M42 Helmet restoration

[AmericanKraut]

I know it is difficult to remove outer layers of paint, but I am trying to strip this helmet back town to its original paint. There are some spots of the original paint showing. I can also see swastikas that were painted on postwar then painted over.

I looked through the restoration threads and there seem to be many different methods used. So far the acetone does not work for the silver layer of paint but it does the black layer under it. Soap and water remove a little of the silver layer but after an hour of scrubbing it doesn't seem to work well.

The heat stamp is 4231
and its CKL mfg but I can not read the size Im guessing around a 62.


Any tips for removing the paint or should I Just strip it all and make a reenacting lid?

[roger9344]

I had good luck working on an old helmet that had been painted with a silver paint. I used brake fluid to remove the silver and it didn't seem to affect the original paint underneath. At least it worked for me.

[AmericanKraut]

Thanks I may give it a try

[HARRY THE MOLE]

I used a paint remover solution on one helmet, but you have to use with great caution and be prepared for failure if you do it wrong. Paint remover only removes the top coating and should leave the original paint intact. But as previously stated - it can go horribly wrong. I once had an M35 which had been over painted by a re enactor. When I removed the paint using this method I was left with the original apple green finish (about 60%) and traces of two decals. The traces on the left were red, and on the right were silver. It isn't a method of paint removal for the faint-hearted!

[AmericanKraut]

Thanks it may work for the outer layer since it looks like there are a total of 4, silver,green,black and original Green