The Resurrection of an Erel Privat...

[DonC]

Hi All -

When in Dallas for business three weeks ago I stopped by a militaria shop to check out an "Engineer officer's visor cap in rough shape" just for the hell of it. What I found was this:

[DonC]

I should say that it was not in this condition - at the time I saw it, it had a Customs chin cord on it and an RLB bullion eagle. The proprietor also said that it had a Luftwaffe offier's eagle on the cap band itself but that he had taken that off!

[DonC]

When I first saw it I thought "not for me", but then I flipped it over...

[DonC]

And I decided to deal on it...

[DonC]

I bought it sans insignia and started to try to restore it, not knowing how it would turn out. The cap band was shot and the cap was totally out of round, so I started on that first:

[DonC]

It took me four days of looking til I found a decent match for the cap band in lightly felted wool....

[DonC]

The rear seam before final tightening...

[DonC]

Oddly enough, I found this method was pretty good for helping to get the cap back into round - I would move the spoons a little every 24 hours and made sure they weren't stressing the liner or the band too much...

[DonC]

Still needs a little work, but much better...

[DonC]

Add a chin cord, insignia, and a stiffener to the front as well as a metal cap ring... et voila!

[DonC]

Not perfect, but for a first effort...

[DonC]

I "trim filled" the larger moth nips in the top...

[DonC]

Hope you enjoyed this - originally I was going to sell it right away on the eStand, but I think I am going to enjoy this one for awhile!

Don

[stonemint]

D**n, Don--That don't look like no first-time to me! I ought to send you my Ce-Ha Prima for restoration--I gave up after the first day. A really nice job....

[Karl S.]

Don,
A most excellent restoration