thoughts on a VERY salty Helmet

[gmac1986]

Hey guys!

I've come across this Japanese helmet recently.

The seller wants 150$ all though I've got some major issues with condition.

1st, The paint is mostly gone on the dome...... to the point of showing metal in some spots.

2nd, The liner is in generally decent shape all though it's held in place by paper clips in some places......yes paper clips.

So is this worth 150$? As it stands I'd be looking at restoring it ...... also is restoring it a good idea?

Thanks for the help.

[gmac1986]

sorry for the relatively crappy photos.

[J7W22007]

Hi,

How is the condition of the liner?

Are there any padding left?

If you flip over any sign of date?

It's not a bad idea to pay $150 just for the liner, if the condition is alright. Can replace it with a better condition shell.

Any better shots of the helmet paint ??

Cheers!
Taka

[Paul G]

It really all depends on what you hope to accomplish. Its worth the $150 from what I can see. The shell is a $100 item, and the liner $100+ . If you put a star on the front, add a chinstrap and repaint it, you will be into it for another $50, but it would sell for about what you have into it. You wouldn't lose money. If it has an original star, then that makes it a lot better in my opinion.

PG-

[Paul G]

PS, the outside is almost all metal showing. The dark is a blued metal with rusty spots.

PG-

[sgstandard]

Helmet

All very good advice, but you shouldn't paint it. This is for MANY reasons. A guy making a half-assed display might like it, but any serious collector will consider it ruined if repainted. It doesn't look bad to me at all - it looks like a used helmet would look like that's seen action. And if you painted it, the outside wouldn't match the interior OR the liner. You'd regret it. Reattaching the metal star if you could find one would be cool, IMO. Purists probably disagree, and I understand THAT, too. But the insignia is such an important part of the design, and makes it much more enjoyable to look at. (As long as the star matches reasonably in aging and condition, so it doesn't look too obvious.) I believe they were riveted, but instead of trying to re-rivet another star, perhaps you could glue it in position with a very SMALL amount of contact cement. Check Collector's Guild up in Canada. They have stuff like that from time to time, and shouldn't be very expensive. Good Luck!

[sgstandard]

Helmet

I just checked Collector's Guild, and they showed two of those stars (SOLD), and they have a "tang" on the back, so unless the tang is broken, you'd be all set. They sold for $108 for 2 of them. You should see what their Japanese helmets go for. The $50 or so you'd spend on one of those stars may be worth it, IMO.

[juoneen]

Offer him 125. that's fair, and don't add anything leave as found.

[gmac1986]

I cant speak to the condition of the liner other than the fact that there's 1 of 3 pads present. other than that I'm more or less an alien to Japanese headgear other than the fact this resembles a ww1 german helmet liner.....sort of...... are there any "wear points" that might render the leather liner useless? Is this the point that the paperclips might be accommodating?

As far as the paint goes it doesn't seem as if it's been sanded ( having sanded helmets in my early days) it almost seems very very, very.........very heavily worn.

No star.

I'll try and get better pictures although if I have the option to sell the liner for even 1/2 the cost of this I'd be more than happy to keep a crappy shell.

Thanks guys