HELMETS

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don333

Joined
Jan 22, 2008
Messages
15
I have an old style 5A New Yorker that was originally black then had to be painted yellow.  I have since retired it and would like to know the best way to prepare it for repainting it back to black.  Also, what is the best type of paint to use or does anyone know of anyone that refurbishes helmets?  I tried to google Cairns, but only got resellers.  Thanks for your help.
 
I've heard horror stories about helmets returned to Cairns for repair/refurbishment and disappearing into a black hole, but I have no personal experience with them. 

Here's the Cairns repair web site:  http://www.msafire.com/catalog/catalog503257.html

Perhaps they could at least answer your questions on the best way to do the work yourself . . . it'd be worth a try.
 
I re-furbed mine. I used paint remover and an enamel based high heat spray paint.
 
Watching a lot of photo's on the web I noticed a lot of helmets appearing to be in a bad condition. Helmets black because of smoke and heath, eyeshields melted and frontshields unreadable. In my opinion firefighters deserve good gear and replacement when needed. Respect to all of them risking and giving their lives.

Not really a reaction on this post but I wanted to give my feelings a way out.
 
Petey said:
Watching a lot of photo's on the web I noticed a lot of helmets appearing to be in a bad condition. Helmets black because of smoke and heath, eyeshields melted and frontshields unreadable. In my opinion firefighters deserve good gear and replacement when needed. Respect to all of them risking and giving their lives.

Not really a reaction on this post but I wanted to give my feelings a way out.
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Have fun getting a guy to give up his salty lid for a brand new shiny one, especially an FDNY vet who was lucky enough to get in beofre they switched over to plastic. It would not be easy to convince a vet to go from a salty leather to a shiny Ben II.
 
http://www.thefirestore.com/store/category.cfm/cid_9006_leather_helmet_repair/

Here's your best bet.
 
thats like that everywhere.... u will find more people giving up regular gear and keeping thier helmets not matter the damage. the helmet is the story behind the firefighter. u know the area and the experiance that the firefighter will have by the conditon of his helmet
 
cfd123 said:
thats like that everywhere.... u will find more people giving up regular gear and keeping thier helmets not matter the damage. the helmet is the story behind the firefighter. u know the area and the experiance that the firefighter will have by the conditon of his helmet
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::)

Maybe I'm getting a little off topic here but.......

The above statement is just not true.  FFs do stupid things to make their helmets look "salty".  Check some real experienced chief's and FF's and tell me these guys didn't work in busy fire companies or that they did nothing their whole career.

No salt + no leather = no fire duty in area/no experience??? ??? :eek:

What about the young guy who just gets on and buys a leather helmet with his own money then gets it "salted up" at one fire and looks like to went to hell and back?

That statement above is just ridiculous and stupid, sorry. :-\
 
the areas where i have my experience from, its a no to buying a different helmet and its a no for returning it. and a good way to look at helmet is the shield and when ats a newer shield on an older helmet it usually means there is something wrong.
 
....Never  Never use high temp paint on a leather lid. The leather WILL fail before the paint blisters up and before you know it, you can get burned or worse. Cairns recommends using Sherwin Williams paint on there N 5/6 A leather helmets. As for using paint strippers or chemicals to remove the old paint, I would suggest to just sand down the surface and prime it and paint it with what they recommend. Directions are on the MSA website.
 
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