The Conversion Corral

[J.T.Marcus]

A "Trail Ridge." Brim cut down to 2 5/8". Crown reshaped to a short, triangular teardrop. Replaced ribbon and sweatband. Feels like wool or a wool/fur blend. This seems to be a difficult shade of grey to find in a fur hat!

 

[Dinerman]

J.T. -You really do a nice job on these. They look great.

 

[Mr. Lucky]

Here's mine.

To quote Chris Walken AS The Continental -

"Wowie, wow, wow, wow!"

 

[Lancealot]

I'm a fair tailor, and can sew pretty well. I did a hat edge once, and it took me 2 straight hours to sew the thing on, and while it wasn't really "hard" it was definitely unpleasant work.

I'd say it took 2-2.5 hours to sew the binding on. Just did it over two evenings watching tv.

 

[Lancealot]

Hey Lancealot, what hat was that originally?

Right now I find resewing a headband into a hat to be sufficient challenge to my sewing skills, but I do have some black grosgrain that I think would look good as an edge bind one day.

The hat started out has a Stetson 4x Stallion I believe. It's not marked on the hat but the box states stallion.

Believe it or not the whole thing came about because I tore the old sweatband when I was stretching it out. So since I had to replace the sweatband I did a whole conversion.

Mr. Lucky: Thank you sir.

 

[DanielJones]

The Resistol 5X After Art...

All I can say is Art has done it again. I am totally blown away. When I opened the box & saw this I was stunned. You hit the nail on the head Art when you stated that the navy blue ribbon & brim binding would be a winner. Thank you so much for a fabulous job. You wouldn't know this is a 20 year old hat that has been stomped by a huge and angry horse.

What is nice is that it still has a bit of the western flair reminiscent of the Elko, Nevada area, but would pair perfectly with a navy pinstripe suit or a zoot suit. Art has captured both looks in this hat for me.
I'll try and take some more appropriate looking photos later. But I think these will do for the time being showing off the work of Art. Thank you again sir!!:eusa_clap

Cheers!

Dan

 

[indycop]

All I can say is Art has done it again. I am totally blown away. When I opened the box & saw this I was stunned. You hit the nail on the head Art when you stated that the navy blue ribbon & brim binding would be a winner. Thank you so much for a fabulous job. You wouldn't know this is a 20 year old hat that has been stomped by a huge and angry horse.

What is nice is that it still has a bit of the western flair reminiscent of the Elko, Nevada area, but would pair perfectly with a navy pinstripe suit or a zoot suit. Art has captured both looks in this hat for me.
I'll try and take some more appropriate looking photos later. But I think these will do for the time being showing off the work of Art. Thank you again sir!!:eusa_clap

Cheers!

Dan

That is BAD!!:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap
Does have a kinda zorro thing to it

 

[Duck]

WOW!!!!!!! Dan, that is a very sharp looking hat. You are right, Art did a fantastic job :eusa_clap :eusa_clap The navy ribbon and binding are truely wonderful.

 

[deanglen]

Dan, I plyed with some image software and tried to bring the hat out a little clearer, hope this presents it favorably.

dean

 

[Edward]

The transformation in the hats on display here is simply stunning - a lot of them I simply wouldn't be able to believe they were the same hat, but for the known integrity of loungers. lol I don't know that I would ever have the nerve to attempt to cut down a brim (hmmnn.... unless I used a steady hand, tailor's chalk, and a second hat as a template....), but I'm definitely inspired by the reshaping and rebashing. If ever I see a good quality cowboy hat going cheap, I could well be tempted to pick it up for a project like this...

What is nice is that it still has a bit of the western flair reminiscent of the Elko, Nevada area, but would pair perfectly with a navy pinstripe suit or a zoot suit.

Funnily enough, with that shape and the crown especially, the first thing I thought when i saw it was "zoot." Great hat.

 

[DanielJones]

I was trying to go for that middle ground between the zoot style and the Elko style of hat. I decided on the shape of Art's Uptown which appears to have a great blend of the two. The navy blue was decided on to have something different.

