WW2 USMC P-44 Camo Pants...Everyone deserves a laugh

[dhcoleterracina]

Several years ago I bought this pair of pants on our e-stand, quite inexpensively. They were found in a shed and the belief was that a family of mice made their home there. It was an impulse buy because I had the camo jacket with many repairs and they seemed to be a match. My long term plan is to create a mannequin display since I also have the helmet with a nice camo cover. It's OK to laugh and if you want to howl, see how much a nice pair of pants or jacket sell for now. I felt that they were worthy of restoration so this thread will detail the process I intend to use to bring them up to an acceptable level for a mannequin display. Anything I do can be "undone". 

 

[doyler]

a little super glue and your golden.  

 

I have a set that came with an early P42 test pattern. They have been repaired but are dry rotted. Material is fragile,

[manayunkman]

Look forward to your progress.

[pararaftanr2]

Rather than repair or restoration, and since they are destined for a mannequin anyway, how about representing a Marine with a wounded leg? An appropriately bandaged left leg underneath the shredded trouser area would save a lot of work and be quite unique.

[jerry_k]

3 hours ago, pararaftanr2 said:

Rather than repair or restoration, and since they are destined for a mannequin anyway, how about representing a Marine with a wounded leg? An appropriately bandaged left leg underneath the shredded trouser area would save a lot of work and be quite unique.

I guess it would be the best option. Even can't imagine how to repair pair of pants like these ones. It would have a "zero"collector  value for me...

 

take care,

Jerry

[dhcoleterracina]

That's a possibility (to simply bandage the leg), and if my repair looks bad, I'll do exactly that. Even repaired, some collectors wouldn't be interested but with the current prices there will be collectors who can't afford 1.5K-2K for a nice set but still want something that's real. 

 

My biggest hurdle was/is finding camo material for the repair. ATF used to sell a yard of HBT camo but they no longer do. They also sell a scrap bag of material that was supposed to contain some camo material but when it arrived, it had no camo in it. I found a camo pair of pants that's close but not exact. It's at least faded like the pants I'm repairing so I hope it will be OK. I hope to post some progress pictures in about a week.  

[jerry_k]

But if your repair would look bad you will destroy nice and displayable item? It make totally no sense for me? Especially if you used a modern copy camo material? 

 

The leg wounded USMC mannequin would have a killer look with pants like these, even I can imagine a second one as a Navy Corpsman stand above him... 

 

Cheers,

Jerry

[dhcoleterracina]

Jerry, you're confusing me, first you say it has no collector value and now you say I'll destroy a nice and displayable item. 

[dskjl]

Dang cotton moths

[jerry_k]

On 12/9/2021 at 10:22 PM, dhcoleterracina said:

Jerry, you're confusing me, first you say it has no collector value and now you say I'll destroy a nice and displayable item. 

Sorry for confusion, I mean "no collector value" for repair pants... 

 

Regards,

Jerry

[dhcoleterracina]

So, this is what I've done so far. I found a pair of similar camo pants. The material isn't an exact match but the purpose is just act as the background material for the repair. I cut one leg off and stuffed it with batting material to make a leg and then inserted that into the camo pants to be repaired. 

 

[dhcoleterracina]

Next, I used a product called "Bo Nash" which I could find no record here but perhaps you're all familiar with it. It's a repair system and used widely in quilting. When you want to essentially glue two pieces of material together you sprinkle like salt this white powder between the two fabrics that you wish to connect. Then place these brown sheets above and below the repair and run a hot iron on top of it for about 20 seconds. The white powder melts and forms a glue that connects the two pieces. There are many youtube videos on-line demonstrating the application. It can also be used to repair moth holes by finding similar material elsewhere on a garment and cutting it up finely and mixing it with the white powder. You fill the hole and iron. The benefit of this stuff, they claim, is that it remains pliable and soft. The glue won't gum up needle work after. 

 

[dhcoleterracina]

I then slowly started to piece the broken pieces of camo material on top of the new camo cloth. 

 

[dhcoleterracina]

The repair isn't invisible but the pieces were put back as close as I could get them and now only a small section of missing material is visible. If I find a more exact match of camo cloth it can be adhered on top of the new cloth. In any case, the hole is filled and hopefully the repaired area won't be as noticeable when the whole mannequin display is put together with all the other equipment I plan to use. 

 

[dhcoleterracina]

I'm happy with the results although you might need to go back and see what I started with to understand. When I finally put the mannequin together I'll post that. I need to find one that will support the weight of the equipment. 

[dhcoleterracina]

The start

 

[FriarChuck]

I’m impressed. Cool product. I look forward to the mannequin display.

[srossio]

Nicely done.
I know that in the museum field when we have to repair something like this we use a neutral background to differentiate between the original item and the repair.  I was going to suggest that here but no need.  Looks good.

As for value, I feel that we are reaching that tipping point where chewed up items such like this can no longer be written off.  Being an older collector I was fortunate to have the option of obtaining mint items for what today would be considered not much money...but those days are fading quickly.  I believe that in the next 10 years or so we will see a paradigm shift in WWI and WWII collecting where things like this (that us older collectors would have written off as nothing more than oiling patches for our firearms) will be highly desired/sought after despite the damage.

[manayunkman]

1 hour ago, srossio said:

Nicely done.
I know that in the museum field when we have to repair something like this we use a neutral background to differentiate between the original item and the repair.  I was going to suggest that here but no need.  Looks good.

As for value, I feel that we are reaching that tipping point where chewed up items such like this can no longer be written off.  Being an older collector I was fortunate to have the option of obtaining mint items for what today would be considered not much money...but those days are fading quickly.  I believe that in the next 10 years or so we will see a paradigm shift in WWI and WWII collecting where things like this (that us older collectors would have written off as nothing more than oiling patches for our firearms) will be highly desired/sought after despite the damage.

I hope your vision of the future comes to pass.

[dhcoleterracina]

This is it on a mannequin, as you can see, there is still much more work to be done. I'm still playing with the equipment. The shirt is very rough, not as bad as the pants. It makes me smile overall. 

 

[dmar836]

Yeah, I hope the hobby stays on "the mend". See what I did there?

I can't see the patch material but the worst case scenario is that you unknowingly cut up a pair of Okinawan-made camo pants for a patch! Doesn't look like correct material but when I found my set at a thrift store for $8 I though it was housewife-made hunting clothes from an old USMC tent. Almost passed on it.

Repair turned out "attractive" enough and you did a great job of application but I thought you said, "Anything I do can be 'undone'."

Their web site and videos say it's impervious to washing and dry cleaning so I'm thinking this is a one and done fix.

I couldn't encourage it for repairs but you did a great job.

Dave