Just skip on down to where we talk about making our own!

As soon as you see pics, stop!

And start reading!

Kevlar helmets are all going to be 3A in terms of ballistic protection, new or old (stops pistol rounds). You can always swap pads or chin straps to something different if that's what your after.
If you want to improve ballistics, you will need to look at 'ultra high molecular weight polyethylene' instead of 'Kevlar' helmets. An 'ECH' is the newer replacement of Kevlar helmets. ECH helmets are made from ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene and stop many rifle rounds but they aren't cheap.

I'm looking for something like this:

Is this a good one and is it a good price?

Not sure I can pull off $465 though. That's a major hit right now and 8 - 12 weeks to ship is a loooooong time, considering current events.




*I should probably add that I have some disk issues, so lightweight (relatively) is important.

Thanks again.

If I remember correctly hard head veterans stuff is made in China, if that’s an issue to you.

I don’t see any advantage to that helmet aside from some high cut around the ears to an ACH. For that matter with a little elbow grease you can modify a standard helmet to a high cut for a lot less money. I believe I saw where someone was even modifying PASGTs as well.

I'm the guy that you're probably thinking of.
I made a couple ACH high cut helmets from PASGTs. If you're gonna cut off the ears of an ACH, it isn't much more difficult to start with a PASGT and also remove the brim, ends up the same either way.

Awesome work. If I could find some cheap PASGTs I would do the same.

Where do you get the rails?

Wow! There's an idea!!!

Yeah. Where did you get the rails - and the covers?

How did you know how much material to remover on the sides of the PASGT?

And what did you use to cut them? Scroll saw, then sand?

Thanks!

A PASGT and ACH are the same shell except a PASGT has a brim on the front and the ears are about 1/2'' lower along the bottom vs. an ACH. If you're cutting the ears off, the bottom of the ears won't matter anyway. The bottom/front of an ACH ends where the brim of a PASGT starts. You follow the natural angles of the brim and ears on the helmets to make cuts. An ACH will have the ears cut off and a PASGT will have the ears and the brim cut off. The back is the same height on all 3. After the ears are cut you do need to round off the back corner of the helmet so they slope into the center of the rear but don't cut off any length from the middle of the back, hopefully that makes sense. Other than that you just follow the original angles of the ears and brim.
Here are some threads about it. If you read through both threads you should have a good idea how to do it. If you have anymore questions feel free to ask.
EDIT= I'm pretty sure the original ACH and ACH high cut helmet models were made by removing material from a PASGT. After they removed the brim and or ears, they had the prototype for the other helmets.
I should also add that an ACH will be easier to start with because you won't need to fill any holes or drill new holes, unless you drill holes for the shroud. If starting with a PASGT, you will need to go through the extra steps to fill holes and drill new holes for the chin strap. Either is doable and you end up with the same result but a PASGT does take more time to complete.

https://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=6&f=10&t=510030&tl=-ARCHIVED-THREAD-PASGT-to-high-cut-helmet-now-times-2-

https://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_10/509376_PASGT-to-ACHish-helmet-.html

Great work. How much time and money do you have in a completed helmet?

@bigjunk1

I would say I have 4-5 hours labor in each helmet. Would probably take a couple hours less if I had started with an ACH instead of a PASGT.
Below is a rough estimate to finish a helmet. I have less in the green helmet than the black because I only paid $31 for the PASGT and I found a green FMA helmet for $17.
You could always buy the Velcro, chin strap, pads and shroud separately if you wanted better quality stuff but stripping a FMA helmet was sufficient for my current purposes.
Cost=
PASGT helmet, $50
Super glue, $8
Paint, $6
GunNook rails, $38
FMA bump helmet to strip the Velcro, Dial retention chin strap, pads and shroud from, $40
Helmet cover, $15
Total= $157 for the black helmet.
$115 for the green helmet.
Considering the Kevlar shell is American made to military spec. and ends up exactly the same as any other military ACH high cut shell, you end up with a good quality helmet and it saves a few hundred dollars vs. buying a new one. It's also a fun project if you enjoy doing things like this yourself.

