SOS Fire Guard Guts

[Roger]

I recently picked up a brass label Fire Guard fire extinguisher. I am restoring it using one of John Bizals repop decals. Problem is it had a couple of small dents, one on either side of the label. Knew they would telegraph through the decal. I suggest to a friend that I might coax out what I could with a body hammer, then skim bondo to finish. His reply was "That is not how Jeff would do it!".....

So at his suggestion I did dissasemble the unit. Not sure if anyone has ever posted the innards of them before so I thought I'd share. I took photos after the fact but tried to show how it came apart.

Dents do show on either side of the brass tag and they did telegraph through to the body.

Fire Guards are spot welded on 3 points down each side of the label. Come off very easy with a sharpened screwdriver or chisel.

The tubes and rod pull out of the "valve" and the "seats" on the bottom of the extinguisher very easy. (Valve for lack of a better term)

There is a ball in this "valve" which moves from the large side to the small.

Bottom View.



Plunger is worn, Not sure if there are kits you can buy or not.

A 7/8" wooden dowell worked great for the backer to work out the dents.

Of course you have to use a genuine Ford Heller hammer for the detail work.
I know its a genuine Ford GPW tool! You can see the "A" for Army!..

[Roger]

By the Way, I was able to work out 95% of the two dents. Will post phots of finished product.

[AZ Jeff]

Welcome to the Fire Guard Guts removal club Roger... I have a nice piece of steel tubing that is close enough to the inner diameter to assist in working dents out. I have also removed -- and discarded -- many internals in the past based on corrosion etc. The 1.5 Qt Fyr-Fyter FEs (used to make decontaminators) are notorious for corroded "guts" and have a funky flexible metal conduit inside that seems to have been designed to desintegrate after 60 years...

You can JB Weld (epoxy) the cap back on if you're not into solder. Looks perfect once painted.

Jeff Q.
AZ

[Greg Hines]

Roger, you're going to replace that nice metal label with a decal? If it were me I sure wouldn't.

Greg

[Roger]

Not real sure yet Greg. If I do use decal you are welcome to the metal one.

[Kevin Monahan]

thanx for the interesting FE guts foto's.
I also will comment on the Heller hammer in the illustrations scoring points over the J.Bizal Heller which has the less desirable civvy trade markings. A subject worthy of another thread.






Kevin UK.

[Greg Hines]

Not real sure yet Greg. If I do use decal you are welcome to the metal one.

Thanks for your generous off Roger but I don't need it. I'm sure someone will take it off your hands if you don't use it. Just me but I would pay more for a GD extinguisher with the metal label than one with a decal (especially an original metal label vs. a repro decal).

Greg

[Roger]

Greg, I have tried to clean up the labels and make them look decent. Almost imposable to do and not remove the black paint. Just looks terrible to me. I don't have the eyes to recoat the paint either. But the reproduction labels look very good with a OD painted FE. At least I think so.

[AZ Jeff]

Not to highjack the thread... but I have a decent brass tag G-D Fire Guard if anyone needs one. They are certainly correct for early war but painted, decal-types appear in more wartime photos. It's missing the filler cap but they're the same as the post war Quick Aids.

Just my two Centavos (the rest is going to my governor's legal defense campaign... )

Jeff Q.
AZ

[Derek Eddlestone]

Nice one Roger....... you make it sound so easy..... I'll see what I can do with a basket case FE.....

Derek.

[Roger]

Not real sure yet Greg. If I do use decal you are welcome to the metal one.

Thanks for your generous off Roger but I don't need it. I'm sure someone will take it off your hands if you don't use it. Just me but I would pay more for a GD extinguisher with the metal label than one with a decal (especially an original metal label vs. a repro decal).

Greg

At first I thought you were cursing!........

[tamnalan]

You can JB Weld (epoxy) the cap back on if you're not into solder. Looks perfect once painted.

Jeff Q.
AZ

Jeff, would you put the metal label back on with JB-weld too? Just curious - need to take mine apart.

[Roger]

I opted to solder the top back on. Just in case anyone decided ot make it functional. I think the solder would be easier to remove top again. The dents worked out well but not completely. You would have to know they were there befor to notice.

I do like the Decal and some here think them correct for war time FE's anyway.
Finished product.

[Roger]

You can JB Weld (epoxy) the cap back on if you're not into solder. Looks perfect once painted.

Jeff Q.
AZ

Jeff, would you put the metal label back on with JB-weld too? Just curious - need to take mine apart.

Hi Alan, I used gorilla glue on a decon unit i restored. Didn't have any JB Weld or epoxy handy. Worked great, You just have to be real careful to use sparingly as it does expand while curing. I also taped the brass tag in place to keep from lifting while the gorilla glue cured.

[AZ Jeff]

I used JB Weld to re-attach a Fyr-Fyter M2 decontaminator plate years ago. Solder would've been ideal but the gray epoxy squeezed out the sides in spots exactly like the (original) WW2 solder and ended up looking perfect once painted.

If anyone has ever seen a brass tag Fire Guard with factory O.D. paint let me know... All of the factory O.D. painted FEs I've had (or seen) were decal type. That's Fire Guards, Fire Guns, Fyr-Fyters and Pyrenes. There are also decal-type unpainted wartime FEs as well.

Jeff Q.
AZ