British Flimsy - Carboot find and restoration project !
Article about: Hey guys Yes......I know.....British Flimsies are not exactly rare but I thought I'd post this up to show you what you can do with a crappy old carboot find. Unfortunately, I thought I had t
British Flimsy - Carboot find and restoration project !
Hey guys
Yes......I know.....British Flimsies are not exactly rare but I thought I'd post this up to show you what you can do with a crappy old carboot find.
Unfortunately, I thought I had taken photos of this before I restored it but can't find the photo ! Suffice to say the can was rusted to hell and back, had little original paint left, the brass cap was black and the 'Shell' writing so full of oily muck that you could hardly read it......it was in a sorry old state, even for a flimsy !
Anyway, I bought it about 6 months back for a quid and have finally got round to restoring it, basically because I was fed up of tripping over it in the garage !!
First step was paint stripper followed by a clean in soapy water with steel wool, then dried and rubbed down with steel wool soaked in white spirit then a rag soaked in white spirit. Then the cap was removed and given a bloody good clean with steel wool and brasso. Finally, the brass thread was masked over and the can given two coats of primer followed by two coats of a nice green paint. Not exactly the right green but it's not far off (Tamiya used to do an olive drab that was spot on but they withdrew it ).
The results speak for themselves. It's now been transferred into the house as it is no longer, as my wife put it, 'A bloody rusty, oil soaked heap of JUNK !'.
Re: British Flimsy - Carboot find and restoration project !
Hi Steve, I think I remember that can in your garage
Hi Paul, welcome to the forum!
I have a few of these cans in original paint. The civvy ones, which of course lack the WD markings to the top, are found in both bright red and also dark green. They are often made by "Valor" and are maker marked and dated on the underneath.
Military cans are usually service brown or olive green in colour. I have a few in original paint but they are buried in the outhouse. So I don't have any pics.
Re: British Flimsy - Carboot find and restoration project !
Ade
......yep. Valor 5 42 stamped on the base
No 1 pts - Welcome to the forum ! I did used to go on BOCN and post my MD finds there but, unfortunately, I found the guys less friendly there than here Indeed, I got admonished by 2 people for posting pics of live ordnance when I hadn't !!!
Have a look for threads started by me. You'll probably be most insterested in the finds I've made over the last 18 months.
Re: British Flimsy - Carboot find and restoration project !
Hi as well as a member of warrelics i am also the owner/administrator for BOCN and would like to say we do clearly state in the rules which are posted in more than one location on bocn that we do not allow posting of live or DUG ordnance unless the member posting is working or has worked in eod or other official ordnance clearance.It also says that Failure to abide/agree with this rule will result in removal of the images/posts.
If a moderator sees or suspects that something is live or DUG ordnance they will remove it
We are not killjoys we have these rules in place for public safety reasons ,we do not want to be responsible anyone getting hurt or worse whilst looking for old ordnance because they think its safe to do so because they have seen it on our site.We appreciate people have different levels of ability or knoweledge but we do not take any chances...
In the past If i have seen someone new joining up whos interests are detecting i try to remind them of the rules and have suggested/ recomended warrelics site to them..
allan
Re: British Flimsy - Carboot find and restoration project !
I think that the cans in question are miss-named. The flimsey petrol can was much bigger than the standard two gallon can shown above. Also my understanding is that all WD cans have a plain, unmarked brass cap. John.
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