Some unknown armorer crafted a flap style door for this Gurttrommel. It is a copy of the late war style briefly mentioned in the back of Volke's book. It's the one on the right in my first pic. I thought it was yugo when I hit the whole thing with the paint stripper. As the paint ran off, it was apple green over sloppy tan over grey/green over red/brown primer. Underneath all that it was stamped "ddf".
The flap cover was cut/folded from blued scap metal about the same thickness as a steel ammo can. Hundreds of hammer/file marks & ragged edges. There is an elaborately folded tab that makes it click shut, yet pop right open with a tug on the starter tab. Another scrap piece was hammered flat and cut to make the hinge piece, which was welded to the drum. The hinge pin is a wavy soft iron nail with the head cut off. All the hinge parts were hand hammered over a mandrel.
I'm guessing the original was damaged or shot off, because there is a lot of welding and hole filling on the drum. Beautiful work, expecially since it was probably done with a flame?