I have a PSGAT with top of the line suspension/pads/strap, so that's not a problem. I'll see if I can't find time this week to get started on the shell; marking and making the cuts, sanding/grinding, etc, etc.

May I ask where you got the accouterments you added? You mentioned the brand of rails, I believe, but where did you get them and where did you get the mesh covers?

Also, is there any way to install earpro/comms to a modified set-up like this? I only have a (really good) in-ear/throat-mic set-up now, but I'd really, really like to upgrade to Peltors/boom-mic.

Oh! A little off-topic (kinda), but I got one of those clip-on Shurefire LEDs a few years ago (has blue/white/red/IR), but it just stopped working for some reason. I don't think it will fit w/rails anyway, but do you know if I can send it back to be repaired? It wasn't cheap, as I recall . . .

Thanks!

A couple things that may make life easier that I didn't mention in my other threads are=

As you cut out the ears you will need to gradually change the angle of the blade as it travels around the back of the ears so the ears blend into the rear of the helmet. Basically, you need to keep the blade at a 90 degree angle to the outer surface of the helmet but the 'helmet has curves'. It will be pretty obvious once you start doing the cuts. Just pay attention to how the edging needs to curve around the full helmet to blend together.
When you drill holes, the Kevlar fibers will want to fray. You won't get a nice clean hole by just running a drill bit through. What I did is, I would drill the hole and then add some Superglue to the fibers. The Superglue makes the fibers hard so when you run the drill bit through a second time it will cut the fibers off. You may need to add some Superglue and drill the hole a few times to get a nice clean hole. Once you get the hole drilled out smooth, add a drop of Superglue to the hole and run the smooth back side of the bit through the hole to seal it up and make the sides hard.
I used the tip of a knife to carefully remove the edging. I went along the side of the edging and slowly peeled/cut it off with the knife. Sometimes you can pull off the edging once you separate one side from the helmet, sometimes it takes more effort to separate it from both sides. It takes some time to remove it without ruining it.
The most difficult part to me is installing the edging. It's not really difficult but it takes some effort to glue it back on perfectly again. I would glue one side on at a time while paying close attention that it's going to fit snug against the full edge. I glued the outer side on first. I also made miter cuts to the rubber edging with a razor blade around the sharper corners because the rubber edging wanted to bubble if I didn't. This will also become obvious once you test fit the edge in place before gluing.
Once I got the edge installed, I blended everything together with caulking. I sanded the rubber edging smoother at the miter joints before the final painting to hide the seams. The rubber edging is pretty easy to sand and it's thick enough that you can sand it without worrying about going all the way through. You can always sand the paint smoother and put more coats if need be also.
The information above is based on getting the helmet to look factory perfect again. I'm a bit OCD where others may not be. If you aren't worried about making things look perfect, it'll be way easier for you.

Edit= I got the rails and covers from ebay sellers. GunNook is a seller on Ebay. The covers I used are made by Onetigris.

@bigjunk1

Thanks for the clarifications.

A buddy also has an older helmet and is going to swing by this week to see what we can do. Two heads (and two sets of hands) are always better..!

We'll be sure to post pics (and any question which might arise too!).

Thanks again!

Where did you get the helmet cover? Looks pretty good for $15.

Searched high and low and not finding a helmet anywhere near 50 bucks.

You could find PASGT helmets for around $40 fairly regularly before Corona.

Well, my buddy finally showed up the other day and we did the basic cuts.

We wore out two jigsaw blades and put a hurtin' on the sawsall blade as well! LOL  (His helmet was newer/much harder and cutting the bitch has my tendonitis acting up something awful!)

My edge-trim is shot, so I'm not even going to bother putting it back on, although I did make a half-hearted effort. After cleaning the frayed edges up with my Dremel, I blasted the outer shell and raw edges with Flex-Seal, so I'm hoping that will prevent any delaminating and it added a nice pebbly texture to the shell, too.

I'm waiting for that to dry before hitting it again with OD paint and drilling new holes for everything.

