Painting Goalie Helmets: So you want to look like a pro without paying for it?Apr 14 '05 (Updated Jul 07 '08) Write an essay on this topic.
Popular Products in Sport and Outdoor
The Bottom Line You can do it man! But please take care, that's your head in there.
What took you so long to inform us on how to paint a helmet? Well, the truth of it is that I never really planned to write this article. Yes, it’s something that I’ve done and I’ve been pretty pleased with my results. But the problem is that painting your own helmet is a little bit stupid. I admit it, for all of my tirades about player safety, I’ve broken one of the major rules about goalie masks myself. Painting them is often asking for trouble. You see there are issues with painting a mask that can cause real problems. None of the major mask makers will stand by their approval certificates if someone other than a factory approved helmet painter paints the mask. What does this mean? To me not a thing. I know that the process I used was safe and adults have the option of playing with a non-approved helmet anyway. (I guess they figure we grew up when most things that cause brain damage were overlooked so why start worrying about it now?) However, if a kid’s helmet gets a nice paint job, it might lead to them not being able to use it however. Most of the Canadian leagues require all players including the goalie to have a CSA and HCAA sticker on their helmet. These aren’t something that you can just buy on ebay although I’ve thought about making them on my computer. But that’s for another article. Further, if you use the wrong types of paint on a helmet you can turn a nice hard shell into a sponge. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think playing with a sponge on my head is a good idea. Goalie helmets work because the design deflects the energy of a shot away from the player’s head. If a helmet becomes at all softer during the painting process, it lowers the protection value substantially. All of that said, I am going to tell you how to paint a helmet safely. But bear in mind, my advice comes with no warranty. If you melt your helmet, don’t come crying to me. Making certain that your helmet is appropriate to paint Goalie helmets come in a wide variety of styles and materials. The only materials that I can attest to as both taking paint well and remaining safe are fiberglass and Kevlar reinforced fiberglass helmets. Helmets made from leather or tinfoil should never be painted under any circumstance. In fact they shouldn’t be used. Many of the less expensive helmets on the market are made from ABS plastic. I highly discourage painting of any ABS helmets. Plastics are highly reactive to paint and there is no telling what will happen is you attempt to paint one of these helmets with the wrong paint. Did you ever notice how model glue actually melted the parts together when you were a kid? Visualize that and then think about the thing you are going to use to protect your head from pucks. Check on the manufacture’s website to see what material your helmet is. Sometimes you can tell a fiberglass helmet by looking at the edges around the bottom and back. If there is a woven, rough texture there, it is likely fiberglass. Smooth or rolled edges generally indicate ABS plastic. There are also some newer materials used in a couple of brands. Among these helmets are a metal alloy woven into the helmet. Another uses a Lexan shell. I cannot attest to how well these helmets will take paint or what affect the preparation will have on the shell strength. Preparing the helmet The first thing that I always do when preparing a helmet is to take off all of the hardware and straps. It isn’t a bad idea to take some pictures or make yourself a drawing of how the helmet straps go on. More than once I found myself mildly confounded by the harness. They seem pretty simple until you try to put them back on. Then it’s amazing how complex a five-strap harness can be. Right now you’re looking at your helmet and thinking, “Why am I reading advice from someone who couldn’t put that back together?” aren’t you? Most helmets will have snaps that screw on with backings. These are easy to deal with. However other brands have been known to rivet on snaps. This makes life just a little more difficult. In the case of riveted snaps the best bet is to merely mask over them. A little masking tape and a sharp exacto knife will take care of getting the snap out of the way. The next task is to protect the lining of the helmet. This is another place that helmet preparation can vary. Some helmets have Velcro to hold the liners in place. These are quite a bit easier to work with. Simply pull your liner and tape up the inside of the helmet. (You don’t want overspray on the inside of the helmet). However, in most helmets you will find that at least part of the liner is permanently attached. Do not attempt to remove the liner. It is far more work than simply taping it off. In no case should you ignore taping the inside of the helmet. As reactive as ABS shells can be to paint, the manmade materials on the inside of the helmet are even more important. Even if the stray paint doesn’t change the pliability of the padding, you don’t want to finish a game with bits of metallic, fire-engine red in your hair and eyes. I always tape the inside of my helmet before I begin sanding it. Further, it isn’t a bad idea to plug the vent holes with something if the tape doesn’t butt up against them firmly. It keeps the lining clean and free of the paint and fiberglass resin that will be removed to paint the helmet. I prefer the new blue masking tape as it can be left on a little longer without getting hopelessly stuck. Sanding Once everything is taped up and the hardware is safely out of harm’s way, the sanding process can begin. Sanding is by far my least favorite part of doing a helmet paint job. It takes a fair amount of time. It is boring and there is a lot of nasty crap floating about. I highly recommend purchasing a good quality respirator before you start sanding. You will need it for painting anyway. I always use 400-grit sandpaper for preparing a helmet to take paint. Never use coarse sandpaper or any type of electrical sander to prepare a helmet. It should be tedious and boring. The last thing that you want to do is take