I painted a walmart baseballs helmet the other day with 1 shot.I wiped the helmet off with paint thinner with some lacquer thinner in it. usually this does the trick as prep for spraying the helmet but this time the paint didnt stick good at all u can rub it off with your finger. id like to hear how others prep a ball helmetr for painting. any one care to share what they charge for helmets ? i know there are a lot of varibles in the pricing.
Posted by Kristie Byrnes (Member # 3510) on :
Hey Stan, Greetings. I just did a couple of plastic baseball helmets with American flags on each. What I did was to first clean them with Rapid Prep, tape off the paint area, scuff with a scotch brite, and sprayed the area with Krylon Fusion for plastic. Then I airbrushed the artwork on with 1Shot. When I finished all that, I cleared the entire helmet with Krylon Clear, being sure to only "dust" the 1st coat. Proceeded to add 2 more coats of clear. Came out really well, and all paint stuck tight. I don't usually deal with plastic and paint, so I decided to try the Krylon and it worked great to base it.
Good luck, Kristie
Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
we get to see the helmets, kristi?
Posted by Kristie Byrnes (Member # 3510) on :
sure Don, If'n I ever figure out how to do that...hehehe.
Posted by R T Thomas (Member # 355) on :
Hi Stan,
I don't know if you are airbrushing these or not. I do airbrush them and I probably do around 50-100 of them a year if not more.
I first get rid of most of the stickers that will come off easily. If they don't come off easily just paint right over them.(Most are gonna stay on forever anyway). The way I paint these things I can't spend much time on each one. I scuff with an ultra fine scuff pad, wipe down with Rapid Prep and Rapid Tac and paint with airbrush acrylics. (createx, aqua flow, etc.) then clear with a good rattle can brand. I personally like Rustoleum.
Like I said, I don't spend a lot of time on them because they are usually only being used for one year anyway and will be beat to all hell in the first few games.
Baseball is big business in this area and most of the kids want a new helmet from year to year. I charge a flat $25 just to touch one. I do quite a bit for that $25, but I limit them to just a few designs. If they want anything other than my standards I price them accordingly.
Hope this helps, R.T.
Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
Kristie, If you want to email pics to me, I can put them on my webspace and show you how to post them.
Posted by Stan Yates (Member # 3176) on :
thanks kristie and RT .Ill have to get some og that rapid prep. yes I airbrush the helmets with flames or what ever they want. Then i hand letter the name on.
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
didnt i see here somewhere you can use a heat gun or heat with a butane torch..the area you want to paint on the plastic....the high heat gets rid of the chemical in the plastic that wont let paint bond to it....or iam i just crazy????? now i opened that door....hehehehe
Posted by R T Thomas (Member # 355) on :
OP........that's true, but what it does is it gets rid of the mold release agents they use when molding the helmets. I find that Rapid Prep does that too and so I quit torching them a couple of years back with no detrimental effects.
See ya, R.T.
Posted by roger bailey (Member # 556) on :
You a smart guy R.T., I just can't beleive that "torch thing", takes too much time and dosn't get the plastic clean.