I've also decided to not bother filling the old holes with superglue. It seems like an unneeded extra hassle, so (if I fill them at all), I'll just use some paintable caulk and be done with it.

I have a new MC cover, quality aluminum NV shroud, rails (I messed up and got the older style, but they'll do) and I got some knock-off Peltors to go on the rails (real one are outside the budget, but these will do for now [maybe someday]). And my buddy had an even better set of pads and a chin-strap (designed to go to the rail screw-points), so, after drilling/painting, I should be ready for assembly.

Oh. I did not get a counter-weight. The whole purpose of this exercise was to eliminate weight and have earpro/comms, so adding more weight didn't make sense. That said, I am looking at an adjustable set-up for the nape of the neck, like @bigjunk1 is using. The helmet fit great before, but that should add some stability when using NVG (at least, I hope it will!).

When I remembered, I took pics throughout the process and I'll post them when everything's complete.

I will say up front that mine will not be quite as pretty as bigjunk1's, but should illustrate that it's not all that tough of a project to do. It got very difficult to see where the cuts should be, though. The kevlar was fraying badly and obstructing my view - especially with the sawsall - and the jigsaw was very hard to control, at times. Nonetheless, I'm pleased thus far and expect to have a fully adequate/functional FAST-esque helmet in a day or so.

Then, I get to decide if I'm going to give the same treatment to the GF's PSGAT!

Stay tuned.

Sorry things didn't go perfectly! I wouldn't take it to hard. I should probably mention that I was a general contractor for 25 years. I'm that guy everyone knows that built his own house and can fix anything. Different people are good at different things and have different backgrounds.
Plus, helmets are to protect your head, not a key piece of bling for a beauty pageant. Yours will still stop bullets the same as a $1500 helmet.

Oh, dude! I'm not upset at all - rather, just letting others know how it went.

Your tutorials are great!

And I didn't have the specific blades you recommended (I think in your PMs). I bought a multi-pack for my sawsall (didn't have a bimetal blade) and I only was able to get super-sharp crosscut wood blades for the jigsaw.

Marking the helmet for drilling as I type this . . . well, in-between typing anyway! LOL

Post progress pics. Would be nice to learn this.

After all the trouble to email these to my computer, for some reason they won't upload! They are greyed out, so I'm going to try from my phone!

This should be the first pic after cutting across the visor.

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Hack job complete!

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I don't know why, but I painted before drilling.

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Here's one showing the fraying after drilling. I used a propane torch to burn off as much as I could, then, like I did with the rough cuts, I smooth things out as best as I could with a dremel.

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I had two suspension systems which I combined pieces to work. I then trial fit the pads after installing the rails & NV shroud.

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Here it is, pretty much finished.

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Later that evening, I attached my PVS 14 and earpro.

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Here's a little better picture with the earpro. (Ha! Please ignore the blurry guy in the window in his boxer-briefs!)

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Finally, I figured out how to attach the cover, so here it is, all done and ready for a mission!

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All in all, I'm very, very pleased with the results. The fit is excellent and I don't even think I'll need a counter-weight, nor the "screw-to-fit" thing for the nape of my neck. The cross-pad I have/had holds everything nicely.

And, of course, now, the GF wants hers done as well, so (when I get around to doing it), I'll post a few pics of that one too.

Thanks for the encouragement and guidance guys!

Oh. I think I mentioned earlier how badly I butchered the edging trim-band "thing".

Obviously, that's installed to protect the kevlar's edges, but I put a couple coats of flex-seal on, so I'm hoping it will be okay.

I should also note there was a small bit of delaminating when I drilled. I'm sure I should have done more than just a pilot-hole for the rails. I'm HOPING not to take this into combat, of course, so it should be okay. The bolts are holding it all tight.

And it's astounding how much weight has been removed - even with the added accouterments. I think it's a medium-size and the GF's is definitely a small - yet, hers weighs noticeably more with only a metal NV shroud and (graphite?) NV "arm-mount".

Ever posted in a cool thread and then it died?

Cool! I like it! Glad to see you got it all done and mission ready.

Good job! Get some 4D pads and you’ll be done.

How did the edges hold up?