Here is a shot of the Elko style through artist William Matthews.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[J.T.Marcus]

Daniel, You owe a lot to Art, and to that huge and angry horse! :eusa_clap

 

[DanielJones]

Daniel, You owe a lot to Art, and to that huge and angry horse! :eusa_clap

You bet I do. I couldn't believe it was the same hat I had sent Art. Now I have something I can wear again since my tastes have changed. But I still have a soft spot for the Elko Buckaroo style.

As for that angry horse, well he didn't much cotton to having anybody on his back. I got lucky with just having him do a Mexican hat dance on my lid. One of my riding buddies got a leg broke on that same horse a week later.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[J.T.Marcus]

This was one of my first, done last winter. Resistol stagecoach, resized from 7 1/4 to 7 1/8, new ribbon, brim cut down to 2 5/8".

 

[fatwoul]

OK, I know this is only my second conversion, and there is plenty wrong with it, but I am pleased to death with it. Makes all that tax nonsense sting a lot less, that's for sure.

Of course, I was too keen to start work on it, so once again I forgot to take a before picture. Here's the one from the eBay auction:

A Self-Conforming Resistol 7 3/8. 3.5 inch brim.

And here it is after:

It's now a size 7 1/4 Resistwoul Fedora, with a 2.5 non-dimensional brim. The colour in my picture does it far more justice - it's a really rich reddy-brown. Very nice colour indeed. It's also surprisingly comfortable for a hat that I have barely worn.

I think that once I'm finished fiddling out the little details, I'll like it more than my Fed Dlx.

<font size=1>Right now there are several niggling snags with it, mostly of my own doing:

- the headband is sewn in a little too low, so it protrudes slightly below the felt, making it more visible than I would like.

- there are still a couple of marks from the masking tape I used to draw the base of the crown in on my hatshaper. I used masking tape as an experiment, since it isn't very sticky, and I felt might leave fewer marks than the cord I was going to use. Overall, it worked, but in a couple of places the tape stuck too much and now I have to pick it off.

- the dye of the hat isn't particularly colourfast. I'm sure it will be more stable once the hat has completely dried, but right now I can't work on it for long without my fingers turning brown. I definitely wouldn't want to wear this one in the rain unless I sprayed it with some kind of fixer.</font>

 

[indycop]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! GOOD JOB!

Boy you sure lost a lot of weight after that first pic!!lol And you're not smiling

Great job!:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap Is that a birthday present to yourself? You have quite a thing going with your ribbon work!

 

[indycop]

Is the color difference strictly photo or from a good cleaning?

 

[J.T.Marcus]

Fatwoul, Looks like a good job, to me. Isn't this fun?

 

[Duck]

Fatwoul, that hat looks great!!!!! The ribbon is very nice!! Yes, the powders the factory used to even out the dye will come off on your hands. I had forgot about this until I started working on my black Resistol :eusa_doh: . I have a black Resistol cowboy hat that I have worn for over 15 years and I remember how the dye used to run out of it in the rain. It sure made my white shirt look a mess lol
After a few good wettings, the dye will not come off any more.

 

[DanielJones]

Great job Fatwoul!! I dig on the ribbon work you did there. :eusa_clap :eusa_clap That reddish brown is great looking in your photo, and it goes well with the color of your t-shirt. Now if you can find a suit in the color of your shirt, they would compliment eachother perfectly.:eusa_clap
My Resistol used to do the same thing when it got wet, & I used to wear it in the rain often. Scotchguard was used on it back in the day to keep it water repellent. Eventually the water rolling off of it ran clear and the color is still pretty even.

I suppose I'm going to have to try my hand at ribbon work on my Charlie 1 Horse some day. I had tore off the beaded hatband that came with it. the thing was glued on so it left a pretty good amount behind, and a horse hair hatband is usually too thin to cover that all up. So now I'll have to come up with something that will compliment it properly. It basically has that fedora/cavalry style to the shape of the hat but in black. Should be interesting.

Cheers!

Dan