The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Tech → "Decorating" your racing suit.
So let's say you want to take a paintbrush/spraycan or maybe some iron-on patches to your helmet and your certified SFI 3.2A/5 racing suit in order to go along with your car's theme. Can this be done without violating the SFI ratings? Would it make you fail tech for any other reason? Is this just an incredibly stupid idea that I should have posted in the Newcomers section to avoid the inevitable flames?
I would avoid ironing on things to your suite, have a feeling it might damage the coating, you can though buy Nomex thread and sew it on. I do not believe you can iron patches to helmets physically.
As for painting your helmet, I would do some research. There is some paint that will work and some might peel right off, and other can possibly damage the coating.
Not really a great plan as all that stuff you talk about putting on is flammable. I know people put patches on their suit all the time but it seems to me that putting non-nomex on top of nomex just creates a hot spot in the suit if you catch on fire. Don't think that's as big of an issue with the outside of the helmet since the rest of you will be in pretty tough shape by the time a fire burns through a helmet. Not sure what your decorating buys you as it's tough to see what drivers are wearing while out on track. For all anyone can tell from the spectator area we are bombing around wearing nothing more than a jockstrap. You could always just decorate up coveralls and an old pre SA2005 helmet and let your inner jackass out in the paddock that way.
Plenty of folk put patches on their suits and pass tech. I see people with at least a dozen Lemons patches on their suits alone at every race. Just use cotton thread so that it burns first and then the flaming patch will fall off in the worst case. I haven't seen tech DQ any suit yet for having patches sewn on it.
Helmets get custom painted all the time. Just check with the manufacturer to find out what kind of paint to use (latex, enamel, finger paint, edible body paint....).
I say go ahead and iron a patch in to your helmet what's the worst that could happen??!!
DO NOT iron patches on to your suit, sew them on. Nomex thread is preferred, but honestly it won't make a huge difference when you're on fire if you don't use it.
As for your helmet, if you want the paint to stick you will need to sand it first, and use the right paint, otherwise it will peel right off. I'm not sure of the type of paint to use but I'm sure the manufacturer can tell you.
Take a page from trekkor's outfit. They seem to use some sort of painter's jumpsuit and appropriate headwear. I really like the results.
http://forums.24hoursoflemons.com/viewt … 24#p160924
Haha, perhaps I should have worded that slightly differently. I wasn't planning on trying to iron anything to my helmet.
Thanks for the other tips, though. We'll see if this goes anywhere. Now just to find a suit in the right color. It seems like everything out there is red, blue, or black...
It may be worth finding an old helmet(s) and/or suit(s) to do this to. That way you are not affecting your actual racing safety gear. I know I have at least one complete set (helmet and suit) that is too old to be useful and could be had pretty darn cheap.
I'd keep the suit absolutely stock, unless you're just applying patches. I almost purchased an eBay suit for cheap money from a movie prop company until I realized they had added several pockets to the suit that didn't come from the Sparco factory.
I added two patches to my suit (a Lemons patch and one with my name so it would be different from the other 30 identical Pyrotect suits at an event) with cotton thread and was very careful to make sure they were only attached to the outer layer of the suit. They're also attached in a way so that if the worst happens and a tech inspector who hasn't had his morning pour of Johnnie Walker says, "Ummmmmm no," they can disappear in about 30 seconds.
I need to put one of these on the back of my black jumpsuit so I look cool in the paddock
I try to wear my yoyodyne propultion systems T-shirt as often as I can.
I try to wear my yoyodyne propultion systems T-shirt as often as I can.
When are we going to turn some laps?
Real soon now!
Decorate your suit to your delight. Sewn cotton thread is a plus for patches, do whatever you want to your helmet... just don't pierce the shell. No basting your gear with napalm. Enough said.
About painting a helmet: if it has a fiberglass shell they can be scuffed with fine sandpaper etc and painted without fear of doing any damage, just don't sand down to fibers. Now, if it's polycarbonate shell (very unlikely) then the solvents in paints can attack and weaken the plastic. As a general rule, Snell helmets are fiberglass but there are a few polycarbonates out there so it bears checking before squirting.
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Tech → "Decorating" your racing suit.