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Pecard's on a D1

Southoftheborder

Well-Known Member
I bought a D 1 repro the other day which has lost some surface seal and is rubbed in a couple of places to the skin. I have used petroleum jelly on similar jackets to good effect years ago which I think Pecard's is based on - although with added oils and waxes. So I went to the Aviation Leathercraft site to buy some and it had this warning.

"Caution: This product can be used on our sheepskin jackets and trousers as well as the leather jackets, but please remember that sheepskin is not the same as leather and does have a 'surface' that will wear to a suede-like finish over time. Pecard's can help to preserve the 'leather-like' appearance for longer, but do not use on flaking or rubbed surfaces. If the surface has begun to crack please do not use, as any treatment now will make the surface peel."

Has anyone had a problem using it? I thought it was recommended for original Irvins and most of them will be a bit rubbed by now.

 

Tom Bowers

Active Member
Pecards is good stuff, I've used it on sheepskins including an original D-1 I owned without a problem

I would avoid treating areas where the surface has cracked and flaked away down to the "skin" underneath.

What might happen is that if you treat the plain skin the treatment might leach through the skin and cause more surface to bubble up and crack separating the surface from the skin

unfortunately nothing can bring back the original finish, but the cracks and abrasions are what give a sheepskin it's character

Tom Bowers
 

Southoftheborder

Well-Known Member
Thanks for that. This jacket has very small areas of surface cracking and flaking in lots of places as well as some parts where it's bare suede. But a quite new B6 repro I own has some small bits of flaking in a couple or places too. So if it leaches through small cracks it might not be a good idea to use the stuff at all on sheepskin unless the surface is completely intact.

Is there any product that would help stabilise the surface?
 

Silver Surfer

Well-Known Member
you can use acrylic paint [mixed to a matching color] in the bare areas. it will seal the hide. 3-4-5 coats will be required as the paint will soak in. start with 3/4 paint mixed with 1/4 water, and then more paint with less water, ending with paint only. then you can grease the jacket with out any probs.
 

Southoftheborder

Well-Known Member
Thanks SS. Yes I did think about doing something like that. I think the finish might be a polycrylic lacquer. It's a Real Mccoy NZ and the RM Japan one they still sell is finished in that. It might be an assumption too far to say that this is the same though because the jacket must be at least twenty - five years old. I did a search for the stuff a few days ago but came up short.

But acrylic is easy to get. I don't want to end up with something bodged and over restored though, and as Tom Bowers said above a little surface wear is expected and possibly desired in a old lacquered sheepskin jacket. So I've been leaning more towards something that would make the bare suede less obvious and more blended in rather than a permanent cover up. I might do a very small bit and see what it looks like though.

Does anyone have any idea what restorers use? Byson Leathers advertise a restoration service for shearling jackets and from the pictures seem to quite heavily restore some of them. I wonder what they use? I did contact them about some work needed on this but no reply as yet.
 

Grant

Well-Known Member
I second what Tom said. My original and repro Irvin jackets, repro B-3 and B-6 have benefited well with an application of Pecards after years of wear. The finish on my old ELC Irvin was starting to crack in areas. After letting the skin soak in a light coating of Pecards for a couple days, the areas that were cracking were no longer visible. Same for my old RMNZ B-6. Good luck with whatever you decide to use.
 

Southoftheborder

Well-Known Member
I second what Tom said. My original and repro Irvin jackets, repro B-3 and B-6 have benefited well with an application of Pecards after years of wear. The finish on my old ELC Irvin was starting to crack in areas. After letting the skin soak in a light coating of Pecards for a couple days, the areas that were cracking were no longer visible. Same for my old RMNZ B-6. Good luck with whatever you decide to use.

Thanks Grant, but isn't that the opposite of what he said? I thought you were supposed to avoid putting it on a cracked and worn finish. But you use it on the worn and scuffed areas and it works fine and blends in?
 

Grant

Well-Known Member
Sorry if I'm being misleading. It worked well on areas where the finish was starting to crack, not necessarily on worn or scuffed areas, more like area where the skins were drying out. I guess it's akin to putting skin cream on dry skin in the winter. Does that make sense? BTW, I only needed to apply it once - after that the skins responded well and seem to hold their own a couple years on. Hope that helps. BTW, I only needed to apply a little; gently rubbing it into the skins, then letting it soak in for a couple days before rubbing any excess off with a clean cotton rag.
 

Southoftheborder

Well-Known Member
I've ordered some Pecards and I'll have to suck it and see. Having looked some more the only warnings about its use on finished sheepskin come from AL and others seem happy to use it. I think Byson Leathers use it on original Irvins; and in the before and after pics the results look very similar to my old B 3 repro that I used petroleum jelly on for many years.

So thanks for the replies and if anyone else has any info about it I'd be very interested.
 
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