Instructions > US Civil War Kepi Ventilator Fitting Instructions
US Civil War Kepi Ventilator Fitting Instructions:
Genuine ventilators were never factory fitted, they were bought by the soldiers and they fitted them themselves.
Generally from start to finish this ventilator is a pain in the butt to install, I thought it best to be open and transparent about this but if you persevere and have a bit of luck you will be rewarded with a nice looking and working ventilator. How they managed to fit these during the civil war is a reflection on their ingenuity!
Warning - do not try fitting a ventilator to a genuine civil war cap, you will almost certainly fail and cause irreversible damage to the kepi!
Points to note:- Fit only to replica kepis or caps with a solid carboard insert still intact in the top of the cap. Older or well used kepis may be too flexible to use this ventilator. The ventilator needs the sold carboard insert to give a secure connection to the top wool and the inner cotton liner by compression.
The longer lugs can only be bent twice before they will snap - you bend them once to allow them to pass through the hole and then you bend them back against the cotton liner and the hidden inserted carboard within the cap. If you bend them more than this they will snap!
You can buy your Ventilator on this link.
You can buy your M2 Chinstraps and Bales here.
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