I spent $50 and about 20 hours of my time. I applied primer sealer,
paints, and clear topcoat. I applied 4 colors: yellow, bergundy, gray,
and white. However, before spending the time and money, I suggest you
read the "Low Durability" section below, because two days on
the slopes exposed the faults of this painting process.
"Thanks"
goes out to all those who have given feedback and contributed to the making
of this site.
Steps: Quick Overview - Painting your snowboard or helmet is very much like the process of painting a car.
- Scuff it
- Prime and seal it (automotive primer sealer)
- Paint it (automotive paints -- urethane)
- Clear Coat it (automotive clear topcoat)
- Shred the slopes--loud and proud
What you'll need:
- Wax/Grease remover (liquid in a bottle.) ie. "Goo Gone"
- Scour pad (kitchen
section of wal-mart. heavy duty i think. colors: yellow foam...and forest
green scour part.) ie. "ScotchBrite"
- 1 aerosol can of
automotive primer sealer (about $4) i.e. "Dupli-Color Primer Sealer"
- 3 aerosol cans
of main color for board (about $4 ea.) i.e. "Dupli-Color"
- more aerosol cans of paint if you want other colors (about $4 ea.) i.e. "Dupli-Color"
- 2 aerosol cans of clear topcoat (about $4 ea.) i.e. "Dupli-Color Clear TopCoat"
- non windy place to paint (garage, warehouse, eye of a hurricane)
- air filter thingy
to go over your mouth and nose... so you're not breathing paint fumes.
Steps to Paint your Snowboard or Helmet:
- Remove all grease and wax (no need to remove wax on bottom of snowboard): use a wax/grease remover liquid.
- Scuff off sheen. Use a scour pad. Don't have to sand away all the laminate; the goal is to rough it up a little so that the primer sealer will stick.
- Mask off-limit areas. (plug up the binding screw holes with cut-in-half cotton swabs).
- Spray on primer sealer. Read directions on can. Let dry for a few minutes and give another coat. Repeat til it's obvious you've coated it well. Let dry for a day before you apply a topcoat color.
- Spray on paint. Read directions on can. (Best to do in temperatures between 68* and 98* or something.) Let dry for a few minutes and then give another coat. Repeat until desired saturation.
- Masking. electrical tape is my preference for masking---it beats all others.. especially when it comes to masking curved lines because it's stretchy. Let dry well before removing tape. It may lift the adjacent paint if you try to remove it shortly after painting. Sidenote: Use the "wax/grease" remover to get rid of the easy-to-remove residue that the electrical tape leaves behind.
- Stencils: print out your words or logo or whatever on a sticker/label sheet. Use an exacto knife to cut out the letters or logo from the sticker. Stick the sticker on the board. Mask off the surrounding areas, then paint. After it dries, remove the sticker.
- Spray on Clear TopCoat: Apply no more than 4 good thick coats within a 2 week period. Need to let paint underneath breath.. and release the gases. Otherwise you'll get 'bubbling' or 'lifting' or some other terms they call it. Your board will put off a new-paint smell for 2-4 weeks. You can then scuff it up again... using a 500 grit sand paper...and then apply more clear coat. Another idea is to drop off a pack of soda along with your snowboard to a car painting shop... and ask them to clear coat your board when it's convenient.
- Buff the Top Coat: Use a rubbing compound and buff the top coat to a glossy finish. (I haven't done this part yet. But this is what's suggested on the can as well as by car-painting professionals.)
Paint Type--- Automotive vs. House Paints
Automotive paints were suggested because they would be more suitable (than latex or acrylic) for surfaces exposed to moisture and abuse. Snowboards and helmets are treated like trucks... and should therefore be painted in a similar manner.
DARE: I dare any of you to try latex (house paint). Let me know if you do. The beauty of it would be price and color selection. You can get any color you want (except metallics, I assume) in the home paint dept. at Wal-Mart...and it's very cheap ($4/can for more than enough paint). You may even be able to use a sprayer. A concern I have would be clear coat compatibility with the paint.
Someone DID
THE DARE of painting with acrylics. See what they said:
"I
airbrush painted my snowboard. I sanded it down, applied spray automotive
primer, painted with a variety of good airbrush and cheap 25 cent craft
acrylic paints and sprayed it with 23 coats of acrylic clearcoat from
spray cans. This is a very thin give-away board with a lot of flex especially
when you put a heavy guy like myself on top. All this held up except after
1-1/2 seasons I decided to repaint the background because my boots had
scuffed the clearcoat and paint off only along the heelside edges. I masked
out the creature and repainted a whole new background. Now comes my disasterous
mistake: floating on a thick coat of marine epoxy gelcoat -thinking it
would be flexible and moisture resistant. I rolled the coating on the
board in a cold humid environment and it dried from the top down and stayed
wet underneath for months. During this time it orangepeeled and cracked
and everything else that could happen to a finish. I used it wet underneath
for the rest of the season and as it dried, the topcoat cracked and fell
off and pulled off some of the underpainting. So, the image painting with
acrylic turned out not to be any problem except where it was mechanically
rubbed away by the boots. I've abandonded the idea of grinding down this
board and repainting it because I bought another thicker Burton board
from a garage sale cheap. I'm going to airbrush this one and bring it
to a car body shop and see if they'll clearcoat it with surplus clearcoat
after they do some cars."
