Restoration of Primus 341 Sport, 1944 model (AI stamped) This stove had lived a very humid life before I took it over, so the tin was very rusty and almost without paint. The tank is nickel-plated and has held up well except for the gasket in the tank lid and the NRV. The burner, on the other hand, was very rusty and damaged. The two burner caps were rusted into one piece. The special pilot lighter was so rusty that it broke off when 'touched'. The cleaning needle was rusted and stuck in the nozzle. The burner was first given a bath in citric acid, and further a lot of grinding and polishing with a rotating wire brush, emery paper and steel wool was required. The biggest challenge was getting the old cleaning needle out of the 'base'/holder - on this model there is a tiny needle that is screwed into a brass holder. The replaceable needle was very corroded and hard to get a hold of. But after more citric acid baths it could be pryed out. And new ones are actually available. The nozzle also had to be washed in acid to get the remains of the cleaning needle out. The pilot lighter has a band around the burner and around this band some form of wick. This supposedly contained asbestos and is probably no longer made, so I have to improvise here. Any hints to a suitable replacement are much appreciated! The tin was sanded down and first painted olive green. Then it got a coat of colorless matte paint as the first layer was very shiny. I think the resulting color and finish is close to the original. I added a (slightly too big) decal on the tin. After I got a new cleaning needle and nozzle, it fired up nicely. I'm really happy with the result of this challenging fettle!
Great! Top-notch. I love challenges like this. You should consider entering this stove in this month's SotM contest.
The stove in the 'Before' pictures look like it was fished out of a sunken U-Boot. The one in the 'After' picture looks quite creditable. Well done.
Priming wicks can often be improvised with either wood stove door gaskets (available in various diameters) or cut from carbon fiber mats.
