[Milsurplus] (Mil mods, pro and con

[Mark J. Blair]

I used to be a purist regarding modifications of military surplus equipment. That started to change, though, when I started buying surplus military trucks in DRMO auctions. After seeing how heavily-modified some of that equipment was, coming directly out of military surplus with me as the very first civilian owner, I came to realize that sloppily hacked up equipment can still be entirely authentic. I still try to keep my stuff pretty original, and I try to avoid modifications except where necessary for safety reasons or to keep something working that would otherwise be an inert chunk of mass, but now my conscience doesn't bother me nearly as much when I do decide to modify something for some reason.

I have nothing but respect for folks who restore military items to near-perfect original condition, and the results of their labors can be works of art. I also realize that such a pursuit of perfection is entirely un-authentic, though. Not only was the equipment often modified (even hacked up) in normal service, but it was never quite so perfect even coming right off the assembly line. For example, I've seen pictures of military vehicles rolling along the assembly line floor... complete with big oily handprints all over the fenders. This is a stark contrast with many of the (admittedly beautiful) restorations I've seen!


-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
Web page: http://www.nf6x.net/
GnuPG public key available from my web page.