painting????
 

Simply said I am REALLY poor. however I love riding. more importantly my girlfriend loves riding so here the situation. I have a helmet for myself that matches my sweet red VTR (fastest color). I have an old helmet from one of my previous bikes that my girlfriend wheres its this ugly maroon full face that matched my first bike, a 1983 CX 650 C. I cant really afford a new helmet for her so I was thinking I could just paint this old helmet. I would remove facesheild and plastics then i would sand the old paint, apply primer, paint it pink (her favorite color), then like five coats of clear, then wetsand. if any of that sounds ridiculous let me know. I was really wondering what grades and grits of sandpaper to sand sand old pain, primer sand, and then wetsand. any suggestions or comments are welcome. thanks a bunch.

might want to contact the company to see if it will effect the integrity of the protection the helmet offers. they might recommend a certain type of paint or clear

Honestly man...

you can usually find helmets cheap on craigslist.org or even brand new on ebay.

I've known people to repaint helmets, but honestly, I just spent 41.75 on paint alone without the cost of sandpaper and such for painting my lower fairing, and i bought only a limited amount of paint...

So you could easily just go on ebay and buy her a helmet that is brand new for $50-75 or even cheaper if you watch ebay

full face
 

your gf has an ugly maroon ful face?

hey man i got my girlfriend a helmet from ebay and it was about $50 with shipping and shes had no complaints thats the same one im pretty sure you can find one even cheaper http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/DOT-F...spagenameZWD1V

holy cow thats cheap, forget painting.

OK, it has to be said, and I apologise for sounding like Health And Safety Henry the resident killjoy, but having experienced first hand the damage you can receive (see below for details) I'd really really really plump for a new lid rather than paint an old one.

If you can't afford it right now, I'd seriously eat beans on toast for a month till I could.

You should replace them every 3-5 years (depending) tops anyway.

(I flew over a car and landed full on my face. Helmets keep you alive, they dont stop you getting hurt - I fractured my face and head in 13 places)

im not entirely sure that painting a helmet could cause damage. while on paper is sounds good, they got painted at the factory, they are then either make of plastic, fiberglass, or some variant thereof. cars and bike fairings are made of the same materials and we paint them, and they are plenty strong. ( i know you guys are gonna bitch forever about that statement). this isn't a question of weather or not to wear a helmet, thats a Duh! kinda answer.

ok get ready to hate on me. as long as you take care of the helmet and insure that the foam liner is in good condition they should last a while. Helmets fall into the same category as rock climbing ropes. manufactures are going to tell you to replace them all the time because its their ass if you get hurt, the real truth is that taking care of equipment and checking for degradation in materials will a long way towards keeping you safe.

Kitch, I've lost the ability to read this thread seriously after reading your tag...

Voted most likely to be found dead in park bushes following an act of auto-erotic asphyxiation.

Priceless

Hehe :)

Sad but true, and I can think of worse ways to be reported in the papers.

man, the pink will just slow you down. its a good thing your bike is red

I don't know man... $50 for a helmet for her... I mean come on... seems like a waste of money... I say through her old helmet away and make her stay home... I mean what are you doing anyway... putting your girl on the back is like bringing sand to a beach...









































JOKING.... (atleast while my wife is standing here) lol

that was a joke too... (wink wink)

joking of course... (or am i?)

Older helmets are most likely constructed from polycarbonate. Even a lot of cheaper new lids are made from it nowadays. It's really important that you use specific paint on polycarbonate or you seriously risk weakening the shell and leaving your gf wearing a lid that would be virtually useless in a crash.

Even more modern composite helmets need very careful handling when being painted. The entire liner MUST be removed as paint and thinner fumes will cause serious and sometimes invisible weakening of the styrofoam liner.

Given the time and money it'll take to do this I'd be more inclined to buy a new cheap helmet for her. even the cheapest lids have to pass certain safety standards.

I'm really not trying to be preachy here, but $50 is not a lot to pay for peace of mind. If you love this girl you'd never forgive yourself if she was killed or badly injured just to save a few $$$s.

Ok your GF wants to ride tell her to go by the helmet her self. Its her head she needs to protect it. Send her to the local shop have her fitted then get her in the habit of buying her own gear.

I'll trade you... I'll give you an extra helmet, you give me your girlfriend....

but first, i gotta run this one by the wife.. she's cool with me getting new toy's and keeping them in the garage.. but i'm giving you the benifit of the doute that this one's house worthy...

lol

SO DID YOU BUY ONE YET?

I doubt your wife would see the same humor in that Josh.... :eek:

Now I on the other hand have no commitments and a few extra helmets to trade with :)

you guys need to stop it cuz you're killing me over here!:rotf::rotf::rotf:

oh sure.. now i have another guy bidding...

ok... 1st... before we get into which helmets we are willing to part with, and who's wifes are going to be upset.. we should see what we are trading for...

Do we have pictures of this girlfriend?

+1 on that... Hope she's like the girlfriend in a pic a few weeks back - quite nice! :D

The one that was for sale? i mean... the one thread where the bike was now for sale? the black one?

oh yea... I remember...

Soooo... we are gonna also need some specs... height, weight, bra size...ext... you know, just the basics to get the shipping details down...

hey RickB... i gotta idea... since i may have trouble keeping this one, but i was first to call dibs on her.. how about we work something out since we are close to each other... Like i'll trade for her, but we will keep her at your house, but i can come play with her anytime, but when i'm not using her, you can use her like she was yours anyway... ?????????

sound good?

Light sand and 2 coats of spray paint! Then save your money and buy her an Arai. Or help her save her money (take her credit cards away).

Yes, thats the one I was referring to :D

Sounds like a good idea to me... I think we hijacked this thread a little bit :hijack:

Dude, just do what i did.....luckily the fiancee has a lot of hair....so that bumps up her helmet size....i got her a Shoei X-11 Vermuelen replica. And when i say her, i mean its my second helmet, like when i feel like changing it up... because we wear the same size lid, thank God...you might be able to scam it like that......

this has gone way outa hand. I LOVE IT

So... does this mean we aren't getting pictures?

For the amount of time and $ you're going to spend just go on ebay and look up some helmets. Ive seen Icon "kitty" pink helmets new for under $100 and less lightly used. A rattle can is going to give you a shitty paint job that wont last no matter how well you do it.

what color helmet would you be most interested in trading her off for? I'll post some pics of what i've got...

She's getting free rides on your bike. The least she could do is buy herself a decent looking helmet. Or you could start charging her for gas and buy a helmet with the proceeds.

Maybe just get her one of these.

http://www.dailyhaha.com/_pics/hello_kitty_vader.jpg

The Up side of her buying her own gear, one when she leave you arent stuck with a bunch of gear that will just rot, 2 you can convince her to get her own bike. Then you get to play with her bike to. Just a thought.