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Chromed helmet restoration Work in Progress

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 7:38 am
by valkyrie895
Friends,

I came across a fantastic deal on a ckl68 M42 helmet. It was only about $65 shipped to my door. I had been in the market for a restored original helmet for some time, and even had funds lined up to drop $400 on a restored one when this deal came around. What's the catch, you may ask? The damn thing was chrome dipped at some point between 1945 and 2014.

Now, I did have a minor personal crisis over whether or not to leave it chrome for a "cool factor" piece. I guess my inner 1970s Hell's Angel was shining through.....

Anyhow, I will be posting updates in this thread over the next several weeks as I restore it. So far, here is my plan of action.

-Remove chrome from most of helmet using flap disc sander. Remove chrome around air vents with rotary wire wheel. If the flap disc doesn't end up working, I suppose I will buck up and rent a sandblaster from my local rental yard. Not looking forward to paying 70 bucks to use it for the afternoon, but I have several other projects I can use it for and it would get it done very fast.

-Install ATF liner system. These liners are the best bang for the buck, and I have a 50 dollar ATF gift card lying around from last Christmas, so the liner will only end up costing me about 30 bucks shipped. Not too bad.

-Paint helmet in RAL 6006 with aluminum oxide finish. The helmet is going to be my late war standard. M42 textured with no decal. No fancy camo, no BS hollywood "aging" techniques. Just paint that I can bang around at events and get dirty naturally.
This is the part I'm going to need help with. Unfortunately the forum is mostly full of guys wanting some Gucci looking camo scheme on their helmet, there isn't much info on how to get a nice, smooth, even factory textured finish on the helmet. I will do several trial runs before hitting the helmet and will hopefully end up with a trusted method that I can pass along to my friends here on the forum.

I have attached a few photos of what she looks like chromed out and one which is the desired finished effect.
chrome.jpg
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ckl.jpg
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What I'm hoping for texture wise:
texture.jpg
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Hopefully she turns out looking right as rain.
Unfortunately most repro helmets are garbage, and ALL size 68 M42 helmets are garbage. I've been waiting for this day for a long time. Wish me luck!

-Bodo

Re: Chromed helmet restoration Work in Progress

Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2014 1:25 am
by valkyrie895
Update:
You cannot tell in the pictures but the air vents are flattened out completely. Going to have to re form them.

I was told online that bleach would melt the rust. I bought 5 gallons of bleach, soaked it for about a half hour, and looked at it only to see that it had rusted all of the non-chrome areas.

I pulled it out and tried several different power sanders with marginal results. No photos this time.

Re: Chromed helmet restoration Work in Progress

Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2014 2:49 am
by valkyrie895
If anybody knows any tricks on how to remove chrome plating, please let me know....

Re: Chromed helmet restoration Work in Progress

Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2014 3:17 pm
by MPK
Try taking it to a plating shop.
Most plating shops use large baths of nitric acid to remove old plating. :D
Hope this helps.
Mark,

Re: Chromed helmet restoration Work in Progress

Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2014 11:33 pm
by valkyrie895
Today was a good day. Deciding not to piss with the chemicals, I busted out ol' zeke. My "Roto-Zip" angle grinder with a flap disc sander. Made quick work of that chrome and left it nice and shiny. It was easy to tell when I had cut through the chrome since it would spark when I hit steel but not on just chrome.

The next obstacle was to re-form the dinked in air vents. Obviously this would be a challenge. What ended up working was a thick washer with an inner diameter the same size as my desired air vent. I then took a round head screw and pounded on the inside of the shell in the affected area. Got myself a brand new set of air vents, but not without accidentally punching through the steel on one of them. Oops. Bent back the punched out one and filled the gap with automotive body filler.
The vent holes aren't perfect but they look damn good especially considering how they were before.
no chrome new vent.jpg
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Here it is after sanding. New vent hole shown.
no chrome new vent 2.jpg
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A closer up pic of the new vent.


All in all a good day's progress. Very pleased with how the vents came out.

Going to mix my own paint with 3 parts OD and one part black. Maybe with a touch of slate gray to even it out.

Any tips along the way are well appreciated.

-Bodo

Re: Chromed helmet restoration Work in Progress

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2014 6:11 am
by Oberleutnant Ulrich
Very nice work indeed! I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product!

