The same seller is selling a second M1945 VP tunic, but, suprisingly, its actually in worse shape than the other one he had! this one too lacks boards, and is for a technical general.
I am staying away from this one. These are really rare, but the condition is just so poor that it really takes away 90% of its value to a collector. I am not sure anything over $300 could be considered a bargain.
I found this older thread with the images of the two tunics I passed on to restore (in favor of the much rarer M1943); I have renamed the thread to reflect the condition of the tunics, but it brings up an interesting debate about how much is it worth to put into a restoration?
10-30-2007, 01:18 PM (This post was last modified: 10-30-2007, 01:41 PM by Jeffrey Meffert.)
It took two years and constant application of money to bring a rusty 1969 Karmann Ghia back to life. When I consider what I could have bought with what ended up an obscene total (especially in terms of russian cloth), I am embarassed. When I get admiring thumbs up from passerby's, all is forgiven.
I can't wait to see the final result of this uniform restoration and promise an admiring thumbs up for you.
But no. KG's never came originally in silver. I was going to paint it blue or yellow but when I saw it down to bare metal, I liked the look and changed the plan. Of course in 1999, when it rolled off the restorer's lot, there were not that many silver cars...perhaps I was partly responsible for silver's extreme popularity the following decade.
If I'd gotten into russian cloth a bit earlier, I wouldn't have had the money for the restoration and would likely be still driving it in it's yellow + red rustbucket configuration...and might have that Bulganin VP uniform.
