My M83 Butterfly Restoration

[Eodtek]

As I was digging through boxes I stumbled across a plastic shopping bag that held 2 sizable bits of metal. Upon opening it I realized that at some point in time someone had given me the fuze and wing assembly for an M83 to go with the body that I pulled out of a scrap pile years ago (literally there were dozens there and I only grabbed one).

So here is the starting photo. I'm open to any and all tips for restoration. One spring is broken but the others seem fine for now. My first step will be rust removal and I'm not worried about the body as much as I am the wings.

 

[butterfly]

My M83 Butterfly Restoration
As I was digging through boxes I stumbled across a plastic shopping bag that held 2 sizable bits of metal. Upon opening it I realized that at some point in time someone had given me the fuze and wing assembly for an M83 to go with the body that I pulled out of a scrap pile years ago (literally there were dozens there and I only grabbed one).

So here is the starting photo. I'm open to any and all tips for restoration. One spring is broken but the others seem fine for now. My first step will be rust removal and I'm not worried about the body as much as I am the wings.

​

Oh don't go saying you could have had dozens of these, its enough to make grown men cry!!!!

There are a one or two people that could advise you better on the restoration project, and I'm sure they will be willing to help and advise you further. Satan18 (Phil) does some fantastic restoration projects, also SG500 (Dave) has also had experience of stripping butterfly wings. You will find some interesting posts under Submunitions by both. Also SG500 uses a rust remover that may just be the one for the set you have, though there may be others available, there are pictures of before and after use posted also.

Look forward to seeing the work in progress, many thanks for posting.
Would also like to congratulate you on a fine collection, I have looked through some of the threads you have done so far and am mightily impressed, both with the items posted and your knowledge.

kindest regards
Kev

 

[pzgr40]

I'd start by sandblasting this stuff thorough as well as a coat of primer , before starting any restauration.
Regarsd DJH

 

[SG500]

As I was digging through boxes I stumbled across a plastic shopping bag that held 2 sizable bits of metal. Upon opening it I realized that at some point in time someone had given me the fuze and wing assembly for an M83 to go with the body that I pulled out of a scrap pile years ago (literally there were dozens there and I only grabbed one).

So here is the starting photo. I'm open to any and all tips for restoration. One spring is broken but the others seem fine for now. My first step will be rust removal and I'm not worried about the body as much as I am the wings.

Oooo, nice, looks like the sort of thing I'd like to get stuck into, if you find any more shopping bags full of butterfly bits do let me know:tinysmile_grin_t:
If you look at the following post you'll see the before (post 8) and the after (post 28). The Hammerite dip is brilliant stuff, it attacks the rust but not the paint. Although the body and wings on your unit look very rusty you may find there is original paint there that would be damaged by blasting.
Phil is definitely the man for springs and wings.
Good luck and keep us posted on progress. Did you say dozens!!:tinysmile_angry2_t:
Dave.
http://www.bocn.co.uk/vbforum/deformed-butterfly-bomb-t64838.html?highlight=butterfly+wings

 

[Eodtek]

Did you say dozens!!:tinysmile_angry2_t:

Yep. We had an old training area inside the main impact area of the base. It was an end extension between our EOD range and the next range over.

The whole area was set up like an old open storage ASP and it was also a convienent place for them to dump old inert scrap/training aids. There was a pile of the bodies and while I wasn't really collecting anything at the time (I didn't start until a few years after that) I snagged one of the bodies as a novelty to keep pencils on my desk.

The EOD unit has since moved from that base so I don't know if they ever cleared the training area out. You can sure enough bet that if I manage to get back on that range and stuff is there it will be rescued :tinysmile_fatgrin_t

Oh and I was looking at Hammerite and found that it is not sold in the US. I have heard of another product called Evapo-Rust http://www.evaporust.com/index.html and was going to give that a try on some other items I have to see how well it works. Has anyone ever used it?

 

[pzgr40]

This kind of redox-paint orften has one big disadvantage; you cannot put polyester over it when you want to smoothen the surface

 

[SG500]

As I was digging through boxes I stumbled across a plastic shopping bag that held 2 sizable bits of metal. Upon opening it I realized that at some point in time someone had given me the fuze and wing assembly for an M83 to go with the body that I pulled out of a scrap pile years ago (literally there were dozens there and I only grabbed one).

So here is the starting photo. I'm open to any and all tips for restoration. One spring is broken but the others seem fine for now. My first step will be rust removal and I'm not worried about the body as much as I am the wings.

Hi Eodtek, I was just going through some old threads and wondered if you'd had a chance to restore your M83 things.
The attached photos give you an idea of what the wings could look like.
Dave.

 

[BOUGAINVILLE]

Hi Eodtek,
Looks like a very interesting project. Whish you the best of luck with it.

I use evapo rust and find it excellent. I can't get enough of the stuff I use so much of it. It is neutral PH and when you remove the metal object from the solution and wash it down with water it is as if it had just come off the production line.

The Australian agent for the evapo rust lives about 90 Km away from me, he was explaining that for evaporust to work effeciently it must have the exact proportion of water mixed with the concentrate. Any less or any more and it will not work. That is why it is always sold premixed to ensure the correct proportions. With that in mind I always use a sealed container for soaking items in soaking so as to avoid evaporation of the water content as I keep on reusing the dip until it is expended.

The more you pre clean your item the more life you will get out of the evapo rust.

To solve the problem of finding a dipping tank that was suitable for projectiles etc without having something so large I would need copious quantities of evapo rust to submerge it in I glued an end cap onto a length of suitable size PVC pipe and use that as my soaking tank. I then have another end cap as a lid so as to prevent evaporation.

Here is a link on evapo rust elsewhere in the forum;

http://www.bocn.co.uk/vbforum/rust-removal-made-t36043.html?t=36043&highlight=evapo+rust

Cheers,
BOUGAINVILLE