Helmet repairs

[Precious]

My helmet is HIPS plastic from the Plastic Empire. While I was at CVI, I dropped my helmet and it broke. It has a big crack right on the crown of the helmet that runs all the way to the visor. Naturally, the paint is chipping away too. The crack goes all the way through the plastic: you can see it on the outside and the inside. Does anyone have any tips on how I might repair it? I figure that once the crack is repaired, I'll have to sand it and then probably repaint the whole helmet. Any ideas on what I should use to repair the crack? Unfortunately, I can't post any pictures yet because the helmet is in transit. I shipped it to Florida (hoping to prevent damage) and had to ship it back to New Mexico. The helmet should arrive on Tuesday. Consequently, I don't think it liked the humidity of Florida: when I packed it, I wraped it in velvet and filled the box with bubble wrap, but when I opened it in Florida, the plastic was chipping on the inside of the base of the helmet. Does anyone have any ideas how I might prevent future chipping?

[LuciousTalvloinne]

hmm did you take pics of the helmet cracks?

[JesterTDA]

My clone armor is HIPS and I've been using goop I created from taking some of my cuttings and putting them in a jar with acetone. The goop has the consistency of toothpaste and it actually slightly melts both sides of the plastic before hardening (overnight or even longer). Once hardened it's a solid piece of plastic again. If you could fill the crack you'd then be able to sand the whole thing down and re-paint. Not sure about the humidity and the paint though. Bummer!

[Precious]

Here are some pictures of my helmet cracks: 2 of the main cracks seen on the outside of my helmet, 1 of the chipping inside my helmet. Unfortunately, I can't repair the cracks with scrap plastic because I purchased my helmet complete; I don't have any HIPS scraps to use!

[the dark knight]

I love HIPS! I think I might have a solution for you. You can buy some CA glue from your local hobby shop, and it will instantly bond the break back together. CA is like super glue on steroids and cures very, very fast (dont get it on you, or you will glue yourself together). For covering the crack, you could use spot putty, or a high build primer and re-spray the helmet. If you need HIPS scraps, you could buy a handycap or no parking sign at your local Lowes or Home Depot. They run around 3-5 bucks for a 3x2 ft sign, and they are HIPS. I use them all the time to sculpt with and build things out of. For example-



I built the front half of this conning tower out of the Hips sign, and CA glue. Then I will lay fiberglass over the conning tower to make a master to mold from.

[boushhfan]

Hi,

Have you contacted the maker? They may be able to give you some suggestions.

Boushhfan

[Andrew]

I would probably use this technique, it's cheap, and works very easy and quick for the little damage you have.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Repair- ... /?ALLSTEPS

I would actually use painters tape, tape about a 2 inch gap around the crack, sand it, do the above technique, then lightly sand with a fine grade sand paper.

Clean with a damp cloth. Then primer it, probably a grey primer to keep the color consistent. Then just take the helmet to large chain hardware store, put it on the color scanning machine, and have them make you a can of the corresponding color.

You might actually get away with not having to sand the whole thing.

Worst case, you have to sand it, either way you were thinking of doing that anyway, best case, this works.

[JesterTDA]

Chances are you'll have to sand and repaint the entire helmet because the chances of you matching up the paint is slim to none. But that's okay, wetsanding is lots of fun!

I like the idea of CA glue, it should work without too much issue. If you want you can get a CA glue accellerant from a hobby shop. I'm not sure if it affects the strength but I've used it to hold magnets in place and I've had 0 failures which is a good rate for me.

Also, the dark knight is right...No-Parking and Handicap signs I've found at Walmart are HIPS and work just fine in acetone.

[The White Knight]

Hello all. Thank you for all your advice. I am Precious' fiance' and I'm actually going to be the one doing the fixing. I figured it would be good for me to get on these forums in case I had questions of my own as I work on her helmet. We'll keep you posted on the progress.

[JesterTDA]

Great...best of luck!