smithmotorsports99 1 Posted June 17, 2009 I am wonder the best way to measure, or get a start on how to cut out a one inch or 1.5 inch piece on the upper portion of my helmet shield. I have a Simpson Voyager helmet and want to put a base color on the top portion of my helmet as a sun blocker and then put the sponsor on top of that piece. I thought I would ask before I go and waste a bunch of vinyl trying this out. Thanks in advance. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tekcorps 50 Posted June 17, 2009 Check out link: http://clipartandfonts.com/TUTORIALS_windshield_text.html Same principle but much easier since you can take off your shield and lay it flat. -t Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
smithmotorsports99 1 Posted June 17, 2009 Thanks for this link. But I can't lay my shield flat. At $70 a piece and 3 mil thick, you can't get it pushed down without breaking it or destroying the blue blocker on it. I'll try this site's measurements and see what I can get from it. I didn't think of these measurements at all, so i'm headed in the right direction. Thanks so much! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tekcorps 50 Posted June 17, 2009 Something I did once to custom fit graphics on a motorcycle number plate was I took a wide piece of app tape and put on it and smoothed it out perfect and then traced shape out on app tape and then peeled of tape and stuck it to paper and then scanned it and hand traced the shape out. It came out perfect. Something as simple as your visor, do just half of it and in software copy and paste the half and mirror it and weld them together to make one full piece. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kart45 6 Posted June 19, 2009 Nice tip Had a lot of requests for that and just ended up strecthing and heating straight vinyl, didnt ever really turn out that great... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
smithmotorsports99 1 Posted June 25, 2009 I just got my new helmet and HANS device in today. I'll try these new tricks out this weekend and see what I come up with. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
smithmotorsports99 1 Posted July 5, 2009 Well i have searched and searched for days and nights on ways to do this. So tonight I found this website, http://www.harrisdecals.com/default.asp . I thought awesome! I can take thier picture, put it in inkscape, vectorize it and then make it the size i need. Not so much. The arc was still off. I still cut it and started at one side of my visor and pulled and smoothed it across the shield. (this was an old shield) Here is a picture of a shield I will be doing it to. The website for windshield measurements seems great for the windshield, but I can't seem to get it to work good for my shield. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tekcorps 50 Posted July 5, 2009 Can you lay your shield flat? If so its a piece of cake. All you do is lay a straight edge across the top of your flat laying shield, measure for bottom of straight edge to the top of the center of the visor, say you have 1/2". Go into sign progam, make your rectangle same as the widest part of the shield at the top and say you want your visor blank to come down 2". A example of your rectangle would be say 14" wide by 2". (You may even make it wider and trim for perfect fit.) Now create and punchout text of your name or sponsor or add color name layer etc... Your shield had 1/2" drop so create a faux box 1/2" by 1/2" for measurement purposes only and align the edge of your box to the center of your shield, now arch your rectangle downward in the middle so the top of the shield meets the bottom of the faux box you made. That is the curvature of the shield's drop. Delete the 1/2" box and you should have a perfect fitting shield visor. Exact same principal to doing a windshield. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
smithmotorsports99 1 Posted July 6, 2009 Thanks for replying. I now understand what you are trying to explain to me. The only down fall is I can't lay it flat. The shield is molded in that form and just won't lie flat. I tried with an old junky one from a few years back and it just didn't work. Couldn't get if flat at all. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tekcorps 50 Posted July 6, 2009 Flat is not all that important. Take shield off, flip upside down and rest the top of the shield on a table top. Measure from table top to the shield at the deepest part of the gap. That is your drop. Do as previously instructed. It will come out the same. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
smithmotorsports99 1 Posted July 6, 2009 Thanks for helping me out so much here. I'm going to try that out. And it just hit me, why not take the shield off. Lay a big piece of paper on the inside and then try and trace the whole shield. Then it would be flat and I could do all the same measurements you gave me before. It's going to be a big sigh of relief when I figure this out. Then it's on to designing some sort of graphics for the helmet. Not a full wrap, but some stripes or chechers and swirls, who knows. Thanks again for the help. I'll surely post any files I'm able to complete after this one. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tekcorps 50 Posted July 6, 2009 Great! Show us your results. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
smithmotorsports99 1 Posted July 7, 2009 Ok I am back. After fighting the scrap piece of vinyl in order to trace on it, I was able to get a trace. The black line is the outline of the shield. The red line I used a straight edge like you said and put the bottom line where I wanted the strip to be on the sides of the shield. The top red line is I believe where you want me to measure my "drop" from. If so, from red to red I have about 1.25 inches. Now it's time to play with SB to see if I can make this work. I'm going to make it about 16-17 inches long, that was I can just go over the sides and then trim with a good sharp blade. Even trim out the holes for the pivot. Or do you think I should make it shorter and end it before the pivot holes? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kart45 6 Posted July 7, 2009 I prefer the look wrapped all the way past the pivot holes personally. Unfortunately the hardware on simpson helmets can cause wrinkles over time and logically might make a better installation if you end before the pivot holes... but I'm usually willing to forgo that for the aesthetics... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tekcorps 50 Posted July 7, 2009 From your picture, if you use red mark to red mark as your drop you will be a tad off on the arch. Bottom red mark is past the drop according to your picture. Check my image. Your measurements have to be precise. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
smithmotorsports99 1 Posted July 7, 2009 Kart45 thanks for the info. I'm going to do the full strip and see how it holds up. I do swap shields alot during the day because of the sun and then the lights at night. tek, Thanks for showing me your version. It makes sense now. I can see how you need to be right on with measurements. I wasn't sure if my bottom line was supposed to be the top of the center of the shield or where I wanted the bottom of my strip to be. That's why there is that gap. I'll clean it up tonight and meare then cut. Then get back to you guys. You are extremely helpful! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tekcorps 50 Posted July 7, 2009 99, I took the traced picture of your shield and digitally traced it and made a template and created a visor. It will NOT be exact since your pic was hand traced and your paper wasn't laying quite flat when you took pic... but it should be REAL close. As near as I can tell with what I had to work with your drop is at or near 4˚. Scale template to the actual width of your shield. Should get you going anyways. Please post your results. We all want to see! shieldvisor_temp.zip shieldvisor_temp.zip Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
smithmotorsports99 1 Posted July 8, 2009 Thanks for the trace. The first big cut you see in my pictures is the exact file you sent me. The second one was me just changing the vertical height and shrinking it a bit. Your's seemed big, but I didn't try the helmet on to see how it did with vision. The second one was good. But doesn't seem like it would do any good for blocking the sun. I do have a sun visor on the race car windshield that helps. So I guess this strip on the visor is more for cosmetics. After I tried yours and mine, I thought, "what am I doing here?!" So I took my roll of transfer tape and put it completely across the shield. Then I used a razor blade to cut it clean for ya. I took it off and laid it on a piece of black vinyl. There are many pictures here with tape measurements and all. Hope this helps. Does the curves at the upper corners of the shield hinder us from getting an exact measurement? We were very close before. It wasn't a clean lay, but one that could be worked out with pressure and application fluid. Thanks again for all this help. It really keeps me thinking and keeps me motivated to accomplish this. I just have to get back to some design work tonight for the paying customers, so I won't be able to cut much for my helmet tonight. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