Paint Colors and Where to Buy:
The paints, primer sealer, and clear coat can all be found at Wal-Mart in automotive section, or at O'Reilly's, Autozone, etc. The common brand I bought was Dupli-Color". I was impressed with it's spray--very nice and even ..no splattering. The paints are Off-the-shelf, automotive, "Touch Up" paints in aerosol cans. They are the least expensive route. The selection is decently large. You should be able to find all the colors you need, or find a great compromise.
Exotic and custom color paints can be bought at an automotive paint store, like Sherwin Williams automotive paint store www.sherwin-automotive.com, but they're expensive, (like $16/can), and won't come in an aerosol can. To apply this more expensive paint, you'd have to buy a sprayer to spray the paint -- $60 - $600 -- With that kind of investment, you might as well open up a snowboard paint shop.
A site visitor gave this info: "For airbrush application, Creatix has a new line of paints for airbrush application, plus base coats for them, which act as primer. About 150 colors are available at less than $5 per 4oz bottle. Use urethane clear coat over it and you're set."
NAPA: "I am a paint rep for s/w. Most NAPA stores that sell paint, make custom aerosols--I know; I sell them to NAPA. There are some killer products in a can now-days. Contact the NAPA paint rep in your area for details."
Low Durability
The conclusion: I'd
say the durability is a 3 on a 1-to-10 scale.
Tthis paint job is susceptible to any collisions with sharp objects, various
scraping, ski-poles. edges of skis and snowboards. Even throwing your
board and helmet in the back of the truck along with other cargo can be
harmful to the paint job, if the other cargo has sharp objects on them
like buckles, screws, rivets.. etc. Unfortunately, these are all unavoidable.
The method above works great for 'painting' your snowboard and helmet.
You'll end up with a board that looks great in the house... but how will
it look after two days of shreddin' the slopes? The true test came after
two days on the slopes. I was a bit disappointed to see that my board
was chipped consistently along both edges--revealing the factory design
underneath. The top was fine except for a couple things. It was well-chipped
under the bindings and there were also a couple random chips on top due
to ski-poles. Most of these chips were caused on the ski lift when other
outdoor activists rest heir board or skis on your beautifully painted
snowboard. Perfect preservation is only possible by snowshoeing your board
to the top of the slopes. Though helmets are subject to less abuse than
the snowboard, the method above still results in a chippable paint job.
My helmet has a couple chips on it, but looks in better condition than
my board.
An email came in from
an experienced painter/snowboarder which confirms the low durability:
"I've tried car spray paints but no matter how much clear i put on
it always scratches off." Details:
|
"What i've done is painted it like a car. I sanded down the board with all the grades of sand paper. Primered the board. Sanded that down. Sprayed a base color (silver)--applying about 2 coats to make it look good. ThenI sprayed another color (a clear with a metalic green) this gives the board that effect that looks like it changes color. I sanded that down with 2000 sandpaper then i applied 3 clear coats letting each one dry completly. ... the paint is scratching off. Mostly around the edges and it scratches down to the snowboard. After it was done i polished it up and it looked really nice... but it's not very durable. One ride pulled of a lot of paint close to the edges. I've noticed that the paint i've put on it is a lot thicker then the paint that came with the board. I was told that these are sprayed with hot paint..." |
How the Factories Do It
The comments below are from site visitors who have shared their insight to how it's done in the factories, feel free to add to what they've got:
"Snowboards are printed using sublimation. The paint is actually infused via heat using epoxy inks. The graphics are actually underneath the finish, which is heat vaccum molded on. Very expensive and time consuming."
"Snowboard factories laminate the paint onto a layer underneath the topsheet of the snowboard, therefore the color does not scratch off. Various colors and designs of top sheets are still lamenated into the plastic or fiberglass used."
Help us Find a Do-It-Yourself High Durable Solution
How can we paint our snowboards and helmets with a method that produces solid results like those from a factory?
Suggested idea by a site visitor: "What if you used a clear vinyl top sheet, like a clear sticker over the whole board?"
Pictures
If you've got pictures, send 'em this way. One of these days I'll put my pictures up here (and yours). Please send the painting process you used to acheive your results.. and any other pertinent info that'd be helpful to site users looking to paint snowboards and helmets.
Answers, Suggestions, Corrections, Additions, or Questions?
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I created this site (on 3/12/03 and have last updated it on 11/29/03)
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