CHoKing my CooPer A-2, will i be prosecuTed?

[johnnyjohnny]

i am considering ruining, or improving, a classic cooper a-2 jacket, depending on your point of view. so i ask those in this forum their opinions...

action considered, submitted for your approval (or disapprovaL):

the cooper a-2 (not the saddlery cooper, but the one after that, the classic, the milspec ones) have several, shall we say, endearing points...
1. the goatskin is very thin, rather like one of those leather biker shirts...not a criticism, just a fact
2. (this one concerns this possible heretical action)...the collar opening on the cooper a-2 is made for a member of the WWF, or steroid joe, lonny NFL lineman...in other words, it is inches larger in it's opening than any other a-2 i've come across...

exacerbating this is that the collar is long, pointed, and comes down low on the chest...making it look somewhat akin to either a clown collar, or a disco-era collar, depending on your background for which reference you prefer...

i have found that if the female snaps (pardon such brash technical language) on the collar are moved about 1/2" closer to the point of the collar, more like they are on many a-2 jackets, the collar rides higher when snapped (don't we aLL?), more the look of the great ww2 a-2s made with a collar stand...

this action, inexpensively doable by a fine leather store, rectifies the large, droopy collar look that is the biggest style detraction of this otherwise very cooL jacket...

iS this HeReSY? are there purists out there who can explain why i should not do this? am i ruining a true collectible by making it look a bit better? the only telltale marks of this surgery will be the closed holes on the underside of the collar where the original female snaps were...

of course the ramifications of doing this apply to every mil jacket out there any of us has ever bought where some modification might make it look so much better...soooooo, what do you aLL think of doing something like this?

i know people do it to their faces and other body parts all the time...but a cooper a-2?

help me...

johnnyjohnny

 

[DavidVillaJr]

I say you should make the adjustment.

It's your jacket.

Besides, if it really screws it up, that makes all the others that much MORE valuable.

As they say in the hot rod and custom car world: "It takes a real man to cut one up"


dv

 

[johnnyjohnny]

gULp!

...the gauntlet has been thrown! i must re-Snap my cooper to be a reaL man...

maybe i'm not a real man. maybe i'm not real. why do i spend so much time with these daRn jackets. just because i had a past life regression where i was a u.s. g.i. who died in a jeep, drunk, at night in the passenger seat riding over a landmine in italy? i didn't even have an a-2 on at the time...

i am leaning toward being reaL...but i'll continue to monitor the feedback...and, thank you very much for the challenge...

johnnyjohnny

 

[DavidVillaJr]

Not a challenge, not a challenge!!!

Better to read it as a hearty endorsement.

I think if it increases the intrinsic value for you - you feel better wearing it, you look better in it, you derive more pleasure from it - then by all means, make the change.

If you are looking to sell the jacket down the road, and making the change to the snaps is going to decrease the final, money in your hand result - don't make the change, just hang it back in the closet, sell it soon, and let the next poor guy make the call.

dv

ps - I think we're ALL imaginary anyway.......

 

[johnnyjohnny]

iMagine that!

 

[Hawk_Eye]

I have one of the Saddlery jackets, which design wise are identical to the Coopers. I know of the collar issues you speak of and I agree wholeheartedly. Take the plunge and show us the results! While your at it, why dont you by a wrecked cooper and use the leather to make new pocket flaps as well? The pocket flaps and collar are the mot detrimental aspects of that jacket.

 

[fishmeok]

Coopers are not rare at all, they are an excellent jacket to experiment with, badge up, throw in the washer, paint, and practice replacing knits on.
Cheers
Mark

 

[johnnyjohnny]

cAN yOU DiGGG iT?!

i'm talking about ShafT.

although i'm white, very white in fact, still the cooper a-2 has that retro-70s thing going on, so i see john shaft in the mirror when (it's fully zippered up) and i look at myself with it on.

i can deal with that (we'd all like to be john shaft...right?) but when the jacket is open, that huGe collar gapes WiiiiiiDE open, and those teardrop collars lay at sternum level...

i did swamp the thing with lexol last night, and it did give the leather more fullness, but the open collar issue is rather ghastly...so i shall sell this at some point...not even bothering to disfigure it in the hopes of improving it...might be akin to changing headlights on an edsel...well, that's a bit harsh as there are nice things about the cooper...but the coLLar ain't one of them

as a style issue relating to this, i'll just say that the collar stand collars really are beautiful...too many of the post war a-2s seem to basically be cut like a t-shirt, and then have the collars connected...i like a jacket that does come up the neck some, so the collar is coming down on your neck, not your chest...

anyway, thanks for the info...if anyone wants a nice, virtually new 90s cooper a-2 size 44L, and has a steroid or WWF-size neck, this will look really nice...$125 out the door

if richard roundtree is out there, $100 for you paL

johnnyjohnny

 

[kampkatz]

Cooper isn't the only repro with the large collar syndrome. I have two Asian -made copies with gaping collars. I wear turtleneck sweaters in the colder weather and no one notices the flaw.