Any hope for a badly dry-rotted leather jacket?
Posted Oct 18, 2021, 11:25 PM UTC
1415
this is faux leather, aka plastic on a fabric substrate. unfortunately its not very salvageable, short of cutting the affected part completely out and patching in a new piece of something in its place, which only puts a bandaid on the issue. most, if not all faux leathers will do this given enough time in a less than ideal environment.
26
It can be saved, maybe not perfect, and it's a LOT of work.
Pick and peel off ALL the messed up section seam to seam not just the individual holes. Clean or dust off the fabric now exposed. I've used gloss or semi gloss house paint (cheap sample pot at the hardware store runs about $3-5 and will more than cover this project) and several layers later, saved a pair of boots.
If you love the fit or it is sentimental, give it a shot. Can't make it worse.
9
slathering it in paint or liquid patch was kind of my thought, in a "give it a shot" kind of way. I'm mostly annoyed enough to try because I feel like I've barely gotten to wear it, and the inside material and polyester lining are perfectly fine. I got it as a gift, and I was probably assuming it was fancier than it is. Are there advantages to house paint over acrylic and fabric paint, or is that just for cost?
6
Fabric paint is better. Others paints , unless you mix with a fabric converter, will crack as the fabric bends. Might work on a stiff pair of boots - will quickly flake and look awful on a coat.
How much do you love the coat? Would it be worth taking to a tailor? They (or you, with a little help) could remove the intact lining and stitch on a new outer. Cost would depend on the style of coat.
5
It was stored in a hot garage for several years, and the outside layer is now disintegrating.
4
That's not real leather, it's plastic. Sorry, but it's not salvageable.
17
I've been thinking of it as "my leather jacket", but yeah, it's very obviously not made of leather. It doesn't even say what it is made of, just "non-leather material" shell and polyester lining.
3
What I've done in the past is totally peel off all the plastic, then you can either paint the exposed surface, leave it as is if you like the color, or add new fabric panels over the top and completely recover it.
2
Real leather doesn't react like that, its faux leather, but you might be able to vinyl patch it.
3
That makes sense. I got it as a gift and didn't think about it much.
1
Once leather starts to go like that, it's gone. You can try to glue the layers back, but they will keep separating in other places. You can add things to it to make it more flexible (various soaps, conditioners, etc), but it won't withstand the flexing and strain of being worn like a garment anymore.
4
The horse is dead. It's time to get off it, now.
As others have said, it's not leather.
While you could possibly repair it by replacing panels and trying vinyl repair kits, at the end of the day, it's still a dead horse, and you need to let go, and move on.
If it sat in a hot garage for several YEARS, you can accept this reality and let it go with love.
For the time, effort, and expense to even try to repair it, with questionable and doubtful good results, you can buy another jacket. If this jacket was so important to you, it would not have sat for YEARS unattended.
Accept its fate and move on.
4
I had a faux leather jacket from Wet Seal years ago that did this after several uses and eventually going from box to box as I moved. I ended up just throwing it out unfortunately.. like others said as well, it’s faux leather and not really salvageable.
2
No, it's not leather (as other people have said) but I think it is potentially salvageable if you buy a vinyl repair kit
1
That isn't leather.