Restoring/salvaging an original B-3 jacket...HELP!

[jpholla10]

Hey folks, I'm a long time admirer and first time poster on The Fedora Lounge. I recently saved a beat-up old B-3 from a certain trip to the landfill. Having always wanted one but never being able to afford a new one, let alone, a nice original...I decided to purchase this project B-3. I want to restore this B-3 as much as I personally can before I seek out professionals for both pride and pecuniary reasons. This old war horse needs a lot of love and attention including: a new talon zipper, re-attaching the left-side side strap, patching many holes/tears/rips, new cuffs, a full treatment with Pecards, and finally--I need to clean the shearling!!! My first question is, how do I clean the shearling myself without entrusting my prized B-3 to some random Chinese dry cleaner? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[ando.thun]

Perhaps you can try carpet cleaning powder.
It worked for me, cleaning an old russian WWII pilots jacket I obtained this spring.

But be aware, that there are different powders and some need humidity to work.
Unfortunately this will only work on the outside of the sheepskin (as seen from the sheeps view).

Good luck with your jacket cleaning / repairing and please post some pics of the results.

 

[jpholla10]

Thanks, adno.thun. I think I'm going to use a Woolite heavy traffice carpet cleaner (very sparingly so as to not damage the skin/leather underneath). I will post pics periodically as the project progresses once The Fedora Lounge gives me the proper credentials.

 

[Treetopflyer]

I have never had to clean a B-3 before, but I have used Oxyclean on several things that I would never put in a wash machine. You could do this two different ways, 1) Get Oxyclean in a spray bottle, they sell it at almost any store that carries laundry detergent or 2) Buy the oxyclean powder and add water to make your own concentration and spray on yourself.

Ultimately, I would say with such a historic piece of flight gear, I would suck it up and send it to a professional to have the repairs and cleaning done. I think, in the long run, you will be happier with the outcome and you won't have to worry about doing any more damage to the jacket. I would compare it to a classic car. You wouldn't use spray cans from the hardware store to repaint it would you?

 

[jpholla10]

Treetopflyer: Thanks for the advice. I ended up using a relatively mild solution of Oxyclean and warm tap water with a nylon bristle brush and it worked moderately well. I'm not going to risk damaging the jacket by using anything harsher than that. More than anything, I just need to Febreeze the fleece intensively to get rid of the old warehouse smell that permeates the jacket. I also need some advice on replacing the talon zipper; i.e. how to cut down a new (original) talon zipper to fit my jacket and how to sew it onto said garment. Thanks, again.

 

[pjstrass]

Take a look at the Pops website...I think they are in Turkey...but really redo and rebuild leather jackets....esp. if it is a collectors item....

 

[Dumpster Diver]

Ask at a wool or knitting shop about special lanolin oil soap for washing wool.

its special stuff, I used it on my b-3 Recently, cleaned the wool suprisingly well.

you can get different types of wool soap, I used a spray bottle with the eucaliptus oil lanolin wool soap, called; Euchalan. (spelled wrong)

Check that!

I strongly STRONGLY advise against the use febreeze for ANYTHING, its only gonna mask up the smell, Febreeze is a BS product, Yack!!!

 

[Dumpster Diver]

Take some various pics of the Jacket, I might be able to Help walk you through a few repairs and tips I Picked up along the way, if you get stuck on a patch or zipper and if Im wrong about a certain repair procedure, people here can point it out for me!


the way to begin repairs totally depends on the Jacket and its current State.

we need to see good pics! if you take the time to show us, I can take the time to help best I can!

Get back to us!


(I do see this post is years old now..hmm, so my reply will probly yeild no resolve)

 

[Sloan1874]

I fairly certain this guy posted the results on a different thread some time back this year. He did an amazing job.

 

[Dumpster Diver]

Would love to see, I will take a look see if I can find it.