Ever wonder why paint drops are attracted to vintage A2's..?

[MudInYerEye]

Wells put, Paddy! I've often thought the same. Just to back your theory up, a year or so ago I remember reading an eBay desciption of beautifully decorated but trashed B-10 jacket. Apparently it had been used by the vet's wife as SKI JACKET for twenty years! ...groan...

 

[airfrogusmc]

From my experience I would never let metal shop touch my bird without me standing right there. I had several G-1s that got a bit overspray on them in that way. Also allot of ground crew guys/Plane Capts., Avionics, Metal Shop and Hydrolics had G-1s. Some Sparkys and Bubble Chasers were on flight skins also. I have a strong feeling allot of originals got paint on them from ground crews and flightcrew(Crew Chiefs) also.

 

[Alan Eardley]

Work clothing

Guys,

You're dead right! I'm old enough to remember when it seemed as if every guy digging on an allotment in Winter was wearing his old RAF Irvin jacket. My first leather jacket when I bought my first 125cc bike in 1966 was an A-2 - handed down to me by an older 'rocker' who had aquired a proper black jacket without those horrible external pockets and pansy knitted cuffs. It was brown and I hated it!

I have a prewar Irvin that has been used continuously since it was made, probably in the late 30s. It was issued to the grandfather of a guy I know, worn throughout the war, worn as a gardening jacket until the 50s when his son 'appropriated' it as a bike jacket. He dyed it black with shoe dye (see comment above) and wore it for 20-odd years He passed it to his son (my friend) when he quit biking in the late 70s and the son wore it as a biking jacket until the 90s when I acquired it. Free. It's not in the best condition I've ever seen an Irvin, but it's got lots of character.