the quarterly magazine of the ! Ferrari Club of America INTRODUCTION to hélme MICHAEL CHARNESS provide a primer ‘on how you can perform a custom paint job on your helmet. acing, we know each diver y edn hdnt gic Sp rae ata erage er glee helent fe asian acide to tasks Count oersoeby acetone par pnmeere pe eerawepitern pots stsntcct Motte tet ee Se Lol paper eryine yn gs SRST aie gw uscee tensa ove Sobek ee be a ern aoe Dasdpredoote SSeS TS svn mceserernarend serene Tre ante coma ates sees gi ee dom aren etre some sielct mates nr be ete Peper gay Clgied ipod panera aoa Os cia ee ne ar eur antl vec ee eer ce ee ‘design I did fr one of our FCA Souths! Region members comple sei tailybe'on eos sms i Tea il nl be long al pa vty wd an eap an ial ion aa etpaoiees See ree Seaside lek gating Iolten blve or purple 20 you con easily tell the difference). | olso use 1/8" eee ee epeimareingect sala See rt Your helmet needs to be in good condition. If it has cracks or other defects that could affect its ability to protect you, you should definitely replace it. However, if it merely has small scratches or scuffs, they can be filled with spot putty (fine-grained Bondo in a tube] and smoothed out before priming. Decide on a design before you start. Check out magazines with rac- ing photos and decide what you like, keeping in mind that the design will have to be adapted to your helmet. Your helmet may not have the same visor oR an lines, oat sate: wickers and vents and so different from the one that struck you in a photograph. The Wee ‘are greater yet with open face versus full-face models. | usu- ally take a: digi picture of the helmet | will be working on before | start. ‘Then, | place and tweak the design elements on top of the photo in a dig ital sketch using sofware such as PhotoShop or CorelDraw. ‘Once you settle on a design, take your helmet apart as much as pos: sible before initial sanding. With most helmets not much will come off besides the visor, some of the vent covers and sometimes rubber mold- jing. Mask the rest as carefully as possible. | use two types of masking tape for this task: the 3M blue vinyl tope in 1/8" and 1/4" widths and regular painter's masking tape in various widths. Do not scrimp on the ‘masking tape — you will want high quality, fresh tape that leaves a clean ‘edge with no residue. | use the 1/8" blue vinyl tape along the edges of the rubber molding and small hardware items. | meri | the blue tape with regular masking tope for he rest ofthe helmet. When you are done, the only opening in the masking tape should be at the base of the hel- met, so you can support it while painting. | use an old microphone stand with a tennis ball on top, and | place the helmet on it while doing most cof my painting, Any kind of similar support will be fine. rancing horse fourth quorter Zoos #157Some painters ignore the vents when masking, but if you take the time to mask them, it wl give your hel- imet a more facory-like, professional look. tis subtle, but worh the extra effor. In photo No. 1, you see me using tweezers to insert a strip of paper into a vent. It usually takes two strips per vent, and it is sometimes a challenge fo ge them worked in there ‘Once the helm s fully masked, peel off any stck- ers and lightly sand the helmet surfoces with wel-ond- dry paper. | usually use 400-grit with a light touch, but if you are new at it, you might want fo use 600: aft, Use plenty of water o keep the sandpaper and surface fresh, You only want to sand off the shine — sand lightly. Aer masking and sanding, make sure you do not have any fingerprints or grease on the surface of the helmet. You con do a quick wipe with lacquer thin- ner and then use @ painters “tack cloth” to clean off ‘any dust just before spraying. Use automotive primer forthe first coat, You do not want fo put it on thick, but you do want fo make sure all creas to be pointed are primed, Primer has beter binding prop- erties than most paints, which is why you want fo put it onto the factory surface first. Aulomotive primer out of a spray can is quite adequate. Depending on bs aie Bela ya nen Sosemicvee ey Heh to use a light or o dark primer. I generally use white or black rather than the more common grey. You can 102 in photo No. 2 that | have used while primer, 4 the base for the white areas in the final design. Since itis the some color as the underlying helmet, | can get by with jus light coat Now thot the helmet has «1 good primed surface for the new paint fo adhere to, stort fo mask for pot tering, Expect to spend significantly more fime preparing and masking your helmet than painting it Use the 1/8" bive vinyl tape to lay out the basic shops is ese and oon cs baer hve pin stripes os lines betveen panels, but it depend othe dasa, Ths dong cams pation around the fop panel. The 1/8" fope is also used in pinskiping. The helmet paint can be any automotive paint. If you want a high degree of control — and you should ~use a paint spray gun and an airbrush driven by «an cir compressor that hos © pressure regulator and ‘a water trap, The airbrush is used for most of the calor work and can be either single-action or double- cation, The double-cction airbrush provides. more control, but it also takes more practice o get the fel of it. The paint spray gun will be used for the clear coat and for larger expanses of color, such as the bose red of the example helmet. The spray gun should be a “touch-up” gun, a mid-size sprayer such «3 those made by Binks or Devils. INTRODUCTION te hélme painting MICHAEL CHARNESS provides a primer ‘on how you can perform a custom paint job on your helmet. smooth or “deep” looking as « clear cat alyzed urethane. Iti very diffcul to get 0 good final finish out ofa spray can. It may Took acceptable from a distance, but it wll 