Suggestions for goatskin repair or further damage prevention

[quadquintic]

Hi guys,

I recently acquired a used goodwear AN-6552. I removed a patch from the right chest hoping that the worst thing that I had to deal with were some stitch holes, but boy was I wrong. It looks like the previous owner installed the patch to cover up a pretty major damage to the goatskin. Looks like a very deep scratch and on some parts the top layers are “chipped off”. I’m wondering if anyone had any experience with restoring or preventing further damage to broken/scratch goatskin.

Any idea will be greatly appreciated!

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• quadquintic
• Mar 23, 2018

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• quadquintic
• Mar 23, 2018

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• quadquintic
• Mar 23, 2018

 

[Steve27752]

Welcome to VLJ, someone will be able to help you. In the meantime why not post a bit about yourself here.
http://www.vintageleatherjackets.org/forums/member-bios.21/

 

[Roughwear]

Welcome to VLJ. The damage looks relatively superficial. It looks worse because the white mark to position the first patch is clearly visible. I would start by cleaning this mark off with white spirit. The damaged leather surface can be covered with several layers of dark brown shoe restorer and rubbed in. It will not completely disappear but will be much less obvious. Alternatively you could fill the damage with a flexible filler and paint it dark brown.

 

[Skyhawk]

Yep clean and then shoe polish. Apply a period correct patch that you like if all else fails.

 

[MikeyB-17]

Or wear the Hell out of it, make your own scratches and nobody will notice!

 

[stanier]

I’ll never understand why people do this to expensive jackets in the first place.

I totally get having a jacket and having a patch or artwork you love applied with skill and care, that’s understandable.

But the patch here looks like it was applied in an outtake from that Gorilla glue tv commercial.

It’s like buying an expensive car and then drilling a hole in the roof for a CB aerial, or welding some personal sculpture in the side.

Jaw dropping.

Agree that happily it looks like it could be made a lot more subdued in this case and good luck.

 

[quadquintic]

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys. I'll try @Roughwear suggestion. I really want to remove the name tag as well, but I'm afraid of what I might find underneath. It appears to be sewn in to cover something up as well based on the stitch holes on the liner.

 

[robrinay]

Well for what it’s worth it looks as if the previous owner glued the edges of the patch to hold it in place while it was being stitched and the glue has pulled off the surface layer of the leather when being removed or perhaps when being adjusted prior to stitching. So if you’re thinking of removing the name tag then remove a few stitches on a corner and gently lift the corner to see if it is glued down. You’ll then have three choices - leave it alone, replace with your own name tag or try to ease the edge of a sharp edgedplastic credit card or similar between the name tape and jacket to leave the glue on the jacket. Once removed you’ll be able to carefully remove the glue - maybe? If you’re lucky it will be a latex glue which will rub off with the friction from your thumb. Alternatively, self adhesive - iron on patches often have a thin coating of glue so it could be that which has caused damage at the edges of the area you’ve removed a patch from.

 

[Garylafortuna]

These folks might be able to help you. I've heard positive things about them concerning scratch and scuff repairs and such, on some of the automobile forums.
Home Page | Leatherique Restoration Products.

 

[quadquintic]

These folks might be able to help you. I've heard positive things about them concerning scratch and scuff repairs and such, on some of the automobile forums.
Home Page | Leatherique Restoration Products.

I’ll contact them and see what they think. Thanks!

 

[Ken at Aero Leather]

IMO the only thing that will work is to cover the marks with insignia