Your Opinions Please

[Ken at Aero Leather]

Well .......
SNIP The surprising part is that the re-dye dark coating actually looks a lot better in person than the photos depicted.
Because the coating is so well done, I believe this may have been an actual military depot re-dye. There is only the slightest indication of re-dying and that is around the collar lining. I had to look at the collar with a magnifying glass to confirm the re-dye process but once again very professionally done. The tell tail signs of a re-dye don't readily appear. For example the inside of the pockets are completely colored and it almost looks like the pockets may have been removed to complete the process. There is no color difference all the way down to the bottom of the pocket. I see some small differences in the stitching of the pocket to the jacket but that looks to be from small repairs. I'm not sure how the entire interior of the pocket could have been dyed without removing the pocket so this puzzles me. (SNIP)
B-Man2

That makes me even more certain that it's a later re-coat, I've yet to see a period USAAF re-coat that was done particularily neatly and I've never seen the inside of the pockets done either.

 

[Ken at Aero Leather]

If you are going to replace the knit anyway why not unpick a bit of the waistband to see what colour the selvedge is, if it's the same colour as the exterior then it was done before the new knit was fitted.
If the colour is different then you'll know what is under the coating........either way it's a win-win situation

 

[B-Man2]

Thank you everyone for taking the time to respond and for sharing your insight and knowledge. (Ken and Andrew (Roughwear ) thank you). While taking the photos of the label it became glaringly oblivious that the coat hanger over the label was the original color of the jacket. (Duh!)
No need to go any farther I now know (to a lesser degree )what's under the coating barring any major color damage. I'm posting a few photos of the jacket in normal daylight and inside light. I've decided that while the reward for striping the jacket might be great, I really don't feel confident that I would do more good than harm to an 80 year old artifact. So I'm moving past it and with Kens approval will ship the jacket off to Aero to change out the knits . Once again I welcome all comments positive or negative as I'm learning as I go here.
Thanks again to all

PS Just looked at my crappy photos, need to work on that as well.

 

[Steve27752]

A lovely A-2 I am looking forward to seeing it with the new knits.

 

[blackrat2]

That is a great jacket and from Andrew and Ken’s input, just what this forum is all about.
Can’t wait to see it when the work is done by Aero

 

[B-Man2]

A while back I posted about this particular original Aero 21996. ( See earlier postings). Well it’s completed with the correct knits and cleaned up a bit. So I thought you might like to see the finished product. It’s supposed to be a 46 but I have a feeling it may be a war time 48 as the shoulders are 20 inches across and Aeros were always a little on the small side of the size listed on the tag. Hope you guys enjoy it.

 

[falcon_ib]

Looks great Burt!

 

[blackrat2]

That’s really really nice
Thanks for posting up the end result
Who did the knits in the end?

 

[B-Man2]

That’s really really nice
Thanks for posting up the end result
Who did the knits in the end?

I live in Jacksonville Florida USA. There's a naval air station nearby and as it turned out after asking around and making some contacts, I found a tailor that used to work on G-1 knits for the pilots. You just cant beat dumb luck!

 

[Roughwear]

It looks great now. I notice the Aero was redyed at some stage in its life.

 

[B-Man2]

It looks great now. I notice the Aero was redyed at some stage in its life.

Andrew
It was.....remember when I initially asked for help in the earlier part of the thread. We had discussed trying to take off the top coating to see what was underneath. I decided that I just didn't want to mess with it as I didn't have the expertise to give it a go. Instead I cleaned it up a little and accepted that the re-dye was part of the original history of the piece. However, I remember the picture of the way yours turned out and it was a beauty!

 

[Silver Surfer]

turned out just fine. congrats on your new old aero. and, yeah, wear it.

 

[A2 B3au]

Knits look great

 

[jeremiah]

That jacket looks great and so glad I went with the dark seal and berry knits for my BK dubow. Love that contrast.

BTW, I lived in Orlando, FL for 15 years. Been to Jacksonville a few times.

 

[Ken at Aero Leather]

B-2-man

Just had the horrors seeing the second set of stitch holes on the zipper above the new knit. I couldn't believe we'd done that........just checked your original pics............. the stray holes were there before we got it and from the previous knit replacement.
That was a relief :>)

 

[saucerfiend]

When the jacket is restored it should look more like this.


Boy, I remember wearing the beauty!!!

Brian

 

[B-Man2]

Brian
This is a different jacket than the one above. I purchased it from another source off of eBay .

 

[Flightengineer]

Excellent jacket and excellent replacement work!!!