Rich Sandor

So I decided I'm tired of looking like another pool cue ball. I marched over to crappy tire (canadian tire) and got some enamel paint and clear coat, and painted the bad boy!! It took over a week to do, as I had to wait between coats for each colour. Now I know why it costs between $400 and $1000 to have a pro paint your helmet. It's not easy. This was my first one and there are a lot of problem spots with it due to my impatience... but since my helmet gets a lot of abuse at AutoX and Karting I don't care too much. This turned out pretty good imho.

Now all I'm waiting for are some vinyl stickers with "porsche" and "racing" and "rich sandor" in white.

what do you guys think?

Z-man

Nice job!
-Z.

Edward

Ooohh, very nice!

Edward

David 23

Nice job. Did you remove any hardware or lining, or just mask it all off?

macnewma

Wow, that looks great. I am quite certain I could never have pulled that off.

DrJupeman

Nice work. I have one of those sweet Nürburgring stickers...

RedlineMan

Welcome to the Club;

Looks good! Now you know how I must feel when I anticipate giving someone an estimate that is more than they paid for the lid. I bought a gallon of urethane clear last week. $180 for just the clear. That does not include the hardner, let alone any of the colors. They average $45 per pint!

I know they will choke, and I also know they have no idea what it takes. Now... more do.

renvagn

Very nice Pablo. I especially like the map of the Ring. I can see all the corners where I find curbs/armco while playing Forza.

As far as helmet color, I just looked for a car thats was color coordinated.

Bill L Seifert

Wow, had no idea. Yours looks good. In 1966, when I started skydiving, I put the American flag on the right side of my helmet, and the Tennessee flag on the left. (Back then you had to paint it, there were no decals.) I didn't do all that good of a job. I still have my helmet from flying helicopters in Vietnam in 1970, and the flags are still on it. I have been doing that ever since, but now they are decals, and look a lot better.

Bill Seifert

1987 944S Race Car

Rich Sandor

It's absolutely essential that you remove as much of everything as you can. The only bits I couldn't remove where the chin straps and the styrofoam padding. The cloth padding, visor, air vents and trim all came off.

Yup.
1xblue = $13
1xred = $13
1xgold = $13
1xwhite = $13
1xprimer = $19
1xclear coat = $19
400+900grit sandpaper = $10

$100 just in materials!!!!

RedlineMan

Tell us what kind of paint you used, Rich.

Cory M

It still doesn't make sense to me that every shop I've talked to about spraying my new helmet one solid color wants $250+. A detailed airbrushed helmet I can understand, but one solid color should be a piece of cake for anyone with painting experience.

Rich Sandor

Cory: There is more to painting one solid colour than you may think:

1: removing trim pieces = 5-15min labour
2: sanding down helmet in prep for primer = 20min labour + sandpaper
3: masking parts of helmet that cannot be removed = 15-25min labour +masking tape
4: spraying 2 or 3 coats of primer = 15min labour + primer
5: sanding primer and spraying solid colour = 15min labour + paint
6: coat of clear coat = 5min labour + clear coat
7: re-assemble helmet = 5-15min labour

So even for one colour, you have at least $50 worth of materials, and $100-200 worth of labour. The more colours you use, the longer it takes between coats.

I'm guessing $250 is the base price.. anything under that is not worth thier time to paint...Afterall, it's more than just a matter of masking and spraying!

John: I used dupli-colour and motomaster automotive touch up paint. I didn't want to use profe$$ional quality paints! Like I said, this is my used and abused autoX and karting helmet. Wearing it is at autox and karting is more of a required formality than anything else.. so I'm not too concerned about the quality or if the paint effects the shell at all.

RedlineMan

No problem, Rich;

Nothing against you at all, but for the benefit of those that might think that's what materials cost, I wanted to highlight the cost -vs- what you used. If one were to use "professional" autmotive finishes, you could easily DOUBLE the material amount.

Cory - No offense intended, but do a helmet yourself and you should see. Painting anything is never a piece of cake. Easy is a word that does not exist in the world of refinishing.

Cory M

Rich, using your maximum time estimates there is still less than 2 hours of labor, using your minimum times there is only an hour and twenty minutes (I think your time estimates are pretty accurate too). It doesn't take much sandpaper and masking tape to do one helmet (especially a brand new one with no scratches or old paint to remove). A good shop should be stocked with a decent selection of tints to mix up some color, it shouldn't require a special order of paint just for my helmet. I worked at an autobody shop for several years, so I know what it takes to do the job.

Painting a helmet a single color is a pretty boring job though and doesn't allow the painter to use his creativity; which may explain why the guys who quoted me $250 for a single color only wanted $400 for a custom 4 color job including pin striping and silver foil. The custom job is easily 2-4 times more work, but the price is less than 50% more.

I've got enough projects to keep me busy for a while but I probably will end up spraying it myself next time I have the paint gun out.