Heads up! [query re helmets]

[Alex / Mr R@t - n23 reading / [J10] [2.33za]]

I notice a lot of you paint motor cycle helmets. Here in England I sometimes
see warnings *not* to do this or to be careful, in case the paint you use
degrades the plastic and thus the protection offered by the helmet to its
wearers. [In Britain and Europe it can even be illegal to sell such a helmet
under European safety law!] But of course all of you must be using paints
which do *not* do this, I think this only applies to the solvent based
paints which contain xylene, toluene etc which *do* degrade plastics [I try
to avoid these nasty solvents anyway!]

I guess these warnings apply to the USA as well, as our skulls are all the
same despite which side of the pond we are on!

Can any of you advise in a more scientific way which paints to use and which
to avoid? I'm only starting out, but if I move on to headgear I wouldn't
want to inadvertantly endanger people!

Alex
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[Mike]

Hi, Alex...
Most airbrushers use paints that are safe for use on fiberglass and
plastic resin compounds, the two most common materials used in helmets.
Most often, the art work is done with a water based acrylic artist's
paint that is specially formulated for use in the airbrush, and none of
these paints will harm any of the plastics used for helmets. The clear
coating and priming paints that are used are most often automotive
paints; often these are catalyzed polyesters, lacquers, or epoxy
compounds which don't degrade the plastics, either. The auto products do
have some very nasty solvents, but they are nasty for the people who use
them, not the surfaces they are applied to.

Some of the regulars here do it all, from the art to the clearcoating.
Others only do the art and let an auto painter apply the primers and
clearcoat. If in doubt about the potential safety issues with the helmet
and the paint to be used, it would be a good idea to contact the
particular manufacturer of the helmet and inquire if the planned paints
would degrade the helmet. I suppose degredation is possible, but in the
20 plus years I've been doing helmets, I've never had one degrade with
any of the paints I mentioned.
Regards,
Stanger

[pmartin]

Alex, Helmets don't save lives outside of you getting
Paralyzed. We have a thing called DOT specs, no one
knows what it is including DOT. If I held you by the feet 30 inches
off the ground and dropped you with or without a Helmet
your Brain still slams into the Bone of your Skull so hard it
Hemorrhages, so you die anyway. The added weight will
break your Neck at the very least. One of the reasons for
we all are against them.
I don't know if you still have the Snell specs for Helmets.
http://www.flightsuits.com you will see that the Air Force
has no guarantee on Helmets. Check out ' Blue Angles'
air brush work, now all the ' Top Gun' Helmets are of
vinyl. Look at Art Work.

"Alex / Mr R@t - n23 reading / [J10] [2.33za]" <gr...@spam-nyet.sssr.su>
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[Alex / Mr R@t - n23 reading / [J10] [2.33za]]

"pmartin" <pma...@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:5FMS7.3465$QK1.1...@news1.news.adelphia.net...

> Alex, Helmets don't save lives outside of you getting
> Paralyzed.

my Dad *never* wore one when he rode his bike in Malaysia [his native
country]. The helmet laws [and the agressive driving of Brits, who abandon
all their stereotypical "politeness" when they get behind the wheel of a
car] forced him to abandon motorcycling when he emigrated to the UK in the
late 1960s, plus his partners nagging [perhaps excusable as he was only
concerned about his safety, as she was soon about to have a new addition to
the family ;) ].

> I don't know if you still have the Snell specs for Helmets.

they are now known as BS [EN?] 6658 Britain is now in the european union -
safety standards for helmets [and everything else] are also called CE
standards now ["conformité européen"] and being harmonised across all
european countries.

I don't think the UK bikers are particulalrly worried about their helmets
being degraded by painting them - but there are however "trading standards"
officers here who have as much power as "federal agents" do in the USA who
will check up now and then on people selling custom bike kit to ensure it is
"safe".

Whilst I agree with you that the safety offered by helmets may well not be
all that much, the trading standards people *could* make things difficult
for an artist repainting helmets [they have as much power as cops and can
get businesses shut down, equipment confiscated etc!] - some of them are
officious and would *love* to "lean on" a "counterculture" artist with links
to bikers, hippies etc. When that happens its the "little man or woman"
versus "the Crown" and you can guess who usually wins [even if you win your
court case, you're "marked" for the rest of your days...]

Unfortunately that's the "British Way" sometimes........

I found this, though....

http://www.katewerk.com/stepbystep.html

Alex
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