HUMVEE Driver's Road Warrior Outfit

This is my very first attempt at making any kind of real life Mad Max item. It all started with me thinking it would be cool to go to a friend's Halloween party as Max. I easily found the leather pants, belt, boots, torn up t-shirt, and shoulder pad. I had some leather gloves and cut the holes in them to match. Then I went to Ebay to find the rest.

That is where the problems started. There are many leather jackets out there, but I couldn't find any that matched Max's. I wanted it to be as close to the real thing as possible, so I didn't settle and I kept looking. I finally, after many months of looking, found the jacket you see here from a seller in Canada. It is a very close match. The modifications were simple, cut off the right sleave and add a snap button to the remainder to hold the red rag. For the shoulder pad I consulted Karol over at www.madmaxcostumescom. He has several excellent how-to pages on making the shoulder pad exactly as it appears in the movie. I followed his directions and it turned out great. For Max's MFP number badge, I ordered a custom MFP 4073 off a guy on Ebay.

The jacket


Jacket rear


The custom name plate

Next up was the knee brace. I did some research and learned the knee brace is called a KAFO; I forget what it stands for. Back to Ebay. I found one there and paid more than I was happy with to get it. It was the only one I found, and when I tried it on I saw it was about 8 inches too short. I lengthened it with aluminum pieces and bolted it to the left boot to hold it in place. I then added on the knee pad you see.

My old kneebrace


The extra piece I added

Then I found out my kneebrace was all wrong. Karol over at www.madmaxcostumes.com did some research and he found out exactly what they used to make Max's kneebrace. It is actually made from two tailgate hinges from an old Ford truck. The two hinges are then bolted to an anklebrace. Also, the straps on my old kneebrace were facing the wrong way; the buckles should face to the rear.

So I located a correct pair of tailgate hinges and got to work. They actually bent the hinges a little (I assume so they would fit better), so after some bending they were ready. You might think that both hinges bend from inboard to outboard, but not so. Both tailgate hinges bend from the right to the left. I had it all put together when I noticed that, and I had to take it apart and re-bend the one side. Hope you understand what I'm describing. I dismantled and used some of the parts from my old kneebrace to complete it (as in I used my old kneebrace parts to make the anklebrace that is connected to the hinges) I welded the lower 'arms' to a 'U' shaped piece of metal that is bolted to my boot, and I also reused some of the straps. Some leather belts made up the highest straps. For the kneepad I bend and cut a piece of sheet metal into shape, and riveted four strips of rounded plastic to that for the raised parts. I covered the kneepad with a thin piece of leather that is crazy glued on. That is the only part that I am not completely happy with. I've walked around with the thing on, and it works quite well.

The top of my new kneebrace


The bottom


The kneepad


The back side of the kneepad


Where the lower part is welded to the boot

I made the gun holster from numerous belts and straps. The gun holster itself is made from the cut off leather jacket sleave, with dog collars for the straps. There were some old binoculars in my family, along with an adjustable wrench. Thanks to www.madmaxcostumes.com, I learned that the other tool on Max's belt is a British folding knife; which I also got from Ebay. I finally located and purchased the NSW firefighting tools (axe and spanner) to complete Max's tool belt.

The tool belt and holster

Thanks to the armourer I learned that Max's knife is a Gerber Mark 2, or Mk II. It is a popular Vietnam era combat knife. They haven't been in production for years, but I was able to find one on Ebay. The sheath is the leather version with a diagonal snap. I'm not sure how it is secured in Max's boot; you never really get a clear shot of it. My Gerber came with a nylon sheath, so I put together a leather one with rivets. Then I used zip ties to hold it in my boot.

The Gerber Mk II knife


The sheath on the boot


All put together

For the shotgun, it was back to Ebay. I was lucky enough to find a used Hudson shotgun for a decent price.

The Hudson shotgun

The whole outfit, with sexy accessory

I recently updated the fire axe by shortening the handle to where it should be, and getting a screen accurate holster. I also weathered everything it in sandy browns and added a 'scuffed' look to the plastic and leather.