How many new jackets do you have coming (and how many potential ones)?

[AeroLover]

I would open the liner and reinforce that area of the shoulder with a thin piece of donor leather on the inside.

I'm reluctant to do any surgery if I can avoid it. What would you use to affix the leather in there? Glue?

 

[AeroLover]

Love the wear on it!

Hopefully you love it, didn't pay much and it's a good fit so you can just wear it until it disintegrates and not worry.

I really love it. If I can preserve it as @ton312 suggests I will.

 

[ton312]

I'm reluctant to do any surgery if I can avoid it. What would you use to affix the leather in there? Glue?

Yep, glue the roughout side to the rough out side of the compromised shoulder, I open the liner at the sleeve seam and go in that way as it's very easy to repair. There's just no healing cracked leather but you can really wear it trouble free and stop the bleeding with an internal patch.

 

[handymike]

You can use contact cement. @Will Zach recommended one to me:
https://www.grainger.com/product/DAP-Contact-Cement-Weldwood-Original-5E096?opr=PLADS&analytics=FMLA&a2c_sku_original=5E094
For the patch you can use anything strong: thin leather piece (as Ton suggests), or denim, canvas, etc. I personally use fabric so I don't feel a bump.
After 6mo or so, you could give a coating of Urad to "seal" it up....(the one use I've found for it).

 

[AHP91]

Heres how it looks now: View attachment 587916 View attachment 587917 View attachment 587918 the shoulder is starting to crumble a bit but I think the jacket is very serviceable. What do you think?

Unfortunately that is leather damage. Patina and dried out leather are two separate things. One of the first areas I ask about when considering a jacket that might have some condition issues is the shoulder area. The area will definitely need to be reinforced if you want to wear it carefree.

 

[AeroLover]

Unfortunately that is leather damage. Patina and dried out leather are two separate things. One of the first areas I ask about when considering a jacket that might have some condition issues is the shoulder area. The area will definitely need to be reinforced if you want to wear it carefree.

Bummer. Is the reinforcement something I can do myself, or should I send it to JL?

 

[jeo]

Heres how it looks now: View attachment 587916 View attachment 587917 View attachment 587918 the shoulder is starting to crumble a bit but I think the jacket is very serviceable. What do you think?

I really love it. If I can preserve it as @ton312 suggests I will.

If you think it’s worth your time and effort, and you want it to be your daily driver and don’t see yourself ending up with a ton of jackets, go for it.

Based on pics and I trust what you’re telling me having it in hand, that it doesn’t look bad. Serviceable.

I can show you multiple examples of jackets of mine that I’d call bad but I still wear them carefree because of the price I got them at which I’ll guess is probably in the ballpark of what you paid.

At the end of the day you can’t go wrong if you didn’t pay much.

But if you paid high and would want to sell in the future then you’ll lose money.

Plenty of that here.

 

[Nacho]

Bummer. Is the reinforcement something I can do myself, or should I send it to JL?

You can do it yourself. Just use a piece of stretchy denim and tuck it in the rip with glue (I’d recommend Renia De Cologne. Made in Germany and used by some of best cobblers in the world). Then hand-sew it by hands from the outside. I’ve recently done one on one of my jackets. Btw, JL has paused their repair intake til early March.

 

[jeo]

You can do it yourself. Just use a piece of stretchy denim and tuck it in the rip with glue (I’d recommend Renia De Cologne. Made in Germany and used by some of best cobblers in the world). Then hand-sew it by hands. I’ve recently done one on one of my jackets.

View attachment 587948

I did something similar on a smaller area but I first put a bit of leather adhesive. Super quick, works.

 

[AeroLover]

If you think it’s worth your time and effort, and you want it to be your daily driver and don’t see yourself ending up with a ton of jackets, go for it.

Based on pics and I trust what you’re telling me having it in hand, that it doesn’t look bad. Serviceable.

I can show you multiple examples of jackets of mine that I’d call bad but I still wear them carefree because of the price I got them at which I’ll guess is probably in the ballpark of what you paid.

At the end of the day you can’t go wrong if you didn’t pay much.

But if you paid high and would want to sell in the future then you’ll lose money.

Plenty of that here.

Thank you for the info! I’m going to try to preserve it as you suggested. I don’t have any intention to sell this one as it fits so well.

 

[AeroLover]

Yep, glue the roughout side to the rough out side of the compromised shoulder, I open the liner at the sleeve seam and go in that way as it's very easy to repair. There's just no healing cracked leather but you can really wear it trouble free and stop the bleeding with an internal patch.

I think I can get in there from the back. Giggity giggity.

 

[jeo]

Thank you for the info! I’m going to try to preserve it as you suggested. I don’t have any intention to sell this one as it fits so well.

Anytime.

To be completely honest, both methods are just a band-aid. They do not address the issue which is bad leather that will continue to get worse if you don’t put it on proper supports, leave it next to a heat source such as hot forced air (radiant heat is better for your leather clost/room (nothing is worse for drying out leather than having hot air blown on it) no UV light etc etc

You need to cut out the cancer to really address it. But the jacket would have to be really worth it.

Here is an example of method A and can give you a guide on how to do it. You can also just glue it as suggested. I did not do this, I bought it like this, and it was reflected in the price.

