Bren MKIm restoration

[mrclark]

Thought you might enjoy these pics. Unfortunetly its a deact but a deact that looks a lot better now. This gun was by far the worse Bren I have ever seen. It was a very bad torch cut kit and looks like it was welded back together by satan himself. Then to top it off it was spray painted with cheap black spray paint (note not suncorite) while it was covered with dirt?

A gentleman contacted me a few months ago asking if I would restore it for him and he was desperate so I took it on as long as I could take my time.

The gun just looked so bad I couldnt resist. Like a dog out in the cold.

He agreed so here we go. Sorry for all the pics.





Is'nt that terrible, looks like they used a roller to paint it.












Then have a look at the barrel, looks like they used vice grips in the barrel to squeeze it into place or something like that.





I have no clue what happened here? Weld the gas adjust when the gun is allready super-deactivated. Only Peter himself could probably get this thing running again it was welded so tight. Then look at the barrel behind the flashider? WTF?



Now the wood was typical DP walnut, and he wanted the white paint off as well as the stock and grip cleaned up some.







I began by stripping off the paint and then by taking a wire wheel to it. He also wanted the welds cleaned up as they were quite obvious and large. My plan was to mill them down a bit by hand so they were not so obvious.









I reshaped both sides of the welds here as he requested but couldnt go any further as I was worried about the integrity of the welds. That was all that was holding it together.



After lots of work I managed to get out the vice grip marks out of the barrel and reshape most of the poor welding on the rcvr. It took forever. To do it so there was no size difference between the two sides of the barrel when I ground off the imperfections took about a month as I could not take the barrel off for obvious legal reasons. I used sandpaper belts to get underneath and wrapped it around etc etc.








Then the wood was completed and all cartouches were preserved. Just boiled lindseed oil with a spoonfull of stain and then a bees wax, turpentine BLO slop to give it some sheen. I then purchased a new carry handle as well a new flash hider.












After I wire brushed the gun I lightly bead blasted the entire gun and then degreased, heated with a heat gun and used oxpho blue for the entire unit. I used oxpho blue as parkerising will show all the welds on the gun and well it obviously wont fit in a park tank. oxpho blue is a permanent cold blue and the only one that really works in my opinion. It gives you a blackish grey blue finish that does not run. I find it actually mimics the look of the original finish quite well actually.

Heres the finished product. It will never shoot again but at least it looks a bit better.

Information

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[Stronginthearm]

Great job sir! A beautiful thing to behold now.

[Brit plumber]

Thats a nice early 1941 Mk1m barrel, not many of these around, did you keep the original flash hider? The early ones had the milled out front sight post like the Enfield barrels but the later ones were solid. Also a nice mk1 barrel nut, not correct for this gun but a very nice feature. The lower is from a Lithgow gun rather than a Inglis gun and with that type of DP marking and the white paint I'd guesstimate this gun has seen some service in Australia and was rejected and DPd in the 1950s FTR programme.

p.s. The JI stock with disk is a very nice addition, I would love a similar piece on my Inglis '41 Mk1m but I'll have to live with the unmarked example fitted. Oh, and is the serial number intact?

Hows your M2HB coming along?

[stencollector]

The lower is from a Lithgow gun rather than a Inglis gun and with that type of DP marking and the white paint I'd guesstimate this gun has seen some service in Australia and was rejected and DPd in the 1950s FTR programme.

I believe the lower is an early Canadian lower. The extra fins at the back seem to have been deleted earlier in production than the mk1M. I will have to watch the few remaining guns I have left to confirm the serial numbers of that style a lower. I have seen a number of these lowers, and all Cdn marked.

This gun came from a local source, and was released out of Canadian service as a cut up. A local machinist reassembled a number of them back in the early 90s as dewats. He intentionally made the bodies shorter so the hammer on the piston group would not make it to the firing pin. He retained about 15 or 20 in his collection. These were recently released for sale.



I have had more than a few of these pass over my workbench for clean-up over the last decade or so. The source for the kits has now dried up.Many of the cut ups in this area were of the early mk1 and mk1m guns. I have found some very early examples from these kits, including a mk1m transitional gun as well as several in the first few hundred of production. Of all these Brens I have seen only 1 BSA marked lower and two BSA mk1 bipods. Everything else has been purely JI Canadian.

The white bands on the guns shown on Clark's gun are fairly typical of the Cdn DP brens, although the guy who did the rewelding on these often would repaint the band to disguise some of the welding and to visually re-align some of the shortened parts like the forward section/barrels.

[Brit plumber]

I believe the lower is an early Canadian lower. The extra fins at the back seem to have been deleted earlier in production than the mk1M. I will have to watch the few remaining guns I have left to confirm the serial numbers of that style a lower. I have seen a number of these lowers, and all Cdn marked.

I'm about 99% sure its a aussie lower, I know of a late intermediate gun with matching lower which is the same as the early Enfield and Inglis type, and I know of a Mk1m in the M5100 range which has a matching Mk1m type leaving only a few hundred to have another variation. Lithgow is the only producer i've seen of this type, which has the lightning cuts but dosn't have the shaped portion around the selector etc. as per early Enfield and inglis guns.

