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Restoration tips


Seagle07
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Hello everyone,

 

I have found a decently priced liner, however the trouble is, is that the liner webbing has torn due to stress from the sweatband. Everything is fine, but the exhibits a lot of paint lost.

 

ive read through a tutorial online, and personally I don’t own a drill, so would it be wise to use a screwdriver to take out the rivets? 
 

Honestly, I am a bit frugal. Do I really have to buy a new webkit for the liner, or would it be okay to sew the webbing back together? 
 

I do have more questions that I’ll think of, once I get to the stage where I cannot go further without knowledge, so please enlighten me!

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if your going to remove the webbing you need a drill to drill out the rivets. thats if you want to replace the webbing.........there is several places like j murry inc 1944 that sell webbing that was taken out of orignal lines that the line was messed up but webbing was good..and as for sewing it it all depends on what you want to do with it. if you want it as a survivor i would leave it as is. if u want it to look new then i would put a good used webbing in it with a new paint job............what ever you decide good luck

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  • 1 month later...

If you try to remove the liner rivets with just a screwdriver you will wind up damaging the liner shell.     At least buy a cheapo ChiCom-Freight drill, a center punch and a 1/4" Dewalt pilot tipped drill bit.    

 

Use the center punch to make a starter indent in the center of the rivet dome.   

 

Use the 1/4" pilot tipped drill bit to cut away as much of the rivet dome or crimp as possible.   Some rivets you can get to from the inside, some you need to get to on the outside, which is the reason for having the center punch.

 

Then your M-1 Steel Pot, use the appropriate shade of OD paint from Aervoe or J Murray.  Give the inside 2 or 3 light coats of OD, you don't want it thick or it will run.  Hit the shell exterior once with a light coat.   Then for the ground cork, I use a McCormack Red Pepper spice bottle to sprinkle the ground cork onto the wet paint a section at a time.  It takes some practice to get just the right density of cork.  After the shell is corked give it another coat or two coat the cork.

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I'd say leave the liner as is.  If you're not going to wear it, now need to mess with it. Plus, if its a nice original liner with nothing wrong with it besides the webbing falling apart a little bit then it should be much of an issue. You don't really see the liner when you display it anyway. 

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6 hours ago, huntssurplus said:

I'd say leave the liner as is.  If you're not going to wear it, now need to mess with it. Plus, if its a nice original liner with nothing wrong with it besides the webbing falling apart a little bit then it should be much of an issue. You don't really see the liner when you display it anyway. 

I agree. I think collecting original militaria and tinkering / restoring are two different things IMHO. Nothing wrong with the later. Just sayin is all. 
Z

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I agree. I think collecting original militaria and tinkering / restoring are two different things IMHO. Nothing wrong with the later. Just sayin is all. 
Z

Yes and one more thing to add:

When I was I brand new collector to M1 Helmets, I wanted an original WW2 “complete” helmet that was in wearable condition. That was expensive however, and being a new collector I had less funds to deal with. During my search for something that would fit my criteria, I came across a pretty decently priced WW2 M1, there was an issue though: the chinstraps were missing.

I considered buying it still though, and purchasing some original chinstraps I could then sew on to make my helmet “complete”. However, right as I was about to click the buy it now button, I realized something. No matter if the all the components were original, sewing on the chinstraps immediately negated the true “originality” of the item. No matter what it looked like, or how much closer to being in a “complete and original” configuration it would be, it would never be truly “original”.

This seems like a hard concept for some collectors to exactly understand, but actual originality of an item lays not in how close it looks to how it would have looked when it was in its original use, but rather how much of said item has survived. History is not something that is ever completely preserved, as with all time there is bound to be changes an item or even story undergo. Consider it like the stories we know of the ancient world. With there being less ability to preserve these stories, they become fragmented, and what we are left with today is rarely ever exactly how that story of events actually unfolded when it did. Details are left out, things may be changed along the way, and eventually we get to what we have left. Should we change and add in details to make that story seem more “complete” to how we think it would be if we were witnessing the actual events with our own eyes? Even if those details are things we know were original to that period? I.e. if there was a story of an empires conquest, and we knew that empire would kill prisoners of war, but then there was a story of a particular battle where the details of what happened to the prisoners of war captured during that battle was unknown. Would we correct that story to include that he killed said prisoners, because that is original details seen in other stories?

It’s a similar concept for historical artifacts. If we change how it is because we believe we are making the item more “original”, then are we really improving the item, or are we tainting it with our own modifications?

Perhaps I am looking too deep into this, especially considering this is a hobby we partake in for fun, thus the choices we make that would further our enjoyment in the hobby should be made regardless of what some random person thinks. And I would agree, if you really think it would make this hobby more enjoyable for you to modify this liner then go ahead. But consider how many WW2 M1 helmet liners are modified every day. The argument of “it’s just on of millions that were made” will one day not apply as the last liner is lost to history. Look at j Murray, they personally modify thousands of liners, not counting the people they sell parts too that also modify liners. Out of all these modified liners, and ones lost during the war, and ones lost since the war has ended, how many are left now? How many will be left in the future as they are inevitably also degraded over time? Think about how many revolutionary war items remain, how many WW2 m1 helmet liners will remain 250 years from 1945?

It may be argued that the liner is falling apart as well, but is the degradation of that liner overtime not just as much apart of its history as what it was used for during WW2?

Just something to consider, before you do something irreversible.


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"This seems like a hard concept for some collectors to exactly understand, but actual originality of an item lays not in how close it looks to how it would have looked when it was in its original use, but rather how much of said item has survived."


Very, very, well said. 
Modifying an item in 2021 will certainly add nothing to its originality. 
If you want a brand new helmet, then buy one like that. Dont drill through 75 year old rivets to attempt to make a worn helmet look newer. 
 

JL

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