Worth Preserving? (M1917 Helmet)

[Indiana]

Hello,

 

I'm new to the forums here, but would like to ask your opinion on a project I'm currently working on. I purchased a rusted m1917 helmet at a veterans estate auction 6 or 7 years ago. It sat in my closet until recently, when I decided I needed to do something with it. The copper rivet held in a few scraps of the liner and a broken chinstrap. Thick rust scale covered the inside and the bales were frozen in place. With a lot of oil I was able to get the bales moving again, but the inside was still in terrible condition. The outside was covered in rust, but no scale. I bead blasted the inside to remove all of the scale and primed it. Then I purchased a custom reproduction liner for it. Prairie Flower Leather uses vinyl in their liners, but I don't want to put that in my helmet, so he is custom making one with oil cloth which I am providing, to match the original. The chin strap buckles from the original will be cleaned up and used as well. Now comes the problem I've run into. After cleaning the outside with soap and water I've discovered the remnants of a camoflague pattern. The pictures in the below album show the helmet. The work I've done on the inside has killed any collector value, but this helmet was not really preservable without doing so. My question is now, what to do with the outside. Do I save it as is or go ahead and finish restoring the entire helmet with a new paint and sawdust coat?

 

Photos:

 

http://s435.photobucket.com/albums/qq72/pt...M1917%20Helmet/

 

Thanks for your advice.

 

Best,

Patrick

[srossio]

Hey Patrick,

I think it looks pretty cool just the way it is...what a neat find! So what if you restored the interior. As you said there wasn't much left to begin with and (in this case) the interior isn't as important as the unique exterior paint job. The neat thing is that it will now display nicely on a display head. As for finishing the restoration I would stop where your at. Personally, I have had things like this before which I thought about restoring but never did. Later I found the items to be more appealing in their original state despite the wear, rust, etc. and I was extremely grateful for not going ahead with my restoration efforts. I should also add that many of the items I left untouched have become worth much more than if I would have "restored" them.

 

Just my two cents

 

Steve

[88thcollector]

Hi,

 

Please leave it alone. There will never be any shortage of restored and messed with helmets but originals are ony going to get rarer.

 

Steve

[Edward T.]

I would personally leave the outside because of the camo. If it was completely rusted/pitted I would do a full restoration to the outside . Perhaps spraying it with a clear lacquer or clear rust preventer would be an alternative to repainting?

[MAW]

Buy an original barbed wire stake from AGM and hang it on there for decoration.

[Indiana]

AGM? What company is that? Thanks.