Maverickson
Well-Known Member
Unfortunately the jacket season here in the Southeastern United States is all but over for anything but light jackets. In keeping with those changing limitations I have turned my attention to improve upon my collection of nylon flight jackets. Recently, I acquired a L-2b that required some refurbishing to bring it back into wearable condition and would like to share this jacket and it's work with the forum.
As it turns out this is my first attempt at doing the work myself. Not to mention, this work would not have occurred without the help of Mark's cuff tutorial found on the forum. Besides being grubby amongst other problems this Blue Anchor jacket seen below exhibited worn out knits and a broken zipper assembly.
True to form I was able to acquire all the necessary associated parts to refurbish the jacket at MASH Co in Japan. Those dark green knits available were used and they seem to be the most reasonable facsimile to the originals. The color difference exhibited between the top and the bottom picture can be directly attributed to a good dry cleaning!
Attaching the new zipper assembly was not as hard as one might think. As a plus the replacement zipper's fabric tape is just slightly wider than the original. So, when attaching this Crown replacement zipper I decided to utilize just what little extra there was available.
If you notice the zipper flap stud has been removed from the jacket and yet to be replaced. This and the ones attaching the epaulets were removed to facilitate the stitch work.
As seen in the pics above the stitching is close but not perfect. With that in mind, after experiencing the work first hand gives one understanding good workmanship & just what kind of effort it really takes to do professional work.
Even though the jacket is still going to be receiving some tweaking, over all I am quite happy with the jacket's results and especially it size. Besides the given shorter body length the overall measurements seem to be more than adequate for a Large sized jacket. This jacket is more than ample for me with 20" shoulders and 25.5" to 26.00" pits which exceeded my expectations.
Cheers, Dave
As it turns out this is my first attempt at doing the work myself. Not to mention, this work would not have occurred without the help of Mark's cuff tutorial found on the forum. Besides being grubby amongst other problems this Blue Anchor jacket seen below exhibited worn out knits and a broken zipper assembly.
True to form I was able to acquire all the necessary associated parts to refurbish the jacket at MASH Co in Japan. Those dark green knits available were used and they seem to be the most reasonable facsimile to the originals. The color difference exhibited between the top and the bottom picture can be directly attributed to a good dry cleaning!
Attaching the new zipper assembly was not as hard as one might think. As a plus the replacement zipper's fabric tape is just slightly wider than the original. So, when attaching this Crown replacement zipper I decided to utilize just what little extra there was available.
If you notice the zipper flap stud has been removed from the jacket and yet to be replaced. This and the ones attaching the epaulets were removed to facilitate the stitch work.
As seen in the pics above the stitching is close but not perfect. With that in mind, after experiencing the work first hand gives one understanding good workmanship & just what kind of effort it really takes to do professional work.
Even though the jacket is still going to be receiving some tweaking, over all I am quite happy with the jacket's results and especially it size. Besides the given shorter body length the overall measurements seem to be more than adequate for a Large sized jacket. This jacket is more than ample for me with 20" shoulders and 25.5" to 26.00" pits which exceeded my expectations.
Cheers, Dave