Type A-2 Vintage

[That's All Brother]

I am new to this forum, hopefully this is the right one for my question, or you can direct me to a suitable one. I have my father-in-laws A-2 Jacket made by J.A. Dubow Mfg. Co. of Chicago, Ill. It is in decent shape, but the hand painting is faded, and the jacket is dirty. Also stiff. Mother-in-law had it in the attic My question is, can this be fixed, and who do I send it to. This jacket means a lot to my wife and myself. He was a top turrent gunner/engineer on a B-17. The back has the ships name, That's All Brother. (hence my screen name) A magpie type bird riding a bomb With a cigar in his mouth. It also has 25 mission marks on it. His first name is painted on the front. His name is Spec Sgt. George NMI Mintich, From the reasearch I have done he was in the 351st Bomb Group.
Thanks in advance for any info you can give me.

 

[sealbeachbum]

Man don't tease us like that! We gotta see pictures!

 

[fishmeok]

Hi- You have come to the right place....
Do a search for a-2 restoration and you will find several topics. How far do you want to go with the restoration? Eastman or Aero will replace the lining, cuffs, zipper, etc. if you want but what kind of shape in the leather itself in? If the lining, zipper, etc. are intact I would treasure the jacket as is, doing only what is necessary to preserve it.

How incredible to have a piece of family history like that!

Also, WE NEED PICS!!!!
Cheers
Mark

 

[That's All Brother]

Thanks for the info. All I really want to do is to bring out the painting a little so it is easier to see. I am not very good with photography, but my Brother in law is a professional food shooter, so maybe I can talk him into getting some great shots at his studio. Then I will post them. The Belmont Historical Society has a Veterans room in thier Museum and they have been after me to loan it to them for display. If I do that I really want it to look it's best

 

[Andrew]

It'd be great to see the shots to give you some guidance, but in the meantime my personal advice would be just to stabilize any further decay/ damage and to preserve it and not try to refurb it. The next level of advice would be that if it were robust enough to take a little wearing- perhaps by yourself at a special event then things like knits and zippers can be replaced (although my Perry is worth more with its slightly holed original knits and tattered lining that with replacements), but I would strongly advise against painting over the original artwork. It's been done by masters and posted here but to me then it's no longer an orignal artwork and seriously affects the value.

This is all qualified by the fact it's sight unseen....

 

[Stony]

In my opinion I wouldn't do anything to the jacket. Leave it as is, as a historical piece. If it matters to you, once you start replacing parts or enhancing the paint, the value is going to go down. If you just want it to look good and don't care about it's value, then by all means move forward with renovating it.

And yes, we'd all like to see some pictures.

 

[Peter Graham]

Concur with the above dudes. Don't mess with it.