Relining an Old Helmet

[Tom Graham]

While cleaning out the shed of brown recluse spiders I found my old Bell Star
helmet. This is a full face with the small eye cutout and a snap-on shield.
Does anyone know of a good tutorial on relining/restoring this vintage helmet?

Thanks,
TomG

[Bruce Truxall]

Step 1 - thoroughly remove spiders!


That's all I got.

Bruce

> --
> http://www.vinmoto.org/gallery/v/VinMoto-Garage/CO-OHVinMoto-Garages/

[hunter]

I've been looking into this too. There are a couple people out there
who do this work.

http://hellmutts.m.webs.com/
And
http://primoshelmetdesign.blogspot.com/

I bought a NOS vintage full face recently and the foam liner is dead.
I haven't seen any of the above work in person, but if they are
running businesses they can't be that bad. It's not like the market
for this is very big.

Let me know what you find out!

[Handsome Matt Herrmann]

Step 2. Double check for thorough spider removal.

[Imagox (Matt C.)]

  Honestly, as much as I hate to rain on the parade, I WOULD NOT DO THIS.  The shell of the helmet has most certainly delaminated (probably severely), or at the very least undergone chemical changes  which have left it brittle as your great-grandpa's OEM pelvis assembly.  That nice, new liner you're planning on assembling won't do much except form a nice, soft bag for your grey squiggly-bits if the force of an accidental impact isn't dispersed/s[read/absorbed by the helmet shell properly, a shell, let's not forget, that probably wasn't all that great to BEGIN with given the vintage.

  If you really want the vintage look, there are plenty of DOT-approved modern replacements made from original Bell and other molds, many with old-skool fat-flake paint, fittings for the old "face bubble" sheilds, etc., and THOSE won't shatter on impact...

  -M

[Tom Graham]

Not to worry Matt, The old Star will be used as a prop for display along with
my old prescription goggles. Still, an old helmet is better than no helmet.

I went to Iron Pony with TomH and we looked at the retro open face Bells. I
particularly like the metal flake Gold and Root Beer colors. Both matched my
Triumph well enough to consider buying but I'm stuck on full face now.

Tom

[jimjim]

I prefer my modern Shoei X-11 full face helmet so at least I'll have a chance to make vintage.....oh wait I'm already vintage. ;-)

[Dick the Brit]

Good job I didn't explain how I "restored" my late '80's scottish made helmet with 3M spray mount, that I may or may no have worn to Woodlands...

Is the Bell fibreglass, or polycarbonate? If GRP it may still be servicable assuming the styrofoam inner is undamaged.

Of course, no old helmet will be as effective as a newer one, but the same could be said of me and my bike...

Richard.