Fiberglassing Tommy Helmets

Andy taught us how to make a fibreglass helmet from the moulds that we made by vacuum forming.

1. Using the plastic helmet as the mould, we firstly put on 2-3 layers of wax allowing 10 minutes between each layer for it to dry.

2. Next we added a layer of spray wax on top of the others. These layers are to prevent the fibreglass from sticking to the mould.

3. We then weighed 100g of polyester gel coat and 1g of hardener into a pot. Ratio 100:1 (eg 100g of one to 1g of the other)

4. After that we added 1/3 of a cup of iron powder whilst continuously stirring until it became a thick paste.

5. We then covered the inside of the plastic mould with a thick layer of the paste and left it to dry for an hour in a warm place.

6. Next we ripped up small squares of loose weave fibreglass and an equal amount of tissue fibreglass, enough to cover the inside of the helmet with 2 layers of each.

7. Once the iron layer had dried we weighed up another 100g of lay up resin and 1g of hardener but this time with 2 drops of black pigment mixed in.

8. We then layered in squares of the fibreglass and dabbed the black resin on top to feed it through and fix down the fibreglass sheets until the mould was covered.

9. Then we repeated this with the tissue until the first layer is completely covered and smooth. We left this to dry until hard.

10. When the helmet reached a tacky stage we used a Stanley knife to cut off the extra piece on the rim as if we waited until it was completely hard it would need to be sawn off.

11. After the helmet had completely dried we pushed it out of the mould and then used a disk of sand paper to create a neat edge. Before doing this with the plastic helmet I had to cut the extra rim off with the circular blade.

Now they are ready to paint.