Helmet Troubles

[LupineSojourner]

Ok so I bought a cheap 'silver' spray paint without doing research on better metallic spray paints, and now I realize Rust-oleum has a great metallic paint called Dark Steel.
If I wanted to remove the spray paint currently on my helmet (which is pvc), should I use sandpaper to sand off the spray paint? If so, what grit would y'all recommend.
I'm really new to all this.

 

[bigkidbiggertoys]

Do you need to remove the paint at all or can you just paint over top. What types of paint are you using?

 

[ShortFuse]

I would probably just hit it with some fine sandpaper and then put on a light coat of primer before painting it with the dark steel paint.

 

[LupineSojourner]

Do you need to remove the paint at all or can you just paint over top. What types of paint are you using?

The main reason I'd like to remove the paint is to give it a smoother finish and not have too many layers of paint on my helmet so it looks better...
The paint I used is a silver spray paint that didn't have the finish I thought it would, so I'm planning on using the Dark Steel paint to make it look more metallic than it does right now.

 

[LupineSojourner]

I would probably just hit it with some fine sandpaper and then put on a light coat of primer before painting it with the dark steel paint.

That's kinda what I was planning on doing. What grit would you suggest?

 

[bigkidbiggertoys]

You would probably want to use the finest grit necessary to smooth out the finish, probably some 220 grit would suffice and still give enough "tooth" for the next top coat. No need to take it all the way down to 80 grit, you would just need to sand out those scratches after.

I honestly wouldn't try and strip it right down unless you had too many layers of paint or an adhesion problem, you could end up doing more harm than good.

I agree with ShortFuse, another thin layer of primer to block the different paints, and then you new top coats

 

[LupineSojourner]

You would probably want to use the finest grit necessary to smooth out the finish, probably some 220 grit would suffice and still give enough "tooth" for the next top coat. No need to take it all the way down to 80 grit, you would just need to sand out those scratches after.

I honestly wouldn't try and strip it right down unless you had too many layers of paint or an adhesion problem, you could end up doing more harm than good.

I agree with ShortFuse, another thin layer of primer to block the different paints, and then you new top coats

Ok! I'll probably just smooth out the current paint job then apply the primer and then the top layer. Thank you guys so much!