My story..........

      My name is Mike Whitehead. I was born and raised on the east coast in eastern Pennsylvania. I started out as a Sign painter painting race cars and truck lettering. I painted helmets for friends and thought they looked pretty good and my friends all wanted there helmets painted. I look back now and realize that they were pretty crappy.......  Working full time and painting on the side was good and allowed me to have insurance.

There were 3 phases in the evolution of Hardcore paint works. The first was Whitehead sign and design which developed my Lettering and airbrush skills. I started doing more helmets and motorcycle painting and I needed a cooler name for my business. In the late 80's Radical Image was born. I was newly married and my daughter was born and I went full time painting helmets with moderate success. In the early 90's I went through a divorce and along with my wife went my second income. A few years after I had to take a regular job to afford insurance and survive on my own. It was around this time I stopped painting helmets.

I was hired at a large guitar manufacturer in Nazareth Pa. called Martin Guitar. If your a guitar player you know this name. They were the Rolls Royce of acoustic guitars. I started as a production sprayer and worked hard and after 5 yrs became the Advanced robotic tech. After 9 years of doing this and wondering what if ??????  I had the itch to paint helmets. I took a new job with a 4 day work week so I had more time to paint helmets. Researching well before buying new supplies, I invested $700 in Auto-Air water based paints. Yes water based. I went green...haha.  New airbrushes and spray guns and all the supplies necessary to make this happen. I also purchased a 24" vinyl cutter for cutting masks and doing vehicle Lettering. What a time saver this was!. After banging my head off of my desk for a few weeks I finally came up with an updated company name and Logo. This is when Hardcore Paint works was born.

This is the final evolution of my business. Working full time as a production sprayer, I'm working toward doing helmet painting full time and creating the best helmet paint jobs in the industry. As I sponsor more great riders and my company grows, I see this a reality and not just a dream.

Look for me at a track near you or visit me on Myspace.  I look forward to meeting all of you. Thanks to all my past customers and all my future customers.

Mike Whitehead

Hardcore Paint works.......