M42 helmet restoring advice

**rustles** · 08-21-2017, 03:17 AM

by Danmark

Easy on with the body filler there ...... remember that these M42 shells were a bit roughly formed from the factory - there will be waves from the flaring of the skirt and you don't want to remove them - or the vents that with some makers were fairly lightly pressed to start with. AND the base steel was not super smooth either.

Just an observation - its yours to do what you want but there can be over restored....

Dan

Don;t worry I am being careful with the vents, also what waves on flaring? do you mean when the neck gaurd bends down at the bottom? If so then yeah i been careful with that also, it had pitting pretty bad but its all filled in and looked great with the coast of primer on it

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 08-21-2017 03:17 AM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**Danmark** · 08-21-2017, 04:46 AM

Yes there are often "ripples" in the metal from the flaring / forming that should be left as they are part of the helmets charm...

**rustles** · 08-28-2017, 04:57 AM

Alright here's an updated status of my M42, I been using filler to fill in small chinks in the edge which is working pretty well, I realized I sanded a bit too hard on some areas so I used bondo glazing putty filler to smooth it out, and I used 220 grit sandpaper instead of that 80 grit I was using for sanding off that first auto body filler and it feels much smoother now, that's why I left some areas with splotches of it still. I get the paint and texture tomorrow, so I am gonna look for a salt shaker or just get n empty cool whip container and poke small holes kinda close together, i'm gonna shake on some paper first to see how evenly it distributes before doing it on the helmet and paint, worked well with the US WW2 finish I gave a danish M48 for a friend of mine. For the color I went with dark field grau from 1944 militaria.

**rustles** · 08-29-2017, 07:50 AM

Alright I went an repainted and textured it, I'm not sure if it looks too botched but some areas were over textured so i used 220 grit sandpaper to kinda get rid of the clutter and make it look a but smooth. Honestly how bad does it look? I
m, not sure whether to redo it myself or send it to an expert to re do it for me?

**rustles** · 08-29-2017, 08:24 AM

Updated pic of shell, used 220 grit sandpaper to sand ti down a bit more on the denser areas such as the top mainly. I think it looks better and i'm pretty happy with the result, honestly the smoothness of the texture didnt really matter right? Like I know they didnt pay much attention on distribution but for mine does it look right?