removing crappy post war paint

[Jean-Loup]

Hi
Is there any chemical way of tacking off post war (I men 1970 and after) paint from helmets without destroying the original paint. I was told the chemical to take spray paint off walls would work... Anyone have experience with this?


JL

[sean weber]

Paint Remover???

Hi Jean
Interesting that you should mention this type of thing , as my job is a paint sprayer for the British ministry of defence I have over the years been asked this type of thing many times by friends who have bought post war re painted helmets and wanted them returned to original spec. It is (andI have tryed this many times) a very hit and miss thing Some post war paints are far more noble than the wartime coatings underneath and if you try to chemicaly remove them they will take the genuine paint with it . Sometimes a residue of the genuine paint will be left but there is no way to know for sure if you will be left with the third reich paint or just bare steel! .I recenty stripped an mg 34 optic sight box of its post war Austrian paint and managed to keep most of the German grey paint but I was surprised it went ok , I used epoxy solvent to do this just wiping it on and then wiping it off . This however is disasterous with any decal that may be lying under a coat of newish paint because the solvent ruins it . A Work mate that has the same collecting intrests as my self has done some very nice stripping and restoration on various german helmets( And before everyone starts howling" Yes I know this is not everyones cup of tea")But I think it is better than an otherwise sound 35 helmet that is painted with Polish fire brigade paint. contact him at Panzerrelics@aol.com.
Hope this may be of some help.

Regards Sean
You can contact him at

[Allan P.]

Hi Jean,

Personally I wouldn't touch it.

If you start mucking about with the paint work, especially with solvents you could damage the liner and the helmet could be regarded as haing been 'tampered' with.

Allan

[Jean-Loup]

Hmm, first, it is a french helmet, repainted in black, not a german one. A couple of guys told me as if it was simple as daylight that some solvants would remove the new paint and leave the old paint. I am not surprised this was BS. I had started taking the paint off with iron whole(dont know the speling) wich is OK, but damages the original paint of course. I guess I will forget about the chemical solution.
Thanks
JL

JL, did you already tried ' décapent' for wood? ( I don't know the exact word in english). It nicely remove the upper layer of paint, and leave the bottom layer untouched, if you use the correct quantity. Be sure it is for wood and not for steel or iron; these are to strong.

the blue belgian helmet was once black, re-issued by belgian ' gendarmerie' post-war, and I used décapent to remove the black color. The few spots were the paint is gone, are in fact places were the bleu paint was already off when repainted in black.


salutations

Jan

[Jean-Loup]

Hi Jan.
So this décapent is a chemical? Its supposed to be for tacking varnish off wood I supose? I will try and find some.

JL

That's correct, you can first try it out on something else before starting to use it on the helmet.

Let us know the result


Greetings

Jan

[Jean-Loup]

OK, I will tell you, but it might be in one year for all I know. This helmet has been sitting around with its black paint for about 6 years, and I am in no rush.
JL