Here is the journey of this poor helmet....
Started off with eagerness, sanding with larger grits of sandpaper until I got to fine steel wool and a semi polished look, I understand this should have been the last thing I did but the shininess gave me motivation, I'm a simple man . I cut out the T section and made a paper template for the visor, taped it to my face shield and cut it out.
Use a face mask, please. An N95 preferably, resin is no joke when it gets into your lungs. For added precaution I had my shop vac clamped near by and a fan blowing across me, directing the dust into the vac hose. Not perfect, but better than nothing.
Look at this handsome boy
Now this, this right here is where everything went down hill. Everything was fine, I came to terms that I wouldn't be able to wear the helmet, it's cool, I'll paint it and sit it on a shelf. But the visor...the damn visor wouldn't sit flush against the inside of the helmet no matter where I sanded, no matter how much I sanded, no matter how much I bent the visor, no matter where I tried to set the visor. Seeing these gaps, it's an itch that can't be scratched. I could add a thin strip of bondo for the visor to sit flat against but then I started to notice how thick the mandible edges already were and there was an indent from the top to the bottom, as if a visor was supposed to sit inside this indent but it wasn't uniform. I chalked it up to a weird defect in the casting or some internal structure that held the molds t visor in place. Either way, I couldn't paint over it, it would stand out like a stripper in a church. It had to go.
I sanded some more and noticed the inside of the helmet really wasn't as uniform as I thought. So I sanded the entire inside, more and more every day. Seeing Every millimetre being scrapped away, I started to gain hope my face would actually fit inside. Until I got too close to the sun, the helmet couldn't support it's own weight anymore.
This was harder than I thought, picking away all the small resin blobs and trying to sand what was left. I had to add jb weld to some of the chipped corners.
Added studs to keep the ear piece straight, the ones molded into the helmet were too shallow. I'll add a magnet when I set the stalk.
The initial sanding technique, to find the thickest parts and only dremel those away.
Added Return of The Jedi damage to the helmet, not every scrape and cut is added, just enough for some extra depth to satisfy me. You can also see how thin the helmet became, pinholes and cracks started appearing, especially around the left ear. The left mandible became warped because of the thinness.
I dug myself deep, the only choice was to add fiberglass and resin. I'm not a professional and my patience became thinner than the helmet.
Some parts bubbled up and wouldn't stick, so I cut them off and hosed everything out. I put the helmet on and realized all that dremeling and sanding did almost nothing, I gained maybe 2mm extra tolerance after the fiberglass was laid. I'm too deep in it now, the only way is forward. I will wear this thing even if I have to be buried in it.
Like some back alley surgeon hired by a rogue agent to remove a lodged bullet, I drew some surgery lines and picked up my tools of destruction. My breath was heavy and my hand was shaky but it had to be done. My tools screamed and whirred as they dug into the resin, kicking smoke and dust into the air, catching the light from the dim bulb swinging above me. The rain from outside fell onto my garage roof like war drums, or perhaps, it was the heavy beating of my heart.
