We got a couple of HJC IS-33 3/4 helmets for our '14 Trike when we got it last year; their factory "Wine" color is pretty darned close to the Mysterious Red Sunglo portions of the trike; few people notice the difference. The contrasting color on the trike is Burnt Cayenne Sunglo. There is a pair of pinstripes between the painted areas, which appears to be 1/16" tomato red, 1/8" of the Mysterious Red, 1/8" of a dull gold before the Cayenne line.

I wanted to see if I could try to get them to match the trike.

I picked a ridge on the helmets that starts in the middle of the chin part and goes up over the top of the back as my line; I went 1/16" past it to get the paint seam under the gold pinstripe. Cleaned, taped and scuffed the original paint.

HD gets a small fortune for paint, it seems, so I thought WTF, I'll give this a try; I rattle-canned Rustoleum Lens Tint in Translucent Black over the red, thinking it would look very similar to the Cayenne; generally a slightly reddish black except for red hilights peeking through. Then clear it with the same Rustoleum formula clear.

Darned if it didn't work pretty good! Depending on lighting and the angle, you can see the red coming through. Not perfect, could have been a bit thicker in some areas, should have done two thin coats. Needs a little fixing and buffed/sealed/waxed, but close enough for a home made kluge by a non-painter.



Next is the pinstripes. Might need some help here. The HD striping is painted on, and for $$$ I can get touch ups for the two colors. And that means doing it by hand or masking it off. Neither of which sounds fun. So I'm looking for striping tape in the right colors.

Can't find any 5/16" tomato/clear/gold multi-stripe tape anywhere, naturally, that would be ****; found everything but. So it'll be two 1/8" golds and a 1/16" tomato butted up against each other, and pull the middle gold one to reveal the Mysterious Red. Unless any of you have a better way to do the stripes?

I can probably find the model paint colors I need at the hobby store, but then making the parallel lines? 3M does make a 1" tape that has pullouts every 1/8" or 1/16" that would work great, but I really don't want to buy a 550' roll for twenty-five bucks when I only need about 5'. So I'd have to use a cheap pinstripe tape as masking in the two widths.

Another question; should I then clear the new section and/or pinstriping again? Probably should have waited, huh? Or scuff and clear the whole thing? Clearing over tape OK? Any opinions would be appreciated.

Anyway, it shouldn't look too darned bad for a guy just putzing around.

 

Sanded and buffed out the new paint, looks much better. Got a gold pinstripe on them. All that is left is to add the red pinstripe, and I'm going with a similar color tape that is close to the red on the trike, but is also reflective. I figure that is a good tradeoff for any slight difference in tone.