 : Laws And Regulations
Find out if any legislation in your locality might affect your project. Some locations prohibit unauthorized repainting of certain items such as a motorcycle helmet, so be sure of the existence of such laws before you begin your task.
- You need to understand the laws of the land and their applicability regarding making any changes to your motorcycle parts. You don’t want to find yourself on the wrong side of the law.
- Ensure the modifications you do on your helmet comply with road safety rules and regulations to avoid problems with law enforcers and incur hefty l fines.
Step 2 : Select A Suitable Paint
Be sure to use the right color as per the directions from your motorcycle dealer. The shade contains chemicals, so if you don’t choose your paint carefully, you might do more harm than good to your helmet. Read on any labels that might give you a clue on the right color to use on your motorcycle helmet.
- If you find it hard choosing the right paint, you might as well contact the manufacturer of your helmet to be sure. Additionally, consider seeking a recommendation from certified and professional painters.
- Examine the outer shell of your helmet to ascertain that there are no cracks. Painting on top of cracks may damage the inner surface of your helmet because the paint will sip through the cracks to reach the internal parts.
Step 3 : Do Not Sand The Helmet
Sanding is commonly done on most surfaces before applying paint to improve the adhesive properties between the texture and the color. However, in this case, you need to sand the helmet because rubbing it will create weak points, and the adverse effects of paint may begin to show up.
- You might consider repainting your helmet in future, so ensure the helmet you buy is painted with plain color; this will save you any stress of removing paint decorations.
Step 4 : Cleaning The Surface
Just like you would prepare another surface, you will need to thoroughly clean your helmet’s shell using a suitable detergent before you begin applying paint.
- Ensure you wipe your helmet with a dry cloth and give it adequate time to dry before proceeding to the next step.
Steps To Paint a Helmet
There may be areas or parts on your motorcycle helmet that you don’t want to paint. In this case, mask the components with appropriate material before you start painting. Detach any other movable parts, such as the visor. You don’t want to get messy while painting your motorcycle helmet(how to paint a motorcycle helmet) so ensure only parts you want to be painted are exposed.
- You will need a mask to cover the inside of your helmet to prevent it from paint splashes.
- Please don’t remove the inner shell of your helmet, as this might weaken it in the long run.
You want your helmet to have a fantastic look, and one way to get the look your want is by using various designs on the helmet. Make sketches or drawings you might want using a pencil before applying your paint. Make your plan more visible for easy painting.
- You can make many designs on your helmet and take well-measured cuts of your masking tape to create any design you want.
So which paint should you use in your project? The most suitable color to apply to your helmet had to be water-based acrylic paint. Allow a sufficient amount of drying time between paint applications so that each layer used sticks to the surface properly.
- Work your way around the helmet by painting the first layers before the final touches on your project.
- An airbrush will work best if you intend to spray your paint. An airbrush allows for a uniform and even application of paint on your helmet.
- Avoid spraying any paint on safety markings if there are any on the surface of your helmet.
- Take off any coverings you made earlier after the paint has dried completely. You don’t want to distort the look of your designs, so be sure to remove the stickers carefully.
Finally, you now have your painting project ready. However, you would need to do a few finishing touches on your helmet to give it a sparkling look. Apply about four layers of a transparent coat on the surface of your helmet to make it more durable. Note that you should make a light application of the finishing coats by holding the sprayer at arm’s length from your project.
- It would be best to allow the clear coats a maximum of 20 minutes of drying time before applying subsequent coats.
- Consider using final coats that are meant to be used on plastics. Since there are instruction manuals on the applicability of your paint, be sure to go through them to get the correct information.
- Before spraying the clear coats, you might consider covering the inner parts of your helmet to shield it from any splashes while spraying your paint.
- Give the final coat a sufficient amount of time to dry, say a day, before fixing any parts you removed earlier.
Now you have a clue on how to paint a motorcycle helmet. Polishing your motorcycle helmet is such a fulfilling experience because you can customize the whole painting exercise to meet your needs. If you are a do-it-yourself, you can use the tips highlighted in this article to explore various designs you can do for your motorcycle helmet.
Be sure to select the correct paint to apply on your motorcycle helmet; you don’t want to damage your helmet so try to find the proper color to use on your helmet.
You need to understand the laws of the land and their applicability regarding making any changes to your motorcycle parts. You don’t want to find yourself on the wrong side of the law.