Here’s an example of method B. I also did not do this (There’s no way I’d ever be able to get the stitching that tight lol but you want as tight stitching as you can)

And here’s the closest example from all my jackets to what you have. This jacket was otherwise great condition, but somebody put it on a hanger with no supports and it was very close to just poking a whole through the shoulder. All I did with this one was apply a clear leather adhesive. 5 seconds. I wear it all the time and it’s more than fine.

 

[Nacho]

I did something similar on a smaller area but I first put a bit of leather adhesive. Super quick, works.

Yes, jeo. That’s actually my process too.

You put some glue in the rip and let it dry. Then wet the backing with glue so it’s easy to slide it in the rip. Close the wound and hand-sew it externally to prevent any further tear with an awl and harness needle. This method doesn’t require you to open the lining which can be a PITA if you don’t have a stitching machine to sew it back. I mean, you can do it by hands too, but I’d rather spend my time doing something else.

 

[ton312]

Yes, jeo. That’s actually my process too.

You put some glue in the rip and let it dry. Then wet the backing with glue so it’s easy to slide it in the rip. Close the wound and hand-sew it externally to prevent any further tear with an awl and harness needle. This method doesn’t require you to open the lining which can be a PITA if you don’t have a stitching machine to sew it back. I mean, you can do it by hands too, but I’d rather spend my time doing something else.

You sew a liner by hand in 15 minutes. Practice makes perfect. Jeo’s examples looks good but IMO if you can avoid external stitches, it’s better looking. External repairs can start to look Texas chainsaw massacre ala leatherface IMO.

 

[Nacho]

You sew a liner by hand in 15 minutes. Practice makes perfect. Jeo’s examples looks good but IMO if you can avoid external stitches, it’s better looking. External repairs can start to look Texas chainsaw massacre ala leatherface IMO.

Agreed. But I don’t mind it at all. Gives the jacket a little character, ya know.

 

[ton312]

Agreed. But I don’t mind it at all. Gives the jacket a little character, ya know.

Yeah, character for sure.

 

[Nacho]

Yeah, character for sure.
View attachment 587975

Hell yeah!!! Lololol

 

[AeroLover]

So do tou

Anytime.

To be completely honest, both methods are just a band-aid. They do not address the issue which is bad leather that will continue to get worse if you don’t put it on proper supports, leave it next to a heat source such as hot forced air (radiant heat is better for your leather clost/room (nothing is worse for drying out leather than having hot air blown on it) no UV light etc etc

You need to cut out the cancer to really address it. But the jacket would have to be really worth it.

Here is an example of method A and can give you a guide on how to do it. You can also just glue it as suggested. I did not do this, I bought it like this, and it was reflected in the price.

View attachment 587965 View attachment 587966

Here’s an example of method B. I also did not do this (There’s no way I’d ever be able to get the stitching that tight lol but you want as tight stitching as you can)

View attachment 587967

And here’s the closest example from all my jackets to what you have. This jacket was otherwise great condition, but somebody put it on a hanger with no supports and it was very close to just poking a whole through the shoulder. All I did with this one was apply a clear leather adhesive. 5 seconds. I wear it all the time and it’s more than fine.

View attachment 587968

So should I just put some clear adhesive on the top, slide a piece of fabric underneath and glue, or both? At the moment there is no actual tear to sew.

 

[jeo]

So do tou

So should I just put some clear adhesive on the top, slide a piece of fabric underneath and glue, or both? At the moment there is no actual tear to sew.

Again completely up to you and how you feel about the jacket and how much it’s worth it to you (not just price, how much you love it I mean)

If it was mine I wouldn’t do anything, just love it and wear it until it disintegrates. If you feel like you want to do the adhesive thing, sure, do it but it’s not really doing much, the important thing is the flexibility of the material. I’ll send you what I used. If you use regular glue for instance that’s even worse because that will dry out and crack and probably make it even worse. Think silicone that is used for like bathrooms and stuff, you want that type of flexibility. I bought both from Amazon but one was cheap **** and it was not good. Learning experience though.

The thing with vintage jackets that aren’t in really good condition is that, it’s 50-60+ year old everything (leather, liner, thread) there will be other issues/failures. You get em on new jackets with the McCoys stuff with their zipper failures.

How much do you love it is the question. Answer that and you’ll know what to do. Good luck, it’s a great jacket has a super cool look.

 

[4444Design]

Incoming is a L-2B from 1963/1964 manufactured by "The Martin Lane"

N4 in size small with a submarine patch
"USS BAYA AGS318" - BALAO Class Sub comm. 1945

and another N4 in size medium with various patches
- "USS CONE DD 866" - Gearing Class Destroyer comm. 1945
- "LST 1173 SUFFOLK COUNTY" - De Soto County class Tank landing ship - comm. 1957
- "USS INVESTIGATOR AGR 91" - Guardian Class Radar Picket Ship (previously cargo ship for aircraft and various cargo) comm. 1945
- "USS CONY DD 508" - Fletcher Class Destroyer - comm. 1942
- and a patch: "COMIDEASTFOR" which is a acronym for "Commander, Middle East Forces"