Fine Tune Cycles

Recently I was contacted by a customer, commissioning me to repaint his daughters Helmet. She is a young, fast, aspiring BMX racer getting set to represent team GB at the world championships later this year. As part of the run up to the champs they have been getting all her gear customised, allowing her to get into the best possible level of confidence ahead of this years racing.

I started with a black Troy Lee designs G4 and was given a few ideas to start with. After going through 4 or 5 different design concepts we settled on her favourite and she gave me the colours of her current race bike, this will allow me to match the colour of helmet and frame. After masking all the plastic trim I started with wet sanding to remove the original paint and logos, getting the helmet as smooth and clean as possible. With the sanding completed I removed the original masking and re masked every where, all plastics, all vents and the main openings of the helmet to protect the internal foam structure from paint over spray.

I used a specialist primer which seals but does not damage EPS foam, further protecting the helmet from possible damage caused by the paint. Once the primer had cured fully, it was sanded back and initial painting was started. Applying a silver base coat and marking the design, using a mixture of fine line vinyl tape and paper masking tape I moved onto further colours. Gradually revealing colours, re-masking areas and adding fades, a colour shift layer and final details.

It was the biggest challenge I’ve had for any custom paint project so far and over the course of a few days I learnt a lot! With the paint design on the main helmet complete I turned my attention to the peak of the helmet. Aligning the design with the chosen peak position to ensure the design flowed nicely from peak to main helmet. Finally finished with 6 coats of clear and a thorough sanding, buffing and polishing process to bring the shine out of the clear coat. Good luck for the upcoming races and I’ll be cheering you on at worlds!