A little hard work goes a long way ;)

Re: Chromed helmet restoration Work in Progress

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2014 2:16 pm
by saddler
To lose the rust try a Molasses Bath - Google it for how to, etc.

Really WORKS, and for close to zero outlay.
Failing that, a soak in diesel will do the job, but I'd go with the molasses option first

Re: Chromed helmet restoration Work in Progress

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2014 2:58 pm
by GraemeMac
Cola does it too..........

Re: Chromed helmet restoration Work in Progress

Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2014 12:58 am
by valkyrie895
First let me start off by thanking Oberleutnant Ulrich for his kind words.

Then let me say I don't know why you guys are going on about rust.....

That being said, today I began the painting process.

As you know from reading my previous posts in this thread, I had a bit of a conundrum as to what paint to use and where to get it. You all recommended RAL 6006. As I explained several times to several people, RAL paint codes mean nothing here. 1944 Militaria paint was high on my list of options, but at 25.00 a can, I felt I could do much better.

In several circles, "Rustoleum Deep Forest Green" spraypaint is an acceptable substitute for the proper shade of dark feldgrau. It did not tickle my fancy based on originals I've seen in the flesh and online (color temperature taken into consideration, of course). I felt I could do something to make it work, though.

Here's where it got tricky.

I had to decant some "Deep Forest Green" with "Flat Black" from the spraycans into an airbrush jar. To do this, I covered the top of the jar with a shop rag, placed a drinking straw directly against the spray nozzle and bled the paint into the jar. I mixed about 3 parts "Deep Forest Green" to 1 part "Flat Black". I then mixed it thoroughly.

Into a different airbrush jar, I poured a good portion of aluminum oxide powder. This was attached to an airbrush/spraygun with a fairly large nozzle aperture.

Using a finer airbrush, I sprayed small sections of my custom mixed Feldgrau onto the helmet, and then quickly switched to my oxide brush and sprayed it onto the wet paint. This allowed me to get a very even, fine coating of the powder applied to the surface of the helmet.

Once I was satisfied that the entire helmet was evenly coated, I put the paint mix into the larger spraygun (formerly used for oxide powder) and sprayed a fairly thick outer coat onto the helmet.

My result is a very even texture with a glorious shade of "Feldgrau Dunkel".

Today was a very good day.
spraying.jpg
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Spraying on the finish coat over the oxide powder.
hood.jpg
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Paint dry.
hood2.jpg
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See you all next time with more updates!

-Bodo

Re: Chromed helmet restoration Work in Progress

Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 8:59 pm
by valkyrie895
Last night through weary eyes, I sprayed a final coat on the outside and the inside of the shell. I had to mix a little bit more paint since I had run out from the first coat with aluminum oxide.

Pictured below is the result.
helmety helmet.jpg
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As you can see the texture evened out nicely.

The photo where it is on the hood of the car is misleading because it shows the color lighter than it is in the flesh. Strange phenomenon relating to cell phone photography I assume.

Let me know what you all think, all I have to do now is wait for the liner to arrive so I can plonk that in and test drive it this weekend at "WWII Recreated" in Dixon, IL June 20-21-22, 2014. See you there!!

-Bodo

Re: Chromed helmet restoration Work in Progress

Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 1:25 am
by valkyrie895
I got bored and put in my name and Erkennungsnummer. What do you think?
fehrmann.jpg
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Re: Chromed helmet restoration Work in Progress

Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 4:43 am
by Oberleutnant Ulrich
Very, very, very well done indeed!

It makes me want to work on the shells building up in my collection that I have yet to work on. What great inspiration this is! I like it a lot.

Re: Chromed helmet restoration Work in Progress

Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 11:01 am
by Halle
Very impressed Bodo , thanks for sharing the process with us 8)

Re: Chromed helmet restoration Work in Progress

Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 12:44 am
by valkyrie895
Thank you all for the kind words!
I am just waiting on the liner now. I will post a step-by-step on how to install one for those of us here who have never done one before.
I'm sure a step by step has been posted on the forum before, but hey, I'm out of school. I don't have anything better to do!

Thanks again for the kind words,

--Bodo

Re: Chromed helmet restoration Work in Progress

Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 7:30 am
by telemark
Superb.