how to remove styrofoam from vintage helpmet?

M

modifiedamerican

Been Around the Block
just bougt a nice 60s 3/4 helmet from dtt member VonYinzer and im wanting to repad it. but. how do i remove the styrofoam so that i can repad it? do i have to drill out the snaps? if not how do i remove it. or is there any other way to remove it without drilling out the snaps? id like to keep it as original as possible. thanks
 
The snaps have to be drilled out. And finding new snaps to put in is damn near impossible - the shaft part on new snaps isn't long enough (i sourced some from home depot as well as longer ones from a local tent/awning repair shop, and neither were long enough). I ended up using chicago scews and small robertson machine scews to hold some new snaps back into place.
112545.jpg

They look something like this. I sandwitched the male part of a snap between the helmet's shell and the machine screw. It works like a dream.

If you end up finding a pattern for re-lining the helmets, please post it! So far i've just gone down to the raw styrofoam and used adhesive velcro to hold in liners from old snowboard/skateboard helmets that i have. They don't look pretty, but it's far comfier than any regularly lined vintage helmet i've worn.
 
thanks man. i think whats im gunna do is drill the snaps out, i need to get the styro out. then put screw on spikes maybe or something like that ti fill back the holes. then im going to get foam, put the foam in the styro, trace around it, cut, glue. then reline in some kind of fabric. ill take pics as i go. im not the brightest bulb so hope all goes well..lol
 
I'm pretty well inclined with a sewing machine, and after 5 or 6 attempts at making a liner, i just gave up. Everything ended up with big nasty creases and it was very uncomfortable. I think on my next helmets (a nice chunky gold flaked Arai and a '72 MotoIII) i'm going to glue a thin toque. Might have to first glue some padding onto the styrofoam to give it a bit of a cushy feel.

Or if you want to get out and ride while the season is still upon us, you could always do what i do with my unfinished helemts - just wear a toque under the helmet.
 
i have a question though. why do the snaps have to be drilled out? also if i drill the snaps out of the strap part also how do i reatach the straps when im ready to assemble the helmet?
 
A shoe maker may come in handy, he may be able to make new straps and or rivet
the old ones, you might be able to find some cool hardware for chin strap at a tack shop. Those screws in post #3 look like hockey helmet screws. easy to sources.
 
right on. come to find out im not going to have to remove any of the snaps. which is awesome because i wanted to keep it intact as much as possible. i honeslty dont think im even going to attempt to remove the styro because its IN THERE GOOD! and if i try to remove it its gunna crack and split. unless somone knows of a good way to remove it. which would be awesome. gunna make it alot more harder to recover in foam and fabric though but hopefully it will turn out ok. any sugestions would be wonderful.
 
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