Hello fine people! I have a real quick question for you. So recently, I started getting into m1 helmets as I determined that I should probably get a few early and before the prices of their covers and wartime used parts starts going up. Right now, I have plans to snag a late 70s era m1c chinstrap and a 1978ish marked ERDL helmet camo cover for a m1c liner I have. I plan on removing the chinstraps of the shell I have (the straps look to have been torn by someone) and put together as an m1c. That’s all fine and good. But since I’m at it, I figured I might as well try to get a Vietnam era m1 helmet. So I started casually browsing around eBay as I normally do and I came across this helmet.

In my opinion, everything looks to be right, but I have a few questions:
1. At what point did they switch from the liners that were tied/looped together to the cross over liner straps that we see here.
2. This outer section of this liner is painted black. Weren’t they usually a bright green for the Vietnam era? If so, do you think this was done by some random dude post war?
3. And lastly, this helmet is in the neighborhood of 80$, should I hold off for the SOS and try to find a similar helmet there?

These have been the three questions I have been asking myself for a couple of days now. I thought I remember reading that the liner straps were switched in the mid 60s but I can’t seem to remember where I read that. I would love to hear what y’all think, and by trying to understand this helmet, I realize there is still alot more research I need to do on these m1 helmets. Thanks for any info and all is appreciated!

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