This is a pain in the ass

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ETA: one ear off

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Is replacement edge trim available?

I'm wondering if brad point wood bits would cut through cleaner than a regular metal type bit.

I actually started this project myself today...I cut the ears off an old ACH I had laying around. Took about 20 minutes using a jigsaw with a fine wood cutting bit. I then cleaned everything up with a sanding drum kit from Harbor Freight in an air die grinder. Then I thinned some epoxy down with denatured alcohol to seal the edges. Its drying right now. Tomorrow I'll reattach the edging and finish it up. I should have taken pics of the work in progress...

Looks great OP.

I just picked up a bump, but if I found one of these ballistic helmets for cheap Id probably try this.

Brad point bits are what I used on my helmets. No, the Kevlar fibers still fray. Adding Super glue to the frayed fibers (to harden them) and drilling through multiple times while adding Super glue each time is possibly the only way to get a clean hole?
Edit= Not sure about buying replacement edge trim or where to find it? Someone could probably use something different, like trim made for a door if they were unable to save the original edge or find replacement? Finding edging that is the same width may take some searching.
If someone is worried about reusing the original edge trim, they should expect to spend 20/30 minutes to carefully remove the trim. It's not exactly easy to remove the trim without damaging it. Some trim may be deteriorated beyond salvage even if someone tried.

With respect to the edge trim, a heat gun and a plastic scraper made quick work of getting it off intact.

My dilema now is what glue to use to put it back on? I tried clear Gorilla glue, using binder clips as clamps, but it didn't set fast enough and the clips just slid the whole band right right off the edge. I'm thinking about using contact cement, and just gluing it down a few inches at a time.

Gel super glue is the answer you seek. I glue the outside of the trim on first, working a couple inches at a time. I then glue the edge and the inside of the trim on together. Since the edging is being installed on a different shape helmet than it was originally, the bends of the edge are in the wrong places now. Getting the edge to stick and stay in place immediately when reinstalling will make it MUCH easier and stop the edging from bubbling off. You will also need to make miter cuts to the inside and outside of the edge trim at the sharp corners (front and rear edges where the ears were removed) otherwise the edge will want to bubble. Installing the edging so it looks perfect again takes some effort.

I am impressed that you manage to get better results than the original ones soldiers made.
I guess it's function over fashion
Marcus Luttrell of "Lone Survivor" fame



Other Navy soldier

I had problems with the edging as well. I used 1/4 inch rubber edging off of Amazon. It seems to be holding up well. It has a grip type edge on the inside that helps hold it on

https://www.flickr.com/gp/189661952@N03/8d2gP7

https://www.flickr.com/gp/189661952@N03/04m3w2

Link?

Edge Trim Black Large, 1/4" Fits Edge (10 Feet Length) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KGAKG2G/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_7GpyFb8B28H62

Anyone thing a 4 1/2" grinder with a cutoff wheel and flap disc would make the cutting a little easier?

I used a jigsaw with a narrow 12tpi wood blade to cut mine. Cut slowly and it worked great, though I left about a 1/16" margin. I then used a Harbor Freight sanding drum kit in a die grinder to sand it to profile. I then mixed some 30 minute epoxy, thinned with denatured alcohol to seal the edges. After it dried, I used a 220 flap disk to smooth it all out, and some quick change scotchbrite pads in the die grinder, again HF, to get in the inside.

I'm not sure an angle grinder would be controllable enough unless you clamp the helmet to a bench and leave a wider margin.

Wouldn't that comms setup have worked without removing the side protection?

Here's $50 pasgt helmets

https://www.triarcsystems.com/product/pasgt-helmet-military-level-iiia-helmet-used/

Curious what rails/shrouds you guys are using?

Did they spray them with truck bed liner????

Sure looks like it doesn't it.  Nice and shiny.  

Gawd, that is just...ugly as sin.  Wouldn’t you stop after the first one?

Rail mounted comms like I have in the photo won't. Some comms like Sordins or Comtacs are made to fit under the ears of full cut helmets though.

Not if you are trying to hide possible cracks in the helmet.