Do try this at home: leather jacket repair tips

[Marc mndt]

Master class process. Friend, love your work. I was wondering if you can share more about the washing process you develop to clean the goat.

Washing such an old jacket is quite risky. The vegetable tanned leather soaks up water like a sponge. When wet the panels are much heavier which will put a lot of stress on the seams and lining. But the jacket heavily reeked of BO so there was no other option.

I hand washed the jacket in the sink using mild detergent. It's important to get the jacket completely wet, not just the smelly pits. Otherwise you'll end up with dark water marks. As you can see the water turned completely brown. That's not dirt, those are tannins that are flushed out. I was worried that I would end up with a pale jacket without any color depth so I quickly took it out of the water. Without wringing it out I let the jacket dry on the floor on top of some towels. Never hang a jacket to dry, it will deform and, in case of vegetable tanned leather, the water (and tannins) will move down towards the hem of the jacket causing dark stains.

It took three days for the jacket to dry. After two days dark stains started to form at spots where the topcoat was worn off. Luckily they eventually disappeared when the jacket was completely dry.

The weight of the water caused too much stress on the lining, which ripped apart. No biggie because it needed to be replaced anyways as it was too short for the jacket as a result of a previous repair.

When dry I applied reddish brown shoe cream to the jacket in order to give it back its luster.

I shipped the jacket to Aero Leathers to have a fresh new moleskin lining installed, plus an original Block label which was gifted to me by @Yamahana .

Julie Leitch, Aero's most experienced machinist, working on the reline. The sleeve lining was still intact so they kept that original.

The end result. The jackets smells fresh and feels as solid as can be. Good to go for another 90 years .

 

[mumpy]

any recommended products to lubricate the zippers for future ease of use?

I have previously used candle wax on my Vanson and worked great.

 

[Marc mndt]

Denny kindly showed me their various moleskin options.

 

[mumpy]

Denny kindly showed me their various moleskin options.

View attachment 631378 View attachment 631379

The ceramic/red one is also very cool.

 

[photo2u]

Inspirational. I am thinking to do the same on an original G-1 type from the late 40's. However, I still do not think I had the chops for it. One of my favorites an HD Elvis original has a smell than I have been trying to work on for more than a year with mediocre results. The jacket has a wool quilted lining. Do you think a longer water treatment might take the smell on that thick lining? Your sage advice is always welcome!

 

[Harris HTM]

Washing such an old jacket is quite risky. The vegetable tanned leather soaks up water like a sponge. When wet the panels are much heavier which will put a lot of stress on the seams and lining. But the jacket heavily reeked of BO so there was no other option.

I hand washed the jacket in the sink using mild detergent. It's important to get the jacket completely wet, not just the smelly pits. Otherwise you'll end up with dark water marks. As you can see the water turned completely brown. That's not dirt, those are tannins that are flushed out. I was worried that I would end up with a pale jacket without any color depth so I quickly took it out of the water. Without wringing it out I let the jacket dry on the floor on top of some towels. Never hang a jacket to dry, it will deform and, in case of vegetable tanned leather, the water (and tannins) will move down towards the hem of the jacket causing dark stains.

View attachment 631370 View attachment 631363

It took three days for the jacket to dry. After two days dark stains started to form at spots where the topcoat was worn off. Luckily they eventually disappeared when the jacket was completely dry.

The weight of the water caused too much stress on the lining, which ripped apart. No biggie because it needed to be replaced anyways as it was too short for the jacket as a result of a previous repair.

When dry I applied reddish brown shoe cream to the jacket in order to give it back its luster.

View attachment 631371

I shipped the jacket to Aero Leathers to have a fresh new moleskin lining installed, plus an original Block label which was gifted to me by @Yamahana .

Julie Leitch, Aero's most experienced machinist, working on the reline. The sleeve lining was still intact so they kept that original.

View attachment 631372

The end result. The jackets smells fresh and feels as solid as can be. Good to go for another 90 years .

View attachment 631364 View attachment 631365 View attachment 631366 View attachment 631367 View attachment 631368 View attachment 631369

I love it that you wash a leather jacket while actually wearing another leather jacket!

 

[Jasonissm]

Take a pencil sharpener and clean the teeth with the pencil tip. It will break many times. Sharpen the pencil again. If the teeth are bad and need a stronger cleaner. Use the pencil shaving (thin wood with lead) as aggregate to remove the more stubborn grease or wax that was previously used and preventing the zipper from running as it should. Another tip. Use tape (painter first choice) in the inner section of the zipper and lining to prevent some of that pencil and wax to mar the lining. Use a brush to remove all the gunk that will come out. Lastly, repeat a nice pencil cleaning and you will be golden.

Do you think such a process would be necessary in my instance? The zipper is not running smoothly, but looks relatively clean beside the zipper tape turning green and the brass has tarnished.

It's an unused jacket and I think it's just been sitting in a closet for a decade or so so I don't think there would be so much stuff gumming up the teeth, and the brass has tarnished but I'm not sure if there would be much dirt or other stuff in it. I was thinking of just giving it a brush with some soap and water and then applying a bit of oil or wax to lubricate it once more.

 

[Canuck Panda]

unfortunately not all NOS Talons are the same quality. It's not really the jacket manufacturer's fault imo because the zipper probably didn't show anything alarming before being installed onto the jacket. You could try to do trial and error and replace with a different NOS slider first (from the top), one that you know for sure works. If it does then it's the zipper track problem, that can only be solved by replacing the zipper track. If the replacement pull works then that's really the best case scenario.

 

[Marc mndt]

I love it that you wash a leather jacket while actually wearing another leather jacket!

Sharp eye!

One of my favorites an HD Elvis original has a smell than I have been trying to work on for more than a year with mediocre results.

Have you tried using an ozone machine?

The jacket has a wool quilted lining. Do you think a longer water treatment might take the smell on that thick lining?

Tough one, I never tried washing wool quilted lining. Is it rayon or nylon lined? If rayon then washing it will probably put too much strain on the material.

 

[photo2u]

.

I did try an ozone machine for about three weeks straight. No luck. I also tried indirect vent air by the window and shaded area hanging everyday. The jacket can still stink up a room. LOL. Last, I believe the the lining material is nylon.