Do try this at home: leather jacket repair tips

[Carlos840]

Needless to say I'm very pleased with the end result. The jacket smells fresh, deep wrinkles are gone and the horsehide has a nice sheen. Good to go for another 75 years.

Only thing that's missing is a belt so I think I'll have one reproduced. It looks a lot better with it imo.

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Great work! Does it fit?

 

[Marc mndt]

Great work! Does it fit?

It does! With a back length of 22" It's definitely short but somehow it works. Fitpics will follow.

 

[Mich486]

I really love this design. Great job in restoring the jacket!

 

[Canuck Panda]

Great work! Very professional

 

[ton312]

Needless to say I'm very pleased with the end result. The jacket smells fresh, deep wrinkles are gone and the horsehide has a nice sheen. Good to go for another 75 years.

Only thing that's missing is a belt so I think I'll have one reproduced. It looks a lot better with a belt imo.

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SO GOOD!!!

 

[photo2u]

Excellent work! Love the care you put in to the jacket. This should be a nice keeper.

 

[willyto]

That's a really good work. Fantastic attention to detail.

 

[torfjord]

Really well done!

 

[navetsea]

great job at your restoration work, if by existing for many years witnessing many events in life a mere jacket can develop a soul then it must feel very happy too.

 

[Will Zach]

Great work @Marc mndt , I am not handy enough to completely restore my Kit like you did yours. I did give it Pecards treatment. I don't think the jacket has seen any treatment in 70 years, it drank it all up. Question to you and @ton312 - do you have (or know of) any data points as to how long the Urad surface treatment will last on a jacket?

 

[Marc mndt]

Great work @Marc mndt , I am not handy enough to completely restore my Kit like you did yours. I did give it Pecards treatment. I don't think the jacket has seen any treatment in 70 years, it drank it all up. Question to you and @ton312 - do you have (or know of) any data points as to how long the Urad surface treatment will last on a jacket?

The high shine will wear off after a couple of wears. It tends to hold much longer (long lasting even) on those places on a jacket where the original topcoat was totally worn off. Probably because the leather really absorbs the urad at those spots.

 

[ton312]

Great work @Marc mndt , I am not handy enough to completely restore my Kit like you did yours. I did give it Pecards treatment. I don't think the jacket has seen any treatment in 70 years, it drank it all up. Question to you and @ton312 - do you have (or know of) any data points as to how long the Urad surface treatment will last on a jacket?

Exactly what Marc said. I’ve been using the Urad dark brown on my stuff and while the shine is short lived, the pigment stays in areas where the top coat has vanished.

 

[Will Zach]

^^
Does it make sense to use black Urad then on black jackets, not the clear one?

 

[Marc mndt]

^^
Does it make sense to use black Urad then on black jackets, not the clear one?

I prefer to use colorless Urad because I don't want the leather to look like new.

Might make sense to use black Urad only if a jacket looks totally dull and grey.

 

[handymike]

I will send you my tub of clear Urad if you want it @Will Zach.

 

[barnabus]

Idle thought.

We see plenty of pictures here of amazing looking jackets, like Thedis or some of the Japanese makers, where we say the jacket has been "washed" or "tumbled" to achieve the wavy, wobbly, broken-in look.

Does anybody know what those processes actually are? I've washed plenty of leather jackets in my washing machine but nothing has ever come out looking like a Thedi!

I've got hold of a cheapo Perfecto clone that I'd be happy to experiment on, but not sure where to start.

This is the jacket. Thoughts?

 

[Monitor]

Idle thought.

We see plenty of pictures here of amazing looking jackets, like Thedis or some of the Japanese makers, where we say the jacket has been "washed" or "tumbled" to achieve the wavy, wobbly, broken-in look.

Does anybody know what those processes actually are? I've washed plenty of leather jackets in my washing machine but nothing has ever come out looking like a Thedi!

I've got hold of a cheapo Perfecto clone that I'd be happy to experiment on, but not sure where to start.

This is the jacket. Thoughts?

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You won't have any luck with this jacket. It's made in heavily processed, printed (corrected) leather. Printed leather like this has already went thru such an aggressively extreme tanning treatment that it barely even qualifies as an organic product at this point. Leather panels have been stripped of the outer layer (though it could've even started off as split-suede, too), it's been heat-pressed with artificial grain and then coated in plastic. Washing & tumbling will have no effect on this jacket. Acetone or alcohol can't even make a dent in the coating. There's just nothing to work with. Best you can hope for is rubbing off the finish but that's just damage.

Thedi jackets look good because they are made in good, full-grain, natural leather. Most of their hides are very raw, gently tanned so naturally, these jackets still do organically respond to the elements which change and shape them as times go by. That's what you pay for when you buy premium leather garment.

 

[barnabus]

Ah, fair enough.

I'll leave it up for sale then.

 

[TooManyHatsOnlyOneHead]

Idle thought.

We see plenty of pictures here of amazing looking jackets, like Thedis or some of the Japanese makers, where we say the jacket has been "washed" or "tumbled" to achieve the wavy, wobbly, broken-in look.

Does anybody know what those processes actually are? I've washed plenty of leather jackets in my washing machine but nothing has ever come out looking like a Thedi!

I've got hold of a cheapo Perfecto clone that I'd be happy to experiment on, but not sure where to start.

This is the jacket. Thoughts?

View attachment 428604

Terry just posted a pic in what are you wearing today thread of his fine creek trucker that got accidentally wet and then spent some time in a dryer. You can see what it will do to leather that can evolve. You can search for the original post about it. Really transforms the jacket into instant vintage.

I've done it to several of my jackets. Sometimes starting off wet if they needed to come down a half size or so. Sometimes with just the air dry setting and a couple tennis balls if I'm trying to speed up a CXL break down.

Yesterday in fact I sprayed down my Lewis Leather Lightning and also a Thedi highway man style I have and then let them dry in the sun. You're basically "ageing" the jacket. It gets wet, gets exposed to the elements, etc. Basically like a motorcycle driver would do to it through out the day. Helps with creases, breaking in, taking off the shine, darkening, etc.

It's certainly not a look for everyone, but if you're trying to make your jacket look like it's getting a high number of wears, it definitely helps for those of us who have way too many jackets to every see their full potential.

A lot of the Schott jackets are washed and dried in industrial sized machines. Not sure the techniques, but it cant be that far off of what you can do at home in smaller batches.

 

[Kubatu]

Any recommendations for smoothing out a bunch of stiff zippers? Working on some TLC for a jacket that was probably in a barn (very wrinkled, mildew smell, some mold, etc) and while the zippers work, there's a decent resistance when I try to zip any of the zippers up and down. Don't want to ignore it and end up breaking some teeth.