u/the_blue_haired_girl

Something tells me Drifloon will let me come back.

I stopped by a vintage shop and saw this absolutely GORGEOUS unit. I noticed it had some white stuff around the edges of the tube, all on the inside. At first I thought it was mold? But upon closer inspection to the right side, it almost looked like it was a liquid (like foam) that dried after running a bit. I've never seen anything like it.

This was a TON of work but I'm thrilled with the results! So about 5 months ago I posted this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/nps\_solovair/s/YaXGGOZJUc

And I was ready to throw away my old boots when the zipper bust. I decided... Why not try to repair them instead? They still have a nice amount of tread on the soles, so I might as well give it a shot.

So I started by cleaning them. YEARS of grime were caked on, and I couldn't believe how much a through wash did to improve the leather. I then ripped out the zippers.

The next 3 weeks, I layered on Dritz leather repair in black. I tried my best to completely fill the deep cracks, but I just couldn't do it. There's about 8 layers in there, and I still couldn't get it perfectly smooth. Oh well. It still looks better than it did before.

Then it was time to paint them. I used Rust-Oleum outdoor fabric spray, which allegedly works on vinyl and plastic as well. I chose that because it's not only wet-weather-resistant and UV resistant, but the paint is flexible, so it won't crack and peel like automotive or all-purpose paint. 4 layers of that and I was done.

After that, I attached the zippers. Color-matching was TERRIBLE. I couldn't get any colors exactly as I wanted, and the only upholstery thread I could get was in bright red, but it's fine. Maybe I'll fix it later. Maybe I won't. I went with heavy-duty plastic zippers instead of the metal-teeth ones. I'm hoping they're more durable and less prone to jamming. I hand-sewed these in, and it took about 5 hours.

Then it was time to wax and lace.

I scratched it with my thumbnail afterwards and the paint stayed on, but I'm seeing some rubbing issues on the tongue where it rubs against the wall of the boot. We'll see how long it sticks. If it doesn't stay, I'm not worried. I'll just try again, this time scouring the surface of my boots before painting. Or maybe I'll try another type of paint. We'll see. I'm just stoked to have my comfy boots back.