pacing like an expectant father

[Vcruiser]

Don't be scared to show your face mate. We're a friendly bunch here. What do you think's going to happen ? Or are you embarassed because of your trousers ? Only joking.

Hell ya...many here have blessed us with a face shot...and on occassion..even showed their arse(so to speak). A couple posed in pajamas and shearling...and one proudly wore a cowbell...
Dawg

 

[Peter Graham]

and one proudly wore a cowbell...
Dawg

A 2 inch cowbell ! That was priceless. Did anyone save a pic ?

 

[Vcruiser]

and one proudly wore a cowbell...
Dawg

A 2 inch cowbell ! That was priceless. Did anyone save a pic ?

I think Hacker still has one taped under his toilet seat lid..... :mrgreen:
VB

 

[tgd31968]

Don't be scared to show your face mate. We're a friendly bunch here. What do you think's going to happen ? Or are you embarassed because of your trousers ? Only joking.

Hell ya...many here have blessed us with a face shot...and on occassion..even showed their arse(so to speak). A couple posed in pajamas and shearling...and one proudly wore a cowbell...
Dawg

Believe me, I am doing you a favor. The pants, by the way, are my pajama pants. I hate to admit I was still in them at noon today.
Perhaps I am a bit too cautious about pictures on the internet. I didn't want to end up on www.sheepskinporn.com or something.

 

[FLATHEAD]

If what you have are just cracks in the outer colored acrylic surface of the jacket,
and NOT in the actual sheepskin, then its not a structural thing, and even though
the crack is right next to the sleeve seam, its not a real problem.

These jackets get cracks in the outer acrylic layer all the time, almost right out of
the box.

Look at old ones, and you can see the layer has even come off completely in
some places.

If you are talking about some cracks that are about a half inch or so in length, then
you can actually "fix" this yourself with some brown shoe polish and some leather conditioner.

I have the exact same Aero Redskin B-3 jacket as you do, but mine is now going on 5 years old.
It gets the same cracks in the outer layer from time to time, mostly where there is stress
put on the jacket from me putting it on, or from when I stretch my arms out, and the
back gets stressed against my shoulders.

I just take a cotton swab, and put some brown shoe polish on one end, and rub that
into the crack until its blended in.

Then I take the other end of the cotton swab, and dip it in my leather conditioner, and
then apply that over top of the shoe polish.

I rub it in gently, but do NOT rub it until its gone. I leave some sitting on the crack/shoe
polish, and I leave that overnight.

In the morning, I then buff of the excess with a cotton cloth, and unless you get about
an inch from the jacket, you can NOT see where the crack was.

The nice thing about doing this is, you fix the crack, and condition it at the same time.

Hope this helps if you deside to keep the jacket and not send it back.

Jim

 

[tgd31968]

If what you have are just cracks in the outer colored acrylic surface of the jacket,
and NOT in the actual sheepskin, then its not a structural thing, and even though
the crack is right next to the sleeve seam, its not a real problem.

These jackets get cracks in the outer acrylic layer all the time, almost right out of
the box.

Look at old ones, and you can see the layer has even come off completely in
some places.

If you are talking about some cracks that are about a half inch or so in length, then
you can actually "fix" this yourself with some brown shoe polish and some leather conditioner.

I have the exact same Aero Redskin B-3 jacket as you do, but mine is now going on 5 years old.
It gets the same cracks in the outer layer from time to time, mostly where there is stress
put on the jacket from me putting it on, or from when I stretch my arms out, and the
back gets stressed against my shoulders.

I just take a cotton swab, and put some brown shoe polish on one end, and rub that
into the crack until its blended in.

Then I take the other end of the cotton swab, and dip it in my leather conditioner, and
then apply that over top of the shoe polish.

I rub it in gently, but do NOT rub it until its gone. I leave some sitting on the crack/shoe
polish, and I leave that overnight.

In the morning, I then buff of the excess with a cotton cloth, and unless you get about
an inch from the jacket, you can NOT see where the crack was.

The nice thing about doing this is, you fix the crack, and condition it at the same time.

Hope this helps if you deside to keep the jacket and not send it back.

Jim

That is kind of the answer I was looking for. I figured I would get a bunch of fist pounding answers that it should be perfect, and I feel that way, but I also wasn't sure how realistic that is.

Aero has told me that it is not uncommon for the topcoat to crack, even new. I was only half believing it, but the explaination kind of made sense. However, there are a lot of them as I found later examining the jacket, and one is pretty bad. it is a little over 1/2" long and 1.5 mm wide on the back. that is the one that bothers me the most.

