Painted My Crackhead Helmet

I was getting pretty sick of my “crackhead” Scorpion helmet. I LOVE scorpions, but I hated mine cause of the graphics… so…after seeing Inky’s work on Brian Parriott’s helmet, I decided that if she could do it, I can freggin do it!

I started by busting out photoshop and making a mockup of how I wanted my helmet to look. I came up with this; simple yet stylish:

scorpion helmet custom 4 design

So I set to work yesterday afternoon prepping it.

I sanded and sanded till my hands were numb, then I primered it in Cherry Red, then sprayed it with Satin Black. It didn’t look very black. In fact, it kinda looked more like silver. I’d wondered if the can of Krylon was mislabeled…

I printed out a template of my “4” logo in the exact size I wanted it. I meticulously laid out all painters tape and templates and masked over all the vents and plastic bits that I didn’t want to be painted. I spent at LEAST an hour doing so keeping my mockup photoshop drawing in mind…

scorpion exo700 custom paint job

I was getting a little worried, as my painjob wasn’t coming out as smoothly as I’d hoped for… I’ve painted a fair bit of plastics and the likes in the past, but never a helmet.

I threw a couple more coats of paint on it, let it dry, then hit it with clearcoat. INSTANTLY the paint started reacting in the oddest of ways. Nearly bubbling. So I hit it with even more clear. Round and round I went, blasting the hell out of it with clearcoat, hoping to clear it into submission.

What. The. Hell.
screwed up custom painted scorpion helmet

It didn’t look ANYTHING like I’d mocked up. It was starting to look more like it was painted BY a crackhead. Bah!

I put the helmet back together to get an idea of how it looked completed and to figure outhow I can make it all better again….
custom painted helmet scorpion

So I spent a couple more hours sanding, buffing, rubbing, tugging, pulling, pushing, and polishing…and made a quick run to Cycle Gear, and VIOLA! My helmet is done! All in all, it took me a total of about 5 and a half hours to do.

If you’re looking to have your helmet custom painted by me, just lemme know! I’ll do em for $1500 each. *giggle*

scorpion hollywood helmet

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8 Comments

  1. No worries, just let me know and your covered.

  2. Should a called me. The problem was most likely you put the clear on too quickly after the color which makes the color lift. Plus rattle cans are a bitch for that, they never really work well. The next time you want that done, buy a black helmet and I’ll knock it out for you, gratis. I paint all of our helmets, hell over the winter I even enjoy doing it.
    Cheers,
    Rich Snowden
    AFM #70

  3. Who is “Viola”…that chick from the Jane’s Addiction song? ;) Certainly an improvement over the factory look, I’ll give you that.

  4. gimme my 15 seconds back bitch

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