Home made spray booth & new blue helmet

['The Gaffer']

Dave H and I in the garage, this time with a home made spray booth

Usual health and safety risk assessments were carried out.



Pic of Dave's finished helmet below - and before anyone asks, great care was taken to protect the inner styrofoam liner from the paint.


Now a matching blue as opposed to an old dirty white.

[Denzle]

I always thought that you shouldnt paint a skid lid as it weakens the material.  It also says that on the tab or paper that comes with it.

Also they say not to put stickers on it.

Is that a load of rubbish or what...as I want to put some style onto mine.

Does anyone know for sure......??

   Denzle....

[Hairy Santa]

Nice spray job  - looks the DB's

helmets are made from 2 types of material I was told, one is alright to spray tother isn't  - maybe someone can give us the lowdown - I cant remember - long time ago

Has Dave done his hair that nice shade of blue to match as well 

[YellaBelly]

Yep, you're right Pete.

THe old Polycarbonate type would go soft if painted (but then in those days it was with cellulose paints anyhow). The newer paints aren't so bad (i.e. Acrylic). Also, the fibreglass lids are fine with most paints.

JB

[alastair]

Hey David H, is that paint or Gel coat??

[Denzle]

Yep, you're right Pete.

THe old Polycarbonate type would go soft if painted (but then in those days it was with cellulose paints anyhow). The newer paints aren't so bad (i.e. Acrylic). Also, the fibreglass lids are fine with most paints.

JB

Giving my age away saying that, didnt I.........Silly old me....

[David H]

You can get my breathing apparatus from any good hardware store. The extractor fan was my Henry which just blew the paint particles out the back as blue dust so yes Pete, I ended up blue. Decided against pink mate. In fact, most of the garage floor ended up blue. The mobile spray booth is very expensive as it takes a lot of Gaffer tape to hold it together. Every time I opened the door to look inside I had to use more to close it!

Dont try this at home chaps. I've trained for years to hold my breath that long.

The paint is Halfords/Holts/Duplicolor spray cans so I'm doing good things for the environment.

The original finish on the helmet was gel coat. A little key down, some non etching primer followed by paint and lacquer.

Thanks for the concern re strength due to painting. The helmet is now stronger than ever. I tested this by dropping it off a multi-storey car park and it didn't completely smash. The last time I tried this it did so there's improvement.

My car is Gel coat so it took a couple of colours to get a match. Cant believe how close it ended up although the picture may be helping

[Furore Phil]

Thats a darned good finish you've got there. I thought it would be all rippled and runny as you did seem to over spraying a heck of a lot !

I'm one of those saddo's who follows the instructions and ends up doing 10 very light spray sessions spread over the entire day.

Did find a usefull tool though. The wife was chucking out one of those old spinning cake stands. Stand your item on it, keep the can steady and spin the table.

[YellaBelly]

What a top tip

Gaffer, I think we ought to start a new topic: 'Top tip of the week'

['Mendip Wurzel']

And I thought it was only me who sprayed whilst holding my breath....

[Krazyken]

Love the Health & Safety, perhaps The Gaffer and David H could do all the Risk Assesments for the club along with instructional videos. 

We could have "erecting the club banner" or "parking safely on a zebra crossing" the possibilities are endless......

[David H]

Thats a darned good finish you've got there. I thought it would be all rippled and runny as you did seem to over spraying a heck of a lot !

I'm one of those saddo's who follows the instructions and ends up doing 10 very light spray sessions spread over the entire day.

Did find a usefull tool though. The wife was chucking out one of those old spinning cake stands. Stand your item on it, keep the can steady and spin the table.

cracking idea!! I could have done with that.

I had a mirror smooth finish with the paint alone. I probably didn't need to lacquer it but I did which was much harder. The lacquer required quite a lot to get rid of settling bumps and in a way I wish I hadn't bothered. Once its dried properly I can get a mirror smooth finish back with compound but I may not bother as its ok.

Quite pleased with the result. The amount of money professionals charge for this work is worth every penny. It was a lot a work to do this properly.

Regards

H Safety