Retoration of WWII jacket

[daddyoh56]

Well, I know the majority of the responses were to basically do nothing but display it, or do minimal work, but in the end I had to do what I felt was appropriate and what would make me happy in the finished framed presentation. So I did have it restored, and yes, she did replace part of one sleeve and all of the trim. But she made the jacket look like someone took at least a bit of care for it, and I am very happy with the end result. Here are photos of the framed jacket. I included an ad from a 194? magazine that my grandma had saved during the war, which has an illustration of Dad's Northrop P-61 Black Widow, along with a picture of Dad and a pic of Dad and his pilot (dad was the RO). Again, I'm extremely happy with the result and I hope no one thinks the less of me posting.php?mode=reply&f=5&t=12990# ! It is proudly displayed in my home along with his medals and his flag. Thanks again to everyone for the advice and opinions.

 

[6148th T.C.Squadron]

Looks great! very nicely done.

 

[a2jacketpatches]

Has this jacket been to Denas leathers? She contacted me about a year ago with a jacket, same squadron and discoloration to the patch, or at least very similar.

 

[dmar836]

Looks great! Thanks for letting us weigh in.
Dave

 

[dujardin]

well done, well done

really cool to see what you have done to honour him

congrats

 

[Silver Surfer]

outstanding!

 

[a2jacketpatches]

I'm pretty sure that's the jacket she contacted me about. She was wondering how to restore or recreate the patch. I did have some ideas for removing the stain but suggested to just make the jacket presentable much in the way it's displayed now. At the time I was restoring another jacket at the request of the owner and his family, and some guys here got a little upset about about it. Turned out great and they were happy, but That'll be the last one I restore.

 

[Treetopflyer]

Beautifully done!

 

[daddyoh56]

a2jacketpatches -

Yes, it was Dena Hamilton. She called about the patch and I agreed we should just leave it. Don't know where the stain came from, but we thought that maybe there was a story behind it and it probably wouldn't be smart to try to remove it. She didn't try to clean up the arm patches either, just sewed them back down where they were coming up. They are still legible and the colors are discernible.

You know, she struggled with doing anything at all with the jacket since it was in such bad shape, but when she got her head around what I was looking for, she agreed she could put something together, and I'm glad she did. I think she matched the leather, colors and trims very well to the original, and it looks great. If I had displayed it "as is", the sleeve would probably have just fallen off inside the frame at some point - it was stiff as cardboard, flaking and cracked virtually 360° around the arm. Trim was moth eaten and tattered. The result looks 1000% better than the original. Museum conservators were talking about $1K plus. This was just what I wanted and very reasonable.

Thanks for the input and support.

 

[Peter Graham]

Looks great. A display to be proud of.