Rattle can helmet (flat black) w/ pics.

[Saved]

It started raining, so I decided to paint my $5 Nolan helmet today (Goodwill rocks!). As you can see below, the original was gloss black. My before pictures aren't the greatest, but there were a ton of scratches and ugly marks. I decided to go with flat black rather then gloss. My paint of choice: Walmart's cheap-o 99 cent cans! (Yay!). I used an adapter (as seen in the last photo) and it worked out great.

This is my second paint job with spray paint -- ever. The first was 14+ years ago when I spray painted my bike's forks. I think it turned out well, considering. Lets hope when I paint my scoot, all goes well!

Prep work:
1) 1 hour of sanding w/ 3M medium sponge. I believe this was a 600 grit equivalent.
2) Wash / dry
3) Tape, tape, and more tape. Newspaper here and there. I was getting pretty good at it near the end.
4) Drop cloth

Painting:
1) 8-9 light coats of flat black (bought 2 cans, used 1)
2) 1/2 second burst at a medium pace, 6-8" away from the helmet, making sure the paint didn't appear wet.
3) 5-7 minutes between coats

Project cost:
Helmet - $5
Paint - $2
Tape -$1
Drop cloth - $1
Spray paint adapter $2.50
Total: $11.50

[evilone]

Lookin good . Isn't your elite already flat black? Are you going to re-paint it flat black again. Sounds like my color choice except for plastics (waiting till front plastic isn't perfect, then it's all flat black)

[Saved]

The scoot isn't flat black, but close to it. The original owner used "wrought iron black" from Ace Hardware. It's better then flat black in my opinion as it has a little shine to it.

I'll be painting my scoot using one of these schemes:

[evilone]

I vote for the green.

[evilone]

And what program did you use to change color schemes?

[Saved]

I posted 15-20 color schemes here:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13436

I used GIMP (anything similar to PSP or Photoshop will work). I simply cut out the sections I was going to edit, saved them as new images, changed the colors, then pasted the part where it belonged.

[Saved]

My helmet bounced around in my milk crate all day today. Roughly 50 miles. The paint doesn't scratch easily, but it scuffs easily, if that makes sense. There were a few shiny marks which were taken care of after washing. I think I'm going to get some clear coat, even matte. I found Krylon gloss clear coat for $2.97 at Meijer today, so I might go with that as well.

[patthesoundguy]

Nice job! I got some of that same paint at walmart the other day it was $2.34+tax/can here in canada. and went to get some gloss a day later that same paint had dropped to $1.94+tax/can, I thought I had hit the jackpot... tht is what we get for only having 33 million people instead of 309 million lol

[Saved]

I bought 3 clans of the gloss but I haven't used it. I'm worried that it'll be too glossy. I watched my friend spray paint his truck w/ the same paint and it looked pretty rough with that hick shine to it.

I've got a few cracked panels, I'll try it on them I guess.