I don't think the Gold ACU sticker is that recognised any more after MCN tried it and had someone in China order 1000 one and got them without any approval. This sort of blew the ACU's ethics out of the water.
It then changed to an EC020 or something like that, this was brought in late 2008 / early 2009. I don't know what the current standard is.
The Gold ACU and the EC020 are bike helmet standards which also changed to a SHARP recognised certificate but I don't know if this is still running.
Paint does not degrade the outer shell as long as it's of a carbon composite / kevlar / fibreglass construction, if it's a cheap polycarbonate helmet it might do depending on how it's prepared, the real issue is people who don't know what they're doing having a go.
Unfortunately there is no policing of people painting crash helmets which is where the "Fred in his Shed" people cause problems. They don't mask the helmets correctly.
The main problem as I mentioned previous is painting getting into area's it shouldn't. The inside protective part of a crash helmet is made of polystryrene type materials, if paints of a solvent nature get onto these it will destroy their structural integrity, they might still look okay but they won't perform correctly in an accident, they're just crumble and disintegrate meaning your head will take the impact.
The actual job of a crash helmet is to slow the brain down if there is a sudden impact. If you image a train hitting a solid wall with a load or people stood up in it, all of those people will have momentum that will take them forward and they will fall over.
Now imagine same train but with a big spring on the front, the train will hit the wall but the spring will soften the impact, this is what the structural integrity of the crash helmet does, it slows your brain down.
That is why I posted above it's import to go to a recognised company and get it done. You can't spend enough protecting your head. The trouble is if you spend near on £2000 on a full spec car type race helmet and then give it to fred in his shed to paint it as he's £100 cheaper than the proper people who do it every day there is every chance he will mess it up, so you save £100 on the paint and either get brain damage when you crash or you don't pass scrutineering because someone is fully trained in what to look for and you have to buy another crash helmet.
Hope that clears it up for people.
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