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[Alta]

So with me worrying about time constraints and not knowing exactly what it is I'm doing, I decided to buy a bucket just in case. I got a Jango two piece from a wonderful seller on ebay and it just came in today! I plan to start working on it as soon as I finish my leg wraps but I have a bit of not sure where to start first syndrome. ^^; I know what I need to do with it as far as fashioning it after my design, but I'm not sure where to start as far as making it sturdy and trooping approved.

Should I start by sanding it down and gluing it together then going after it with bondo? And about the visor, is the reason it is not approvals as is because it is too light (i.e., you can see through it) or is it the visor itself (i.e., it needs to be replaced)? Just wondering if I need to make it darker or replace it all together (of which I can do either just need to know).

I've done some word searches but haven't completely found all the answers there. Any and all help would be appreciated.

[Sedavor Til]

The order i did mine was:

1) remove visor- the visor won't work because it is to see through but you can use the visor as a template for the new one going in

2) sand down the visor notches, I found it easier to do this before glueing the 2 pieces together, 

3) Modify Cheeks - this is optional,  I personally do not like the way the curved cheeks so I replaced them with Sintra to make them straight.  Again it was easier for me to do this with the 2 pieces seperated and again is optional

4) Glue the pieces together

5) Secure the inside seam - I used Bondo Glass along the inside of the seam but Ive seen others just glue down extra peices of for sale signs or sintra.  This helps keep the helmet together and helps prevent extra stress on the bondo on the outside seam

6) Bondo the the seems on the exterior of the helmet - now with this you can do just along the seam or the entire dome

7) sand and sand some more

8 ) once smooth apply paint apps

9) apply new visor - I used a green welding face shield

Again this is just the order I found easier to work with.   

[Alta]

Thank you so much! I appreciate the help as I have no idea what I'm doing here. ^^; A few questions though:

1) Is there no way to darken the visor? Don't they sell some of those tinting strips in auto shops? I don't mind replacing it if need be as said before, I'm just curious as no one in my town will sell me a face shield without making me buy the helmet too which makes it cost a lot more. Again though I will gladly buy the helmet and all if that is what is required.

2) How would you suggest removing the visor? I'm pretty sure I could get it out but I'm also pretty sure there are probably safer ways of removing it then just ripping it out. Any suggestions?

3) I like the idea of modifying the cheeks (I didn't know they were so curved until you pointed it out, thank you for helping me to see that   ) How would you suggest going about removing them safely? Dremel? And how did you attach your new check pieces? Just glue them in?

4) Also, and this may be a ridiculous question but, what do I do with the ear caps when I finally get around to bondoing the whole thing?

Sorry for so many questions. ^^; Just wanting to make sure I get this right (preferably the first time lol).

[Hondo Karr]

1. Yes you can but, a dark green welding shield is as cost effective as buying tint and as the tint doesn't like to stay permanantly attached to a curved surface, the dark green (which appears black when installed) won't fail down the road.

2. You can just pry it out or snip the tabs holding it in place, helpful hint is to hang onto the visor and use it as the template for your new one.

3. Yup, a dremel would work fine.

4. The earcaps can just be glued back on after the sanding work is done. While it's not required, I would recommend rebuilding the right earcap as the one it comes with is terrible!

[Jerek Darr]

Use a sanding drum to burr off the nubs holding the visor in, then use the same bit to sand down the posts, you could attempt to tint the visor, but the possibility of bubbles occuring over time are pretty high. Replacement sheilds are redily available, http://www.amazon.com/SAS-Safety-5152-Replacement-Faceshield/dp/B002YKO0Z0/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1340908093&sr=8-2-fkmr2&keywords=dark+green+face+shield+visor

As far as removing the cheeks, a dremel is the safest way, use a high strength adhesive like E-6000 to glue in the new cheeks, the seam can be smoothed out with bondo.

I reccomend gluing the earcaps on and filling the seams before painting.

Remember bondo is a body filler, NOT an adhesive, I also reccomend giving the whole bucket a light sanding BEFORE bondo, to make sure any mold release agent is removed.

[Alta]

Thank you all for all of the advice! I hope to get to work and have pictures up of progress very soon! Any other tips or tricks yall can think of are greatly appreciated.

[Serim Merec]

... I hope to get to work and have pictures up of progress very soon!...

Can't wait!

[Alta]

Sorry about the delay. Injured my back Friday and it put me behind schedule. All better now though and am back to work. Here's what I got so far on the helmet.




Hopefully will have more to show soon.

[Kal Vizsla]

really gooooood start!

[Alta]

really gooooood start!

Thank you I hope the rest of it keeps going well ^^;

On another note, I had a few quick questions for yall regarding reinforcing the inside of the helmet.

1).  In the picture below, a portion of the inner helmet near the right ear cap is circled in red. That particular part is incredibly flimsy and is making me nervous. I want to reinforce it but I'm unsure which way will give it the most strength. I have some fiber glass mat I bought from an auto store, that I hope is the right kind (the guy referred to it as kitty hair fiberglass mat) and was wondering if I should use that and then reinforce it with a plastic panel or panel and then mat/fiber glass it.  Thoughts?



