Flight Helmet taping

[Owen]

In the past, I have seen EBay auctions offering to retape and restore flight helmets. Can't seem to find anything like that these days. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

Help,

Owen

[72psb]

FlightHelmet.com

[Owen]

Thanks!

 

Anyone else??

 

Owen

[dmar836]

As in sewing in new HH seam tape? I guess I have never seen a helmet so worn that the tape was toast but the body good. What am I missing?

Dave

[72psb]

Dave,

I think (I hope) he was talking about retaping the reflective tape on Navy and USMC helmets.

[Owen]

Correct, retaping the reflective paint and applying squadron designs. Anyone else want to chime in ??

 

Owen

[Homer J]

Check out these Facebook groups. Lots of former and current Navy and USMC PRs. Someone may be willing to help for a fee.

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/84391232749/

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/36104306309/

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/315029328758/

[Niki]

Owen if you go to the facebook group flight gear collectors& collections.

They will help you with your questions.6

[AMT500E]

i recently taped this HGU-2 with camo to reflect that era late 70s early 80s.

Im a fan of overlap as it more reflects the squadron level taping from back in the day.

I purchase all of my Scotchlite 680 locally for reflective work.

[AMT500E]

mostly done in 1" strips

[AMT500E]

..

[hink441]

Very nice work!!

 

Chris

[AMT500E]

and near finished..

[1canpara]

Wow! That looks amazing! Nice job!

[jpg2112]

Wow! That looks amazing! Nice job!

 

Agreed; that's great work!

[phantomfixer]

Agreed I like that one alot..nice

[72psb]

Ready for a B-52 "Arc Light" mission!

[AMT500E]

Thanks for the replies.

I'd like to stress that heat is the key to getting the camo sheet film to lay down and stick

nicely, although you have to be careful because too much heat will turn the stuff into shrinkwrap.

 

 

 

[hink441]

You did a wonderful job on that USAF helmet!! Very nice work!!

 

I have taped a couple of helmets. Here is one that I did not long ago. The helmet originally had a terrible tape job so I made it a VA-35 helmet. VA-35 was my last A-6 squadron, the squadron was decommissioned in 1994. I don't normally tape helmets unless they are hopelessly flawed. Here are the before and after pictures.

 

 

[hink441]

A few more pics. A fun project.

 

 

[AMT500E]

Wow, that is very nice and I like the precision cut (no overlap) in the pattern layout for the tape.

Did you use reflective or non reflective for the graphics?

 

 

I did another early 70s APH (below) in 1"white awhile back and tried to follow the practice of that era.

as soon as I can get back to it, I'll be cutting the yellow Ltng-bolts and horsehead (Knight) emblem

for VF-302 - post Vietnam.

 

[AMT500E]

pic 2

[AMT500E]

I need a good pair of grey ear cushions but black with have to do for now.

[hink441]

Nice work on the APH helmet!

 

The black tape on the VA-35 helmet is reflective.

 

Chris

[hink441]

Reflective black tape.