Garage Find; well sort of!

[gbalke]

Let me preface this by saying that I've been collecting since the mid 80's or so and have collected militaria from the American Civil War, US WW II, German WW II as well as Canadian and British WW II. My currect main interest is WW II RCAF.

Recently I've been reading many of the posts on this forum and have peaked my interest in the Brodie style helmets used by the Allies during WW II. I have three nice examples in my collection and I also believe that somewhere in my house or garage is another Brodie shell. So this morning I went through a stack of boxes, found nothing but several MK IV Turtle Shells that I used when I reenacted Canadian troops.

Then I see a WW II Officer's foot locker sitting upon a Field desk that I also own. I open the foot locker and there amongst several old motorcycle helmets is a single WW II liner and this:





So, tell me what you think. It's a front seam, fixed bail shell and correct liner that I forgot I even had. I haven't looked any further to determine the manufacturer or manufacturing date of the shell or liner, that will be done soon. I just wanted to show off my "new" treasure.

Oh, that other brodie shell; didn't find it, so maybe I no longer have it. It's tough getting old!

Gary

[thefight]

That is a great looking M1. It is getting harder to find straight up untouched WWII M1's, what is the maker for the liner?

Alec

[gbalke]

That is a great looking M1. It is getting harder to find straight up untouched WWII M1's, what is the maker for the liner?

Alec

Liner has a cross pattern maker's mark with the name CAPAC vertically and horizontally:




The only legible markings I could find on the shell were the numbers 1290 or perhaps 129C:

[thefight]

Hey Gary,

Your liner is Capac and it is nice that it still has the liner chinstrap and nape strap, many times those are not with it. The heat stamp on the helmet probably reads 129C. I think there is a way to use that to find when the helmet was made, but I have not tried it before.

Alec

[gbalke]

Hey Gary,

Your liner is Capac and it is nice that it still has the liner chinstrap and nape strap, many times those are not with it. The heat stamp on the helmet probably reads 129C. I think there is a way to use that to find when the helmet was made, but I have not tried it before.

Alec

Thanks Alec, I made the changes to match your input. I also saw that the other liner I found in the foot locker is a Capac made liner too.

[NickD]

with a heat stamp of 129C would put the manufacture date of about April 1942

[gbalke]

with a heat stamp of 129C would put the manufacture date of about April 1942

Can that be cross referenced in some data base to find the manufacturer?

[NickD]

the manufacturer will be McCORD there where only two company's that made M-1 shells McCORD & SCHLUETER, SCHLUETER would have had an "S" stamped above the number see pic below

[HoovieDude]

In addition to what Nick mentions, there was a difference in the welding marks on the two. Often time, the "S" is worn down or obscured by layers of paint, etc.. A Schleuter produced lid will have circles, or circular shaped welding marks at the seam, while the McCords are oval in shape. Sweet lid btw! Do you intent to keep it?

[MySonsDad]

One of the simplest ways to tell a McCord from a Schleuter is to simply set it down on a flat surface. Once you've seen a couple of these profiled, side by side, there is no mistaking and you'll never need a side by side comparison or to look for an S stamp again. Real helpful when you looking through shells that have been repainted (and repainted and repainted again), you'll never find the S stamp.

Oh, and very nice original M-1. Me and my son are fairly new collectors but I've grown a real liking to these M-1s.

Russ