Leather jacket main zipper replacement?

[Incandenza]

This may be a dumb question, but how complicated is it to replace the main zipper on a leather jacket?

Context is that I have a Rainbow Country jacket with a broken main zip... even if I could fix it, it seems like sort of a crappy/small/finicky zipper to begin with. Am thinking of just replacing it with a two-way #8 zipper.

Of course, I know Rainbow Country jackets are meticulously put together so wondering if I can trust the job to a local shop here in Montreal, or if I should wait for an opportunity to take it somewhere a bit more specialized... anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks

 

[photo2u]

This may be a dumb question, but how complicated is it to replace the main zipper on a leather jacket?

Context is that I have a Rainbow Country jacket with a broken main zip... even if I could fix it, it seems like sort of a crappy/small/finicky zipper to begin with. Am thinking of just replacing it with a two-way #8 zipper.

Of course, I know Rainbow Country jackets are meticulously put together so wondering if I can trust the job to a local shop here in Montreal, or if I should wait for an opportunity to take it somewhere a bit more specialized... anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks

Exactly how is it broken. Bad teeth, zipper tape ripping out of the male pin, or other? If you have a little experience sewing, then it might be a DIY for you. Some jackets need the lining to be taken out, and it does become a little more complicated. A good quality #5 zip can and will do the job for many years. Personally, I like RiRi over any other new zippers available. YKK has a quality built #10 that could be a good choice.

 

[Incandenza]

Thanks for the replies! It's just teeth not lining up/catching... have done a search on the forum and am aware that others have had similar issues with these Japanese repro jackets.

I really like the two way zippers I have on my Vanson jackets, but if the whole lining needs to be taken out that's another thing... didn't realize it could potentially become that complicated. Overall the jacket's slightly longer on me, which I very much like, but for that reason a two way zipper might be helpful.

 

[Bfd70]

Just got off the phone with Dena from great leather. Took her nearly 8 hr to replace the zipper on my LW j23 and she’s been sewing leather since 1971. A straight zip with a light hide would take her 90 min

 

[Incandenza]

Just got off the phone with Dena from great leather. Took her nearly 8 hr to replace the zipper on my LW j23 and she’s been sewing leather since 1971. A straight zip with a light hide would take her 90 min

Whoa... 8 hrs is intense! Hope it all came out well!

I'm located in Canada so not sure about shipping back and forth... my wife has family in San Fran so was thinking maybe I could go to Johnson Leathers next time we visit...

 

[Rakeitha]

Not a dumb question at all. I had a similar issue with a Schott jacket a while back, and getting the zipper replaced made a huge difference. Any decent leather repair shop should be able to do it, but I’d be careful—some places don’t handle leather well, and a bad job can ruin the look. If you have a trusted local place in Montreal that works on leather jackets regularly, it should be fine, but if not, I’d hold out for someone with solid experience. A two-way #8 is a good call, way more practical than the small stock zippers some brands use.

 

[JMax]

Just got off the phone with Dena from great leather. Took her nearly 8 hr to replace the zipper on my LW j23 and she’s been sewing leather since 1971. A straight zip with a light hide would take her 90 min

Haha. She hated working on my LWs.

 

[navetsea]

I think a cobbler who can sew upper and sole should have a machine strong enough to sew zipper, the problem just will he use the same stitch holes or just sew on without using the old holes, that's why I think jacket with buttons is far better than with zipper, it also more flexible in feel and also can be buttoned differently to create different look, and most importantly we can DIY fix a broken thread at home, and 1 broken button won't make the jacket unusable

 

[RDS]

I think a cobbler who can sew upper and sole should have a machine strong enough to sew zipper, the problem just will he use the same stitch holes or just sew on without using the old holes.

That is certainly something to be aware of. I’ve recently seen a couple of Aero Leather jackets, both on here and elsewhere, where the main zip has been poorly replaced.
One jacket had two sets of stitch holes down either side of the zip. They were so obvious and looked like narrow tramlines. Clearly the repairer had made no attempt to even try and use the original holes. On the other jacket it looked as if someone did at least make an effort to follow the original stitch holes, but from the poor results they really weren’t a skilled leather worker. They just stitched over the existing holes, creating more and also the stitchline wasn’t straight and wavered from the original in quite a few places. To make things worse as the replacement zip was oversized it immediately caught your attention and was a great success in highlighting the poor stitchwork.
.
It might be too strong to say both jackets were completely ruined as they were still wearable but I don’t think there’d be many on here who would want to, at least in public.

 

[Incandenza]

That is certainly something to be aware of. I’ve recently seen a couple of Aero Leather jackets, both on here and elsewhere, where the main zip has been poorly replaced.
One jacket had two sets of stitch holes down either side of the zip. They were so obvious and looked like narrow tramlines. Clearly the repairer had made no attempt to even try and use the original holes. On the other jacket it looked as if someone did at least make an effort to follow the original stitch holes, but from the poor results they really weren’t a skilled leather worker. They just stitched over the existing holes, creating more and also the stitchline wasn’t straight and wavered from the original in quite a few places. To make things worse as the replacement zip was oversized it immediately caught your attention and was a great success in highlighting the poor stitchwork.
.
It might be too strong to say both jackets were completely ruined as they were still wearable but I don’t think there’d be many on here who would want to, at least in public.

Ughh that sounds awful! So hard these days to know who can be trusted with something like this... fingers crossed...