Can You Repair Rainboots With A Split Seam

ggergm Flibbertijibbet Thread Starter

Split seams in anthology covers are as unavoidable as a hangover after drinking tequila. They happen in shipping phonograph records besides equally through regular use. Personally, they don't carp me a lot. I've endemic ane of the records in this post for nearly 20 years and its top seam has ever been trashed. Because fixing split seams is really a relatively easy job, I'll practice it when the spirit moves me. This thread is to demonstrate how you, too, can set up split seams.
Beyond what you lot probably already have lying around your house or flat like scissors, a utility knife and marking pens, y'all only need two things. They are sheets of paper with an adhesive backing, like what's used for labels, and white glue. I accept a box of Avery 8½ x 11 inch blank agglutinative sheets and some carpenter'south glue.

The beginning album I fixed is the one I've owned since the early on 2000s. I bought it at a used record store in San Mateo, California. An early copy of the Kingston Trio'due south first anthology, a record that's always been mono, the vinyl was wonderful only the cover was damaged. It's summit seam was almost gone. In fact, the easiest fashion to fix the seam is to break information technology all the style, cutting it carefully with a knife.

From an Avery sheet, I cut a strip of paper 11" long and possibly ¾" wide. I too cutting a minor piece to cover the entire 12" seam. I bent the paper into little tents with the sticky side out. Removing the backing, I slid the tents into the jacket, lining their peaks upwardly with the comprehend'due south edge. Keeping everything carefully aligned, I pressed downwardly on the cover, sealing the seam.

I could have stopped in that location. Often I exercise. Only in this case, the paper from the cover that used to comprehend the seam was mostly still in good shape. To keep it attached, I ran a thin bead of white glue down the seam. Using my fingers and fingernails, I worked the glue into the seam and backside the paper. I rubbed the seam with my fingers once again and over again to get everything to seal up completely. Excess glue was wiped away with a damp paper towel. With merely a few minutes work, I had a new, intact seam that felt solid to the touch and held the record in the jacket.

Equally long as I was fixing up this album, information technology seemed logical to utilise lighter fluid to become rid of the pricing sticker on the cover. If y'all've never used lighter fluid for this job, the secret is to let the fluid do the work. You probably need to utilize the fluid multiple times, soaking the sticker in information technology for a while. The sticker will come loose. If you try to peal the label off, information technology will at least go out a marker and may tear the cover. Past letting the lighter fluid dissolve the gum, it oft leaves no mark, as you can encounter hither.

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ggergm Flibbertijibbet Thread Starter

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This Dave Brubeck album from the late 1950s has the common separate seam at the edge of the jacket. It runs nigh halfway down the cover.

I used a knife to get the newspaper tent in identify. Depending on what needs to be washed, I will place the paper on either the knife'southward cutting edge or spine. Since hither I could work the tent with my fingers for much of the cleaved seam, all the pocketknife needed to do is place the end of the tent beyond the separate. Once things were aligned, I squeezed the encompass together to mount the tent. I used a trivial white glue on the seam but it didn't piece of work as well every bit with the Kingston Trio album. The paper was very dry. Little pieces were flaking off all the time.
A very common seam separate comes from shipping records in their jackets. The edge of the LP breaks through the seam during transit. I have a Phish two LP album with this trouble. There is ane mistake in the following pictures. The tent on the knife is way likewise long. A much shorter one was sufficient to cover the divide seam. I made that alter after I took the moving-picture show.

The process was similar to the ane with the Dave Brubeck album but more than tricky. It's essential that the pocketknife go the tent at to the lowest degree shut to its target. Yous tin, and probably want to, reach in with your hands and utilise your fingers to fully set the tent in place. Don't be surprised if your first attempt is a failure and y'all take to rip the tent out. It can be interesting to become the tent exactly where it needs to exist. I had to do 1 of these seams twice. I near e'er need to make a new tent for the second try.

These kind of seam splits are where the white glue really pays off. Working it into the split later on the tent is in place can make the split practically go style. You'll even so feel information technology a chip but it can exist difficult to encounter. Black ink on a black jacket helps. Here are a actually good before and after pictures of this Phish album.

I missed the stampede to buy the MoFi 45 RPM version of the Aretha Franklin anthology, Aretha'south Gold. I had an original pressing but this remaster sounds then good, it quickly sold out and started going for crazy coin on the secondary market. I found a guy selling 1 for a reasonable cost on our forum but it had multiple seam splits. That's right upward my alley. I'll testify you lot merely the two worst here. They are similar to the Phish ones and were stock-still the aforementioned style. The repair turned out well.

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ggergm Flibbertijibbet Thread Starter

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Let's fix i more record. A year or two ago I bought an early copy of Fleetwood Mac'south 2nd album, English language Rose. The vinyl was in immaculate shape only the jacket was trashed. It had seam splits on its top and spine. I used ii knives to bear witness yous this. With the knives sticking into the jacket, the cover picture of Mick Fleetwood nearly looks appropriate. Most.

Fixing a spine seam split is a claiming. Sometimes the best thing to practise is cut the spine abroad completely and insert the tent from the outside. It's not an ideal solution but information technology can be the only way to get the job done. Here I did it from the inside, using multiple pieces of card stock to push the tent in identify.

The trick is yous have to get the tent exactly where you lot want it with your tool. Yous can't use your fingers to massage the tent in identify without causing the spine seam to further split. The menu stock adds the extra challenge of using an xi" tool in a 12" slot. You just have to be confident and use a firm hand to shove the tent into place. Even then, this jacket took two attempts to get the spine splice right.

I really like the way the jacket came out. Here are before and after pics of both the spine and the top seam splits. The piece of newspaper sticking out the superlative of the jacket happened by accident. It was in the sleeve and popped out as I was setting up the picture. It fabricated it like shooting fish in a barrel to run across how big that seam split was.

So why carp with all of this? Seam splits don't affect how good the record sounds or how easy it is to apply. They are a cosmetic thing, mostly. I fully understand that mental attitude and utilise it to many of my records, although there'due south another side of the story. I notice it rewarding to bring a record jacket back to its original shape. Let's return to the first record I showed yous, the Kingston Trio anthology. Here it is with the LP