Hat Cleaning (not for the faint of hart)

[Midwest Boater]

Well these days I repair roads for a living and sometimes I haul asphalt. In order to keep the trucks clean and usable we use diesel fuel. So in a hurry to unhook some equipment from the back of my truck I left my hat on when I stood up and bonked my head on the underside of the dump box this is what my beloved Borsalino "Diamante" twenty five looked like;

As i say not for the faint at hart.
I was going to send it out for a cleaning but by the time i got off work and to the post office it was closed. When I got home I started going over all I've learned form this amazing community summoning my nerve this is what i reached for.

Just to be clear no one here suggested this stuff but it was as close as i had to the naphtha bath that is posted here and i was desperate. first i tried it under the hatband inside the hat to check for color fastness, it held up fine so

I spayed the carb cleaner onto the shop towels and dabbed carefully at the felt trying not to rub the stain into the felt.

now I'm not recommending this for others to try but it came out much better than i had hoped and i never would have had the nerve to try this if it wasn't for you good friends I have met here.

Many thanks to all that I have learned from in the short time I have been here.

 

[zetwal]

Kudos!

 

[Michaelshane]

Dang.....

 

[azshawn]

Close call for a beautiful hat! Glad it worked. Now you have to get a cheap hat to wear to work

 

[buler]

Nicely done! Glad it all came out. Main ingredients in gumout carb/choke cleaner are Xylenes, Isopropyl Alcohol, Methyl Ethyl Ketone, Surfactant, and propellant. I have a can of that stuff in the garage. I'll have to test it out.

B

 

[Undertow]

Nicely done! Glad it all came out. Main ingredients in gumout carb/choke cleaner are Xylenes, Isopropyl Alcohol, Methyl Ethyl Ketone, Surfactant, and propellant. I have a can of that stuff in the garage. I'll have to test it out.

B

Careful, as Art has mentioned alcohol will ZAP the stiffener right out of the felt! If carb cleaner truly has alcohol in it, Midwest Boater did right in only spot cleaning. Xylene is a small component of Coleman camp fuel and thus must work on a similar level to Naphtha. Be careful not to soak in that carb cleaner or you could ruin the hat.

 

[bolthead]

Close call for a beautiful hat! Glad it worked. Now you have to get a cheap hat to wear to work

what he said. :eusa_doh:

 

[Midwest Boater]

it was not that cheap after all. i got it in a bidding war perhaps you remember me winning it over a year ago Buler

if by compared to a hat from optimo or Art Fawcett then im with you but to me $70 US aint cheap.

 

[Jingo Mastapone]

I believe he was saying you now need to go find a truly cheap hat to wear to work rather than this nice one. Thanks for the little documentary. It is now known to us that we have one more weapon in our arsenal.

 

[Midwest Boater]

OOO (facepalm) now i get it thanks for pointing out the obvious for me Jingo.