Aero has agreed to make another jacket, so I am going that route. If it has problems, I will consider the location, how bad, and your advice. any particular brands of polish and conditioner that you use?

Also, below are a pic of the crack on the back, one close up, one REALLY close up. There were cracks on both arms, on the back, on the back of the collar, and on the sides of the collar between the straps. Too many to live with, and the one on the back is pretty bad.

Thanks,

Terry

 

[FLATHEAD]

Those cracks almost look like something hot melted the outer layer.
Very weird.

I have one crack up near the collar, on the windflap, that looks just
like all of yours. Its kind of jagged, and about 1.5 mm wide. I fixed that
with the shoe polish/leather conditioner.

All the rest I have had are all almost dead staight, have very sharp edges
to the crack, and are about as thick as a few pieces of paper.

It does appear that what you have is not really cracks, but small
sections where the outer acrylic finish did not stick properly to the
sheepskin, and it just peeled back.

When my jacket was new it had one crack on the back develope the
day I tried it on.

Since then, in the 5 years that I have had it, it gets them at the stress
points like I mentioned, but if I had to count the number of them that I
have fixed with the shoe polish/leather conditioner, I would say its no more
than about 10 or 12. The longest one being about an inch long.

I would say that you could fix them, as they are not structural in nature,
but since Aero is going to make you a new one, thats the route to go.

Aero is a great company to do business with, and they always seem to
want to make their customers happy.

Good luck with the jacket!!

Oh, and any old brown shoe polish will work. I just happen to have
Kiwi brand on hand. And I use Pecards Jell for my leather conditioner.

Jim

 

[bseal]

 

[tgd31968]

I wish I had that cartoon with the skinny guy between the hefty womans butt cheeks with the caption Crack Kills. Would seem appropriat here.

 

[tgd31968]

So I am now in a quandry. I have been e-mailing back and forth with Mark Moye, and this is the last response I got:

hey Terry

Ok, we'll do another jacket for you. The factory says to let you know...the seal brown doesn’t crack as much, as we have a new supplier and it doesn’t crack. We suggest Terry goes with that seal brown.

Of course if you want to stay with redskin we'll do our best on the hide selection.

I also read on another forum where MikeyB17 had sent an Aero D-1 back because of similar cracks to mine.

I need a bit of an education here. Is the top acrylic coat the dark brown layer, or is it a clear coating on top of the dark brown layer? Everyone says that the acrylic cracks over time, which I understand because acrylic is brittle, but I assumed the acrylic is a clear top coat over the tanned sheepskin, which is what I assumed the dark brown color is.

Mine had cracks all way through the dark brown layer, and I could see the off whiteish skin through them. I took this to be an actual tear through the leather, not just the top coat. Am I wrong?

So, back to Mark's message, I guess I need to decide if I want the redskin with a risk of the same problem, or the Seal color with lower risk.

Terry

 

[deeb7]

I need a bit of an education here. Is the top acrylic coat the dark brown layer, or is it a clear coating on top of the dark brown layer? Everyone says that the acrylic cracks over time, which I understand because acrylic is brittle, but I assumed the acrylic is a clear top coat over the tanned sheepskin, which is what I assumed the dark brown color is.

The coating is not a clear acrylic, and yes it is the colour, natural tanned sheepskin is much lighter. Here's a description from ELC ....

Crafted to the 1942 specification featuring chrome-tanned sheepskin finished with a spray-dyed dark brown polyacrylate lacquer top coating with the correct buttery-shade quarter-inch North American sheep wool ...

I also read on another forum where MikeyB17 had sent an Aero D-1 back because of similar cracks to mine.

TFL archive, if anyone else is interested ...

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/archive/ ... -2510.html

 

[tgd31968]

Well after much thinking, I told Aero to make me a new jacket in the "more durable" seal color, with russet HH trim in the lighter D-1 skin. This was not only based on the factory saying the seal cracked less, but also because I decided the redskin wasn't for me.
Looking at myself in the mirror and pics, the color of the jacket is beautiful, but I (and my girlfriend) always have felt I look better in darker colors. Not only that, the redskin is a bit too shiney, and the color of the jacket looks more like a retro style fashion color than a flight jacket. The subdued redskin from Eastman seem more military.

Anyway, I will post a review when it arrives. Hopefully not another 3 month wait. I also see they lowered the jacket prices by $75 or so for most models since I ordered. Guess I should have waited until now to order.

Terry