Hi lburt. Maybe, and yes it would.
Possibly the physical photo can be saved, and if you can't find any information online or at Rootschat, your best bet would be contacting PrueM, one of the moderators. She is a professional conservator and may be able to give you some advice.
I think your best bet would be digital restoration, as long as there's enough of an image to work with. Scratches can be removed to a certain degree, but if an image is terribly faded or scratched the restorers are just guessing at the image.
Scan the photo at 300-600 dpi and post it...see Cazza's scanning tutorial at the top of the board if you're not sure how to do this. I am not a restorer, but there are many very talented people here who can give it a try.
You should start a new topic and post the image there, as this is a very old thread and some restorers don't revisit old ones.
Cheers,
China