2). Regarding reinforcing the dome with a plastic strip, should I do one long strip and go with the seam or several short ones and slip them in between the little post pieces? This may be a ridiculous question but well...I don't want to take any chances. ^^; The picture below better shows what I'm talking about.



Any thoughts? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

[Alta]

Picture spamming time! I've been hard at work for the last few days and have several pictures of my helmets current state in the transition from Jango two piece to custom mod. Here's what I got so far.

I dremeled off all of the nob things on the side of the bucket. Reason being I was doing it for the right ear cap as I was going to just make a simple one out of plastic but then realized it would look odd with the original one on the left side so I did the same to it as well. Here are the two sides now. (The raised portion in the first picture is excess glue. It will get cleaned off before any bondoing is done, no worries.  )



Here is the new ear cap I cut out today. Only the left one is semi ready as of right now. I may or may not dress it up with some newspaper board that I have stashed away simply because the head wrap in my design will likely hide any work I actually do on it. Still haven't decided as of yet. Any way here are a few shots of it. (Mind you it's not attached I just propped it up next to it to give yall a better idea of what it will look like.)




And last but not least, here are some inside shots to show the work I've tried to do regarding strengthening the seam area.




So, what do yall think? Am I doing OK? And what do I do next as far as the inside portion of the seam goes? Bondo then bondo mat then more bondo then sand till my hands fall off then repeat for the outside? Any and all advise is appreciated.

[Kal Vizsla]

WOW you are really handly! you are doing it real good!!!

[Alta]

WOW you are really handly! you are doing it real good!!!

Thank you  I'm trying really hard to do this right the first go round. All of the helpful tutorials and awesome advice I've been given from everyone here has really, really helped a lot! Hard to imagine that I hadn't ever used a dremel till this week. ^^; But thanks to all the tips I've read around here things went pretty well I think.

[BobaFiend]

A tip if this is your first time using bondo- really rough up the surface your are applying it to so it has something to bite and apply it in THIN coats rather than thick globs. It's much more manageable and effective to do 2-3 rounds of filling and sanding than to try and get it all in one shot. Your results will also be much better.

[Jerek Darr]

Have you test fitted the bucket now that you have modded the cheeks? The reason I ask is it is possible to catch your cheeks on the extended upper curved edge of the new plates (I had this issue with my HBF mod). It is just easier to tirm those down now before you start "body work".

[Alta]

A tip if this is your first time using bondo- really rough up the surface your are applying it to so it has something to bite and apply it in THIN coats rather than thick globs. It's much more manageable and effective to do 2-3 rounds of filling and sanding than to try and get it all in one shot. Your results will also be much better.

Many thanks. This is definitely my first time using bondo and I definitely don't want to over do it. Quick question though, do you know the order/layer amount I should use on the seam on the inner helmet? Just curious as I know that I'm suppose to do something else to that seam I'm just not sure what. ^^; I have both bondo and bondo mat.

Have you test fitted the bucket now that you have modded the cheeks? The reason I ask is it is possible to catch your cheeks on the extended upper curved edge of the new plates (I had this issue with my HBF mod). It is just easier to tirm those down now before you start "body work".

I have tried it on and the new cheeks slide over smoothly but I'm worried since it is somewhat snug-ish and I have yet to add any padding so...yea.... The cheeks do overlap on all sides, especially the upper portion. I am a bit worried about sanding them too far down as I added the extra length to give more area to glue down or what not. Then again, not all of that portion is glued down so I suppose it won't hurt. What do you think, trim it down or try and build up the area underneath that extra length to make it somewhat even-ish? I have some PVC puddy or some craft foam (or even newspaper board) I could glue in there to do it. Just curious as I'm not sure which would leave the cheeks the strongest.

[BobaFiend]

Bondo is the brand name we use to refer mostly to Automotive Body Filler. This is what you want to use for the outside in small layers to close the gap. As far as I can tell, the mat you have is Bondo brand Fiberglass Mat. This, however, is useless on it's own. Fiberglass Mat is used in tandem with Fiberglassing Resin (a more liquidy jar of stuff that turns solid and hard once a catalyst is applied).  Fiberglassing is done by mixing a batch of resin, painting it in to the repair spots (inside the helmet), layering your resin'd areas with fiberglass mat, and then saturating these cut pieces of mat with resin. The whole things then hardens. The use of the fiberglass mat makes the resin layer much stronger and more durable.  Make sense?

[Alta]

Ah, I see. Thank you very much Sorry, I kinda know what the stuff is and what its suppose to do but I was a little foggy on how one was to go about using it in the most effective manner having never used it before myself. Thank you though for clearing that up for me. I hope to be able to get to reinforcing the inner area before too long. It will sadly have to wait till next week most likely as I'm heading out of town tomorrow.

One more quick question though, regarding the inner area of the helmet, do I just need to do all of this to the seam area or do I need to do it to all of the inner dome area? Just curious as to how much of the inside of the helmet I should do all this on.

Sorry if I'm getting annoying with all my questions. ^^; Just trying to make sure what I'm thinking I need to do is actually what I need to do.

