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How to Paint a Football Helmet Correctly With 7 Basic Steps

The football helmet is one of the most important items a player has on the field! It protects players from head injuries, and helmets also serve to identify players from different teams – just like football uniforms. Using football helmets regularly and over a long period of time causes them to gradually become discolored and old. So you can use paint to redecorate your helmet to look like new. The football cap repaint is custom and you can do it to your liking. But do you know how to paint a football helmet properly? Today’s article helmetme.com will walk through the entire process to color your football helmet easily.

Tools needed to paint a helmet

First of all, you need to prepare all the necessary tools. Normally, to repaint a helmet, you will need the following items:

  • Paint
  • Airbrush
  • Tape
  • Sandpaper
  • Clear Coat
  • Tack Cloth

How to paint a football helmet correctly

Once you have prepared all the necessary tools that we just mentioned, now let’s get to the main work. Here, we have shown step-by-step instructions that you will easily follow.

Step 1: Clean the helmet

Before starting to paint the helmet, the first step is to make sure the painted surface is clean and ready to be painted. To prepare your football helmet, scrape off any patches from the surface and remove any gum residue if present. Then, wash the helmet using a sponge and soapy water. This will help remove all debris, dirt, and other particles from your helmet. Then let the helmet air dry or simply wipe it off with a dry cloth. Taking the second method will shorten your process. Now move on to the next step.

how to paint a football helmet

Step 2: Sanding the helmet

Sanding a helmet for paint is one of the most important jobs that need to be done carefully. You should use fine-grained sandpaper during the rubbing process to avoid damage to the hat. The purpose of this process is to smooth the surface for ease of painting. This is not the same as removing the previous coat of paint, so you don’t need to use hard materials to avoid damaging the surface. Also, to smooth out the dents on the helmet, you should use a sanding block. And make sure to roughen the entire surface so that the paint can adhere firmly. Wipe off any remaining dust with an elastic cloth.

Step 3: Cover the inside of the helmet

Why should you cover the inside of a helmet? The answer is to prevent excess paint dripping on the helmet from getting inside. To wrap the helmet, you can use a clean newspaper. In addition, you can also use masking tape to cover surfaces that should not be painted. And when covering these areas, make sure that masking tape or whatever visor you’re using is firmly attached to the hat.

Step 4: Add a Guide coat

In this step, you will conduct a test coat of black on the outside of the hat to check that it is completely smooth after the sanding process. Once the coating is complete, all areas to be smoothed will remain black. In contrast, in smooth areas, the black coating will decrease or disappear completely. If your football helmet requires extra sanding, smooth it, then clean the surface to remove more dust.

Step 5: Hang the helmet up 

This is an important step because when you hang the hat, you can see the thickness of the coating. Choose a suitable hanging spot like a clothesline, a tree, a candlestick, or something similar. If you don’t have one of those, crimp a wire hanger and hang it on a tree instead. Once the helmet is hanging off the ground and the edges aren’t touching anything, you can start painting.

Hang the helmet up 

Step 6: Start painting

When painting a helmet, always be sure to do it in a place with proper ventilation. This is mandatory, especially if you are not painting the outside. Alternatively, use cardboard to line the bottom and fence around the painted area. It will keep you from getting spray paint on the wall. When painting, hold the spray about 8 to 12 inches away from the helmet. And while painting, do it for a short, controlled amount of time.
 Apply a light coat of paint that covers the entire helmet and let it dry. Wait for the first coat to dry which can take about fifteen to twenty minutes depending on the product, then apply a second coat. Check the helmet to make sure the paint has dried evenly. If there’s something you don’t like, you can apply a third coat of paint and let it dry. Once the helmet is dry, you can re-glue the decals and inner padding of the helmet.
Start painting

Step 7: Polishing

You definitely want your helmet to look shiny and smooth, right? For best results, we recommend using a car polish, which can be purchased at many auto supply stores. Using a small cloth, spread the wax evenly over the entire surface, focusing on small areas at a time. Once the top coat has dried, you can polish your helmet to a deep shine similar to a custom car paint finish. Now you’ve learned how to paint a football helmet, right?

Why should I paint a football helmet?

There are many reasons you should paint your football helmet. Here are some of the best we can recommend:

  • Refresh helmet: If you use the hat for quite a long time, the hat will become old and fade in color. It would be boring to use an old helmet. So why not repaint your helmet to give it a fresh look and boost your football inspiration?
  • A change in Team Color: Another reason you need to repaint your helmet is when your team needs to change the color of the helmet. This saves money to buy a new one and gives your team a new color.

How to remove scratches from a football helmet?

If you are an avid football fan and regularly play this king sport, surely your helmet appears many scratches. So what causes your helmet to scratch? Scratched and torn helmets are caused by dirt accumulated for a long time on the surface. So how can you remove it? Just simple. Prepare a mixture of soap, dishwashing liquid, and water. Then, dip a soft cloth into the bowl, squeeze out the water and wipe the entire surface of the helmet with the towel. Next, use a brush to rub the scratches until they are even. Then wipe the football helmet with a dry cloth, invert it and let it air dry for about twelve hours.

To sum up, football helmets are one of the essential tools for soccer players to avoid head injuries while playing. Painting football helmets is really an easy thing to do if you follow the right steps. In today’s article, we have shown how to paint a football helmet with 7 simple steps. Hope you have followed closely and can do it easily at home. Follow helmetme.com for more helmets.

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