I'd love to wear my T-shirts, however I'm 6'3" and wear an XL. When you find a rare shirt that's 50+ years old you can't be picky about the size. Not one of my shirts would fit, however the "Big Shirt" would as it was like a 2XL with extra length straight from the factory. Might look a bit strange wearing it though, as that was not how it was intended to be worn.
As we all know also, shirts for back then are much smaller. A mens Large is certainly no the same size as it is today.
I hear ya on wearing the shirt, however you can't repaint, restore or replace a sleeve on a shirt like you can a car-