[BobaFiend]

Ask, ask, ask. That's what these messageboards are for. I've never personally built up a Jango 2P but in general: The more fiberglassing resin and fiberglass mat you put on the inside, the more durable your helmet will be. However, the more resin and mat you put the heavier an more unwieldy your helmet will become.  You wouldn't think it, but having a medium weight helmet on for long periods of time can really be a strain. Basically you want to find the goldilocks zone. Enough to support the seam but not too much that it get too heavy.

Also, if you've never worked with fiberglass- be warned! Wear protective clothing/ goggles/ gloves. It's made of tiny shards of glass basically that get into your skin and will itch for three to four days.

http://www.thehulltruth.com/dockside-chat/182771-getting-fiberglass-dust-off-skin.html

[Muscle]

Nice start cant wait to see more. Your concept pics were very cool so I really look forward to watching your build 

[Alta]

So I finally got to do some bondo work on the inside of my helmet today. Unfortunately it started raining near the end. Hope that doesn't mess anything up. In any event, here's what I did so far.



The front and back dome area's bondo coverage is not as thick as it looks, neither are the ear caps bondo coverage.  The middle line however is somewhat thick due to the plastic strips already being there.  I may have gone over board with the bondo but I was worried about the bucket being weak so I decided to do the whole inner dome. It did make it heavier by a good bit but I figure with a lot 'o sanding it should lighten up a bit yes? Least I hope.

I did not bondo the very back flat areas as you can see. I wanted to but was worried it would add too much weight. Will bondoing it from the outside be enough yall think to make it strong? Or do I need to get that section from both sides?

In any event, feedback and tips and tricks are always appreciated. I'll be off to go get some hard core sand paper in prep for the endless sanding spree I'm sure I'll be on soon ^^;

[Sedavor Til]

The helmet is really looking good.

That should be more then enough to keep the helmet strong.  There is a big mis-conception on the J2P, while it is made of thin plastic, with a little care and not throwing it around, it will hold up very well.  All I did on my first J2P was a strip of Fiberglass cloth along the inner seam and bondoed the dome and have had zero issues.  The big thing is and this goes for all helmets is to take care of them. The only area I really see that could give way would be the cheeks. Basically just dont lft/carry the helmet by the cheeks and you should be good.

As far as the rain, its really going to depend on how much if any water got into the mix.  If it was minimal, normally it just means a longer cure time. If in a couple days the top layer is still a little tacky, what i have done is just sand it a bit, the dust will help dry up any tacky areas. However its better to wait a few days before jumping right into sanding, to allow it to cure on its own .

On a side note your going to want to air out the inside of the helmet before trooping.  Fiberglass resin has a pundgent smell that likes to linger for a while

[BobaFiend]

Yup. Til is right. Direct sunlight also can help with the curing process.

[Arch]

1) Is there no way to darken the visor? Don't they sell some of those tinting strips in auto shops? I don't mind replacing it if need be as said before, I'm just curious as no one in my town will sell me a face shield without making me buy the helmet too which makes it cost a lot more. Again though I will gladly buy the helmet and all if that is what is required.

I just wanted to give my two cents on this. I'm a Jango Two-Piece fan myself, and the first one that I modified has its original visor in with a few layers of automotive tint on it. The visors that they come with are smudgy as sin! They make everything look blurry because the plastic is so cheap... So you have the issue of the darkness of the visor compounded by the blurriness. They're just so darn hard to see out of!

For my latest two-piece, I've bought a visor from t-visor.com, but as stated before, a welding mask will work as well. This will also help the structural integrity of the mandible area of the helmet... You'll be able to grab it by the face without worrying about things breaking.

Your helmet is looking great! It looks like you've been very thorough with this process; everything looks absolutely solid.

[Alta]

Many thanks for all of the feed back guys! I really, REALLY appreciate it! The rain did not get in any of the mixture as I was in the garage (we have one of those kind that's closed on three sides and opened on one so I had ventilation and coverage from the rain). I was just worried that the extra moisture in the Mississippi air might mess up curing but it seems that since the mix stayed dry the helmet will likely be fine. The helmet itself is currently airing out in one of the closets in our garage (with the door propped open of course lol). I will also remember to give it a few days to cure since I used a fair amount of resin. I'll probably start sanding on Monday.

For my latest two-piece, I've bought a visor from t-visor.com, but as stated before, a welding mask will work as well. This will also help the structural integrity of the mandible area of the helmet...

I actually decided to go with a tutorial I found made by Ohl'd Vart. It calls for poster frame plastic and window tinting. I know the green visor would have likely lasted longer but I fear that sitting right next to the yellow and gold of my helmet would have brought out all of the green and it would have looked just that, green and not black. Though this visor my require maintenance, I'd rather make sure it's black and have to work with it then take any chances. This build is my baby, if I have to work at it to get it to look the way I want then so be it. Unfortunately the poster frame plastic isn't quite as sturdy, it's also not as heavy so here's hoping it works.

I greatly appreciate the feedback, though I'll definitely keep t-visor.com in mind should my other methods not workout.

Thank you all again for the feedback! It's very reassuring to know that I'm on the right track!