[Peter Laidler]

Don't know where you are in the world MrC but that seems to be a really drastic method of deacting a Bren! Good to see another of these lovely old ladies resurrected.

Just puzzled why a Mk1 barrel nut isn't correct for a Mk1m gun BP? Maybe not a Mk1 with the interlock block but what about a bog standard later Mk1 barrel nut

Talking of barrel nuts, the barrel nuts were diamond hard and if the hardening process had extended down to the lever part - where the gun number was placed - then it could and would blunt your number stamps in short order. The electric arc pen was OK after a fashion. Obviously we never threw barrel nuts away as we replaced them through wear but they all went into a box to be re-used on other guns. Hence the fact that you'll often see the traces of other numbers or grind marks visible. The Indians obviously got wise to this and they re-used barrel nuts by soft soldering a mild steel plate over the end of the lever and stamping the new gun number. So if yours has a mild steel plate soft soldered at the end, that's where it originated.

There were a load of different sizes of barrel nuts (.....remember them Tankie........) but in all honesty, the actual size number engraved on them could mean anything. A bit like No4 rifle bolt heads really............... So we kept (and I still do...) a big box full of used but serviceable barrel nuts to use again and again. But just ignore the size number. If it tightens the barrel, that's the correct size.

I don't know how this thread degenerated to barrel nut sizes but it's Sunday and...................

[mrclark]

The M2HB is coming along I finally got some time to work on it. I managed to get it sandblasted which was a chore considering it also is a deact. My buddies shop looks like the sahara now as it wouldnt fit in the box. But after all that work I found the wire brush on a high speed drill did the trick. I also used a sand paper flap wheel and got alot of the pitting out. I'll post some before and after pics in another thread when I get a moment.

Now as for the Bren here that had been violated, the flash hider is dated 43 so its not original to the gun. Also it also was butchered by the welder (using the term loosely) as the gas adjust was welded to the gun and it cut right through. Its not salvageable.

Your right the barrel is a 41 looks like everything else is 42, its hard to tell as it looked like the gun was cut in two after the barrel nut.

Peter looks like you are dead on, it looks to have been grooved and filled in to accomodate a new serial number?







HI RES

130811233_OtgITYrS_3.jpg photo - mrclark photos at pbase.com


Theres more pics here on my site if your interested

BREN MKIm Photo Gallery by mrclark at pbase.com

[tankhunter]

There were a load of different sizes of barrel nuts (.....remember them Tankie........) Yes VERY well peter! If remember correctly.....I THINK there were seven sizes, 0-6 in the range? Without checking my parts Microfische, I cannot state for certain![COLOR="Silver"]

---------- Post added at 11:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:35 AM ----------


We shot a nice old Mk1A Bren a few months ago along with a couple of MG42's (1x 7.62mm 1x 7.92mm) against a couple of GPMG's so that some of the junior Officers could see what the Infantry were up against in 1944/45. The GPMG and 7.62mm MG42's were middle of the road but thge 7.92 gun just went a dog possessed! While the Bren, well, it was a bit on the slow side but when all the smoke had cleared, It still got the round of applause. We also had a 30 round burst timed comparison too. The Bren came last of course but it did have most rounds (26) on the double figure 11 target. If I can work out how to scan AND send, I'll put some pics up............ but don't hold your breath
Pete, The gun on the left in the Lower picture looks like it's an MG34. Is that correct?.....................(ROUND Barrel Jacket & seperate AA sight Bracket)
One of my favourites to shoot too! (Apart from an L4A4 of COURSE!)......

[Brit plumber]

Just puzzled why a Mk1 barrel nut isn't correct for a Mk1m gun BP? Maybe not a Mk1 with the interlock block but what about a bog standard later Mk1 barrel nut

Thats the one Peter, the one on clarks gun is the earlier, nicer Mk1 nut not the later Mk1 type found on the Mk1m. I've noted that the early Enfield Mk1 guns had the early nut upto around the last of the E serial number range, and then the F serial guns used a mixture of Enfield later type nuts and monotype production nuts which are subtly different to the Enfield type. The Inglis guns appear to have stopped using the earlier style around M4900 or so.

p.s. I'm in South Italy at the moment, I got a rude phone call a week last Sunday telling me to pack me bags. This is the first time I've stopped, should go to bed really, been at work since 6pm last night.

[Peter Laidler]

Is it totally welded up inside too MrC?

We shot a nice old Mk1A Bren a few months ago along with a couple of MG42's (1x 7.62mm 1x 7.92mm) against a couple of GPMG's so that some of the junior Officers could see what the Infantry were up against in 1944/45. The GPMG and 7.62mm MG42's were middle of the road but thge 7.92 gun just went a dog possessed! While the Bren, well, it was a bit on the slow side but when all the smoke had cleared, It still got the round of applause. We also had a 30 round burst timed comparison too. The Bren came last of course but it did have most rounds (26) on the double figure 11 target. If I can work out how to scan AND send, I'll put some pics up............ but don't hold your breath

Ignore the 03 date on the pics. The camera had just had new batteries and had re-started itself. I am the more 'mature' gunner. Note the two MG42's and GPMG