I started the repair. It isn't really a restoration, as Ms. Reynolds wants to leave the patina and minor damage on the suit. I would like to restore it completely, but perhaps the new owner will want that.
Restoration is a tricky thing when it comes to value of a piece. In the gun and furniture market, original finish is very important. Restoring a piece can ruin its value, even if the original finish is in poor shape. On the other hand, in the car world, a completely restored car is ok and in most cases, it improves the cars value quite a bit. I talked with a few collectors of movie memorabilia and some seem to think restoration is ok, other want the piece “as found”.
So with the armour I’m repairing bastardized repairs or modifications and straightening the badly bent parts.
The arms seem to be the worse off. It looks as though the armour was used after its original film use. There are speed rivets, elastic, and webbing, some in new holes drilled next to old ones. This is likely from a strap braking on set and it being easier and quicker to drill a new hole and throw in a speed rivet then grind out the solid rivet in the original hole. The shoulder caps at one time got switched and the leathers on the center and front have been mostly lost to filling holes with rivets. To repair this mess, I disassembled both arms (one at a time) and using a soft mallet straightened out bent plates. The aluminum is very soft, and can be formed by hand.
I was lucky to pick up a huge box of surplus “NASA” rivets from an auction many years ago, so I have a ample supply of 1950’s & 60’s aluminum rivets. I filled holes in the plates that did not belong with counter sunk rivets, and then carefully flushed them off. The damage rotator was disassembled, and trued up and again, new truss head rivets installed for the rotation joint. With the addition of new leathers and locking pins in the vambraces, the arms are complete and working after who knows how many years.
In all it took about 6 hours to complete these repairs. Once all the pieces are repaired, I'll add new straps.
Here is a shot of the inside of the arm before I started:
Here are both arms once repaired (Note: I still have to use some solvent to remove tape residue):
Today, I hope to get the legs fixed and the replacement sabatons made.
For more on Daniel Tachaux;
It looks like it's had a hard life since 1948, are you going to fix any of the dents (If it's even possible I guess)?