off too much material. All that you really want to do in the sanding process is to take the shine off the helmet. Once the factory gloss is removed your paint will have a much better chance of staying on the helmet. Paint adhesion is the biggest problem that most helmet painters actually face. Brushing paint on a mask is hopeless. Many spray paints will also fall short. However, preparation is a big key as well. I will get into the types of paint later on in the article. As mentioned, the main point of sanding is to get the factory finish off the helmet. Sand the entire helmet then clean it with alcohol on a piece of soft cotton fabric. I prefer to use an old tee shirt. The helmet might look dull all over but when you clean it you will likely find a few shiny spots. I usually end up doing a couple touch up sandings after the first one. If you do have riveted on snaps, it is going to be hard to sand in close to them. Don’t worry too much about this area though, your straps will cover it up once the paint job is finished. If you do have some blemishes, no one will ever see them. Paint selection You will have to use an airbrush to paint your helmet. I purchased an Iwata Eclipse after much research pointed to it as one of the premium detailing airbrushes on the market. I would highly suggest that you practice using the airbrush on something other than a helmet for quite a while before you start spraying your lid. It definitely takes some practice. The best paint that I’ve found is Createx Auto Air. This is an automotive paint which is a water based acrylic. Why is this important? Water based paints are not going to affect the chemical composition of your helmet when they are applied. Oil based paints are more likely to have a negative reaction. The other really nice thing with Createx Auto air is that it is the only non-toxic auto paint I’ve come across. I still wear a respirator when I paint since I don’t really want to have lungs coated with any sort of paint, but Auto Air can be sprayed inside the house without killing everyone in your family from the fumes. The other nice thing about Auto Air is that it can be used with a bonding agent and a catalyst. The bonding agent helps the paint to adhere better. Remember that I mentioned that adhesion was a big problem in painting goalie helmets? The bonding agent is a huge factor in minimizing that issue with this paint. The catalyst is a fantastic addition as well. It allows you to heat dry the paint rapidly. I use a blow drier to dry each coat of paint on my helmets before adding the next one. In less than five minutes one coat is dry and I am ready for the next. The only downside to Auto Air is that it isn’t fully waterproof by itself. As you might imagine, this makes it a rather weak solution for goalie helmets alone. A simple clear coat at the end of the project will take care of that issue. You need the clear coat anyway. The fact that Auto Air is water based is very nice for cleanup. It can be accomplished in the sink with no worries about paint clogged drains or permanent stains. However, I do recommend that you buy the Auto Air cleaning solution as well. It is nice for those times when you accidentally forget to clean your airbrush and it ends up filled with dry paint. Priming One of the other nice things about Createx Auto Air is that they make a product called, "base coat". It comes in white and I think it is available in black as well. This is applied just like the paint would be with Bond All and Catalyst added to it. Once you have finished sanding, base coat the entire helmet. Base coat accomplished a couple of things for you. First and most importantly is it adds to the all important adhesion strength of the paint. Once again the adhesion issue is huge. I have three helmets that I’ve painted which are retired because the helmet is too old or worn out. But the paint looks pretty darn good on all three. The Base coat is a big part of this. The other thing that the base coat does is gives you a nice blank canvas to work with. Depending on the original color of your helmet, the sanding process likely caused some discoloration. On dark helmets there are often white spots that appear when sanding. Even if this isn’t the case, it’s nice to have a solid color background to start painting on. Trying to work on a blue or red background is not easy and takes a great deal more paint to cover. Auto Air is a translucent paint. It actually allows the colors beneath it to show through. White Base Coat allows you to paint the color you want to paint. Without it, you would end up with purple when spraying blue on a red helmet. It is good to have some sort of stand to put your helmet on when painting. Anything that supports it from the inside and allows you to reach all sides without touching the actual helmet is ideal. Mine is the tripod from an old guitar stand which is just tall enough to hold the helmet up off the workspace. It is also important to make sure that all the oils from your hands have been cleaned off the helmet. The cotton tee shirt rag and alcohol will take care of this. Handle the helmet with a piece of paper towel or the tee shirt rag after you’ve cleaned it. This again will help with adhesion. Painting Perhaps the hardest part of the paintjob is deciding what you want your helmet to look like. It is a personal statement, something that only the goalie really gets to make on the ice. Of course if you just like Smurfs or Barney, then the decision is pretty easy. For me, I wanted my helmet to say something about me personally. I thought about Swiss cheese, which would have been a commentary on my goaltending as well as a testament to my sometimes odd sense of humor. I actually went with a WWII fighter plane motif on the first helmet. Later a few weeks after a minor concussion in that helmet I was inspired by a bus with comic words all over it, like Vrooooom, and Woosh for the helmet I was upgrading it with. You can see pictures of that one on my profile page. It eventually earned me the nickname, “Batman” which has inspired my helmets since that day. For a first helmet, I would suggest keeping it pretty simple. The silver and black Batman helmet on my profile page is actually a pretty simple design. It is essentially a silver helmet with a single color design painted on