A2 jacket transformation.

[Maj.Nick Danger]

I bought this jacket on ebay a while back because the price was right and it had a one piece back, wool knits, and is made of goat skin.
The chevrolet embroidered logo had to go,...IMMEDIATELY ...along with the label and a weird plastic button at the collar that had the logo on it.
So upon receiving it, I patched the area where the embroidery had been and made a sort of hook and eye closure where the chevy logo button was. Here is the before picture.

The jacket's color was actually much lighter than this. A beige base lightly sprayed with seal brown in order to look like some sort of distressed leather. Not very attractive or accurate, awful in fact. So I read a description of a hand dyeing process on the Buzz Rickson website and decided that I could do something like that myself, with this result, a russet brown, and still with an aged look to it.

And of course, no jacket of mine would be complete without my own nose art treatment for the back,...

 

[Dinerman]

Nicely done there. I'd have never known it was an advertising jacket. What a stupid thing for Chevy to do.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Thanks.

Yes quite true. Waste of a perfectly good A2. But I wish I could find more of these to play with as I got a good deal on it.

 

[scotrace]

That is really fantastic Major Nick! Your jacket art stuns me every time. How's the jacket inside? Liner OK? No handwarmers?

 

[GOK]

I may not wear leather but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate a job well done - and that really is a job well done! Splendid, Major!

 

[Harp]

Ditto. And the art work is impressive!

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Thanks folks


The jacket was virtually brand new when I got it, but definitely not wearable as it was a billboard for someone else.
And yes it does have hand warmer pockets, an inside pocket, and a nylon liner. Nice find indeed,...now to find another.

 

[Fletch]

Great job!

Hey, I have an old phoney A-2 in lambskin with un-peel-able double face tape residue on one sleeve. Any way to get that off without whomping the finish?

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Lambskin ya say? That's a tough one. Most all lambskin jackets are designed to "age" rapidly and so have a finish that's made to rub off fairly easily. Indeed I think a leather finish as well as paint has a hard time adhering to it's surface as an inherant quality of the hides. I think lambskin naturally resists them because of it's lanolin content. I had a lambskin that I painted a while ago and I had an awful time getting the paint to stick to it.
Is the area very large? Try some isopropyl alcohol ( carefully!) on a small area first. Don't try to hog it off. See if it cuts the glue without removing any of the surface color. Let me know what happens, and maybe go from there.

 

[SPAD]

I have a strange question, do you think you can redye a new goat seal A-2 to "russet". I'm going to look up that Buzz site also, but I would like your opinion as you've done such an outstanding job. Thanks, SPAD[huh]

 

[Fletch]

Is the area very large? Try some isopropyl alcohol ( carefully!) on a small area first. Don't try to hog it off. See if it cuts the glue without removing any of the surface color. Let me know what happens, and maybe go from there.

Thanks Major. I'll try it.

Yer right about that lanolin – the jacket smelled like roast leg of mutton for a year after I got it!

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

I have a strange question, do you think you can redye a new goat seal A-2 to "russet". I'm going to look up that Buzz site also, but I would like your opinion as you've done such an outstanding job. Thanks, SPAD[huh]

It's highly unlikely, sorry. Most all seal brown jackets from most manufacturer's are dyed all the way through the leather, and you simply cannot go from a dark almost black seal brown to a lighter russet.
In the case of my jacket, it was dyed a beige color all the way through with the brown lightly sprayed over, so it was possible to do.

 

[SPAD]

Thanks for the info Major Danger, I didn't think so, but with todays new wonderous ways, one never knows. Thanks, SPAD

 

[Grit]

So upon receiving it, I patched the area where the embroidery had been and made a sort of hook and eye closure where the chevy logo button was.

I read a description of a hand dyeing process on the Buzz Rickson website and decided that I could do something like that myself, with this result, a russet brown, and still with an aged look to it. [/IMG]

Wow, Major Nick! That's more impressive than those Jenny Craig "before" and "after" photos! So I have a couple of questions, if you wouldn't mind sharing some know-how:

How did you patch the area where the embroidery was? I can only imagine there were hundreds of holes to fill--did you apply a patch from the back side?

I tried looking up the hand-dye info on the Rickson's site, but didn't have a lot of luck. Could you please point us to a link, or give a quick summary of how you did it?

...and it goes without saying, I REALLY dig your choice for the hand-painted artwork. Nice!!

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Ancient Chinese secret.

But I can elaborate for you. The paint is acrylic, which comes in various viscosities, from liquid to a paste.
After ripping all the threads out, I filled the area with thick modeling paste and blended the edges out. After that dried, a fairly thick layer of the brown paint I mixed up for the color. Finally, just before that was totally set up, I applied some vaseline to an area of another jacket and pressed it on to the still soft paint to transfer some goat skin texture to the patched area. I put a few 5 pound weight plates on it to impress the texture of the leather into the patch.
As to the dye method I mentioned, I will have to look that up again as I just recently re-did my PC's OS and lost all my links in my browser. When I find it again I'll send it off to you. But to summarize, I soaked each area I dyed with alcohol first, to carry my "dye" into the leather. The "dye" I used was merely acrylic paint thinned with alcohol. I think the Buzz Rickson method described used water instead. I used the alcohol as a solvent because I wanted my color change to penetrate the old finish that was on the leather. So far I think it was a success. The color is staying on for the most part, and getting a nice aged look in the high spots.
The 14th air force logo was only natural as a choice in the design. In my opinion, it's the most Chinese looking, and the most bad-arsed looking of all the AVG logos.
Thanks, glad you like it

 

[Benny Holiday]

You're a talented gentleman, Major

That's a more than impressive restoration of a pretty average jacket into an A2 with a whole new lease of life. :eusa_clap

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Thank you Benny.

It takes one to know one.