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Rusted Thompson M1A1 Restoration


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This is incredible. This guy has an illegal machine gun and posted about it on the open internet.

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@whit

 

Nothing special, only electrolytic rust removal and cleaning.

 

But, it doesn't matter.

 

Smg is retired forever. Non firing, deactivated (welded solid) at the present time. Not for sale.

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This is incredible. This guy has an illegal machine gun and posted about it on the open internet.

 

You should note that the gun is not in the USA and is not an operational weapon.

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@whit

 

Nothing special, only electrolytic rust removal and cleaning.

 

But, it doesn't matter.

 

Smg is retired forever. Non firing, deactivated (welded solid) at the present time. Not for sale.

Very nicely done.

 

A question nobody else has asked yet.....how does she run?

And thanks for the other historical pics too!

John, I expect it doesn’t run at all based on post #28.

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After two months in diesel fuel :

 

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Frame after first electrolysis:

 

 

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Steel brushes and sandpapers:

 

 

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Vertical rear grip and horizontal fore grip; S - Savage

 

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Butt stock markings GEG:

 

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Wood filler (a mixture of wood glue and sawdust):

 

 

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24 hours after bead blasting and hot bluing (wooden parts oiled with boiled linseed oil):

 

 

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Non firing, deactivated. Not for sale.

Edited by Quintilian
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That Würth Rost Off is the best! Way better than PB or a lot of others ive tried. What's the Boltex?

I have no experience with PB Blaster. But, what I know from experience, if rust is severe - WD40 is like Aspirin : ) (in my country for something that neither harms nor benefits is said to be like Aspirin)

 

Würth Boltex http://media.wuerth.com/stmedia/shop/masterpages0000/std.lang.all/15216.pdf

 

..........................................

 

 

Yugoslav soldiers with Thompsons (border guards), 1950.

 

 

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Actually aspirin is pretty good stuff. If aspirin were invented today it would probably be available by prescription only.

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By the way, all Thompsons in the movie Kelly's heroes (1970) were donated by the Yugoslav People's Army.

 

Kelly's heroes (1970) was shot on locations in Yugoslavia. One of the reasons for the selection of Yugoslavia as the main location was that, in 1969, it was one of the few nations whose army were still equipped with operating WWII mechanized equipment, both German and American.

 

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By the way, all Thompsons in the movie Kelly's heroes (1970) were donated by the Yugoslav People's Army.

 

Kelly's heroes (1970) was shot on locations in Yugoslavia. One of the reasons for the selection of Yugoslavia as the main location was that, in 1969, it was one of the few nations whose army were still equipped with operating WWII mechanized equipment, both German and American.

 

One of my favorite movies.

 

Can you provide any web resources that speak to this a bit more?

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@GaryKeim

 

 

 

No problem, this is a well-known fact. :happy:

 


https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065938/locations

 

 

Kelly's Heroes (1970)

 

Filming Locations:

 

The coast South of Trieste, Yugoslavia

 

Vižinada, Istria, Croatia

(street scenes)

 

Beočin, Serbia

(Scene with the general)

 

Obrenovac, Bridge over the Kolubara River, Serbia

 

 

...................................................................................................................................................................................

 

 

"The film was a US-Yugoslav co-production, filmed mainly in the Croatian village of Vižinada on the Istria peninsula."

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly%27s_Heroes

 

 

"The film was made and released during a time of great financial difficulties for studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, in the early days of the turbulent ownership of Kirk Kerkorian."

 

"Operating Loss of $l.9 Million Posted by MGM: Despite 2nd Period Deficit, Firm Earned $4.9 Million During 1st Half of Fiscal '70 Filming Costs Charged Off". The Wall Street Journal. April 22, 1970. p. 5."


"It was shot on location in the Istrian village of Vižinada in Yugoslavia (now Croatia) and London. One of the reasons for the selection of Yugoslavia as the main location was that, in 1969, it was one of the few nations whose army were still equipped with operating World War II mechanized equipment, both German and American, including in particular the M4 Sherman tank. This simplified logistics tremendously."

 

"King, Susan (October 10, 2014). "From 'Patton' to 'Fury,' tank films that roll". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 17, 2019."

 

.................................................................................................................................................................................................

 

 

30 things we didn’t know about Kelly’s Heroes – Donald Sutherland was ill, expected to die before his wife got to Yugoslavia

 

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/kellys-heroes.html

 

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Kelly's Heroes - Filming Locations - Then and Now:

 

 

1.

 

2.

 

3.

 

 

Vižinada, Istria, Croatia. Town square.

 

 

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The airsoft event played (12 - 14.10.2018.) in Vižinada, Istra (Croatia), where movie was filmmed:

 

 

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The abandoned Spitzer Castle in Serbia (Beočin, small place near Novi Sad, Vojvodina, Serbia). Major General Colt's headquarters.

 

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Clint Eastwood at Petrovaradin Fortress, Novi Sad, Serbia, relaxing in between shooting Kelly’s Heroes.

 

 

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The old railway bridge in Serbia (Obrenovac) was blown up for the purpose of shooting this movie.

 

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Movie poster from ex Yugoslavia

 

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And those were actual working Yugoslav army King Tigers in the town square? That’s the part that interests me.

 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065938/trivia

 

„The three Tiger I tanks used were actually ex-Soviet Army T-34 tanks, converted in great detail by specialists of the Yugoslavian Army. They are not the same ones used in a previous movie, The Battle of Neretva (1969), which were much less well done. The care taken to make the T-34s look like Tiger tanks was notable, most period World War II movies used unmodified modern tanks as their vehicles, with minimal effort to change their appearances, often no more than painting the tanks with gray or yellow with distinctive German crosses. Oddball's (Donald Sutherland's) Shermans are Yugoslavian Army M4A3E4 Shermans (post-war U.S. upgraded to 76mm in original 75mm turret).“

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Thanks... of course, not Kings.

 

They did a darn good job on those... if you told me they were real, I would have bought it.

Edited by GaryKeim
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Right, the ammunition shown was made at the Evansville Army ammunition plant in 1943 (ECS 43). The plant was being run by the Chrysler corporation for the US Army Ordnance Department at the time. It's steel cased ammo, which was considered to be training ammo, strictly for use in the US. It was not to be issued for combat. Brass cased ammo was issued for that.

 

I've shot quite a lot of Evansville M1911 ball ammo, 600 rounds at a time, freshly broken out of original cans. I've found it to be reliable but very dirty. It fires with lots of smoke, which can obscure the view of the target. It also leaves behind a lot of black sludge, which actually seems to lubricate the action. The gun gets very dirty, but doesn't foul to the point where you're getting stoppages. The sludge is easily removed in normal cleaning.

 

The stuff was $60 a can delivered 'way back when, and was sold by Paragon Sales. Remember them?

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