it. This is the type of design that I would recommend for a first helmet. I finished the painting on this helmet in about 9 hours. Compare the blue batman helmet, which one took me well over forty hours of paint time. Once you’ve decided on a design there are a few ways to get it to the helmet. I generally paint my background colors first. The Blue Batman Helmet was painted midnight blue first. I added some clouds and the lightning next. Then I put my design on top of all of that. For simplicity, let’s assume a single color background. You will paint the entire helmet that color. Use a clean blow-dryer to dry your paint. I say clean, because an old one might have lint, dust or other such particles that will end up permanently embedded in your paint job. I did have one drier that blew rust all over my paint job. Needless to say I was less than pleased. From here you can start taping the helmet to prepare for the stenciling portion of the adventure. I tape the entire helmet. Again the blue masking tape is the best. This is a pretty important point. Cheap masking tape will pull your paint off sometimes. Don’t skimp here. When you pull off a chunk of pain the only option is to get out the sandpaper and start over. Tape the entire helmet exterior. This is where you have some options. Some people will opt to simply draw their design on the masking tape. I usually draw my design on a piece of adhesive back paper and then stick it on the mask. This allows me to move it around a bit to get an idea of where to place it. I have also printed out the designs on a computer printer which allows me to easily adjust the size or even skew the artwork shape wise to make certain it fits. However you do it, once you have your design in place, start cutting. You will need to use an exacto knife for this part. I’ve tried a few of them and found the standard blades to work best. Snap off knives aren’t sharp enough. The new swivel blade is a pain in the butt. Change your blade often. I used about a dozen blades on the silver batman helmet. If you are cutting into the helmet itself you need to really back off on your pressure. The perfect amount of pressure will just barely scratch the surface of the helmet. It takes a little practice. I would suggest starting out on the back plate of the helmet. Once you get the right amount of pressure down you shouldn’t be doing any damage to the helmet when cutting the tape. Once the stencil is cut out, you can base coat and paint your new section of helmet. Remember the base coat will allow you total coverage with the translucent paint so you can avoid blending it with the color beneath. Puckmugger’s cheating ways:Use a Sharpie to add some detail if you like. A lot of the black in the details on my Batman helmet was added in this manner. Once you paint the clear coat, no one will be able to tell the paint from the marker. If you are doing a multiple color design you will have to tape and cut again for each additional color. For this part the cheating on the computer option is out. I usually just tape over the current design and cut the next layer out by hand without even drawing it. The tricky part is to make certain that your first two colors have enough contrast that you can see the outlines through the tape. Even the blue masking tape is see through enough that you can accomplish this in good light. Puckmugger’s Law of Helmet Stenciling: Sharp exacto knives poking through the vent holes in the helmet will always aim directly for fingers inside the helmet. This will cause long delays in the painting process if not accounted for. Finishing Coat The clear coat is the frame that protects your work of art. I have tried a few different paints and found that Rustoleum Clear Lacquer is the best readily available finish coat. There are most likely some other automotive paints that are a little more durable. However, I haven’t had any issues with this paint when it is applied properly. The main thing to keep in mind is that your helmet will undoubtedly be struck by fast moving pucks (unless you are a terrible goalie or never plan to use it on the ice). While you could put 20 coats of mirror smooth lacquer on your mask, less is actually more in the case of your finish. My first helmet had a nice, encapsulated in liquid appearance to it. It looked amazing when it was finished. Unfortunately every time a puck hit my mask it shattered my generous coat of clear. After a few weeks it was like looking through a broken window at a really cool helmet inside. I’ve since come to the conclusion that lacquer isn’t going to give you the durability and the “ooh” factor at the same time. Personally I went ahead and opted for durability. If you experiment with another clear coat that works for both, I’d love to hear what works better. With the lacquer I simply put about three light coats on the entire helmet. This process will take several hours since you need to let the lacquer dry completely between coats or you will have runs. The thinner the coats are, the more durable the finish will be. I put it on thick the first time and that was a major factor in the crackle finish that I ended up with. That’s about it Keep in mind that I never promised this would be easy. My first helmet took me quite a while to paint. It’s a good idea to have a backup plan or another helmet to use while painting your first one. My first paint job was poorly planned. It left me without a helmet for a couple weeks while I figured the entire thing out. If you come up with other tips as you paint your helmet, please feel free to drop me a line so that I can share them with future readers. Also if you find this article helpful in painting your helmet, please send me a picture of it once it’s done. I’d love to take a look! Thanks for reading and best of luck! List of stuff you'll need - Airbrush and compressor (I used an Iwata Eclipse brush) - Blue masking tape - Createx Auto Air paint - Createx bonding agent - Createx catalyst - Createx base coat - sandpaper 400 grit or finer - Clear coat spray paint (I prefer Rustoleum Lacquer) - Exacto knives and plenty of sharp blades - Sharpies for some detail work Fitting Goalie Gear Goaltending 101: So you think you want to be a goalie, eh? My profile with helmet pictures  |
| Read all comments (6)|Write your own comment |
- Top 50