1no! look professional up close. IF you ore using « sprey gun and air- brush, you probably want fo ge your paints «at your lacol automotive paint supply store €or go online fo sites such os innate.com or ‘uocircolors.com and find an online source «or local dealer. Using automotive paint also means you will have more choices: regular cond metallic colors, and specially paints: pearls, candies, metal Rakes, chameleon fipeops and other special-ffect pains not ‘valle in spray cans. Of course, the colors all have to be done one ata time, remasking everything else as you progress. The parficular design shown in this article has five major elements: a red bose, « checkered flag pattern on each side, « grid pattern on top and o prancing horse ‘on the back. In photo Ne. 3 you can see that the red base has been applied after masking, Since its o translucent paint, you can see the blve tape through i. Since the back yellow area is going to have @ hard edge without @ pinstripe ‘round i fist painted he entre rear of the helmet in yellow. You can see this with the masking partially pulled away in photo No. 4. Using blue ope, You can actually do a simple helmet design, using acrylc- I carefully masked off the curved edge and used paper and regu- bosed paint spray cons purchased from your local hardware or lar masking tape fo protect the inside of tha area. Then I poinled hobby store. You can produce an okey paint job with just spray more white primer over the helmet. This gave a consistent white cons, but your final lear coat Finish will not be as durable or os base for the nex! application, the dominant red colr. nen dFNext, | prepored the top panel for a “Schumocher-syle” three-dimensional grid, minus his usval stars. | masked off the entre helmet except for the top and carefully used blue vinyl tape to lay out the grid. | then sproyed the entire panel with a light mist coat of a bronze chameleon pearl, to give it some extra “flash” when viewed in direct sunlight. In photo No. 5, | am using on cirbrush to add shading around each of the grid lines to pro vide an ilusion of depth, The red underneath forms the square borders when the tape is removed, as you can see in photo No. 6. The white pinstripe around that area is also now visible, You might be surprised lo learn that the var- ious logos on Michoel Schumachers helmets ore produced using stickers or tronser shoes Of course, it has been reported that he has over 30 helmels created each season — one for each race, plus helmets for qualifying and proctice sessions, so it is not very practical to Toke the extra time fo do those details in paint Spectators cannot tll the difference from a dis ance. You con cut the prancing horse out of a sicker purchased from your local Ferrari dea! cer and apply it before doing clear coat, but | prefer fo paint i. | cut @ stencil from fisket oper or vinyl mask material o: shown in photo No. 7, then spray the block with an cirbrush. Afor the meskis removed, | paint the details by hand with a finetip brush as shown jin photo No. 8. | keep a factory sticker handy fo remind me where the highligh’ go on the horse ‘Aer all of the color and patern work is complete, the helmet needs to be clear coated Ths od brighnrs ane gost te piv ‘and protecis your paint from minor dings and scrtthes dhrngrarml use To ge he est ish, you will need @ spray gun to apply the dleor catalyzed urethane commonly used on modem cars. In photo No. 9, you con see the “touch up" sized spray gun along with cans cf deor urethane ond catalyst, There are sever- al brands and variations of clear urethane ovcilable at automotive paint supply stores. The price can be as high as $80 per quart, much more than most pigmented points. Read the insuctons for your particular brand, but most use one-port catalyst additive to four parts clear base, and require 30-35 pounds of pres- sure atthe sprayer. You will want to put on a least wo cools, waiting about fen’ minutes between coats. For a deeper look and more durability, | use five 0 six coats. ‘ler the clear coat has adequately cured (usually 24 hours), you will need to wet sand the surface to get out any imperfections, 10 LQ worerenner smooth out the lines between colors and to achieve @ mirorlke finish. Usually 2,000 grit sandpaper is adequate, but ifit is particularly cough, you may need 1,000-gr* first. Always use plenty of wot taeoh fec rc end your sandpaper from gumming up wit rete, Abra high aval fine grit liquid polishing compound to bring he sonded surface oa high-gloss finish. For the hand polishing, | use Machine Polish #2 and #3 from Griot's Garage (griolsgarage.com), but there are many brands from which to choose. Finish it off with © coat oF two of your favorite automotive wax or polymer sealant. The finished helmet is shown in photo Nos. 10 and 11. Photo No, 12 shows the rear of another hel- met | did with o soft edge around the yellow, flared stars on the top, and some sor graphics There i really not much of an excuse to wear 0 plain one-color helmet, unless you want that hard-boiled egg look Although not a rvial undertaking (with prices ranging from $250 to well over $1000), having your helmet painted or doing it yourself can add some panache to your track experience. A nicely ted helmet draws attention and admiring looks every fime you take it out of the helmet bag or have it sting on your cor fr even in your den on that "special shel? with your prized medels. Many of us consider our Ferraris “road art,” ond there is really no reason that your track helmet cannot also be a piece of art, reflecting the uniqueness of your car cand your personal sie ‘Mickoe Caress, who writes he °Concours 8 Detling Ts forthe FCA Newsbol, Carrenty the Sutoos Ragin Deer He cn be reached rough war FCASSE.om or tough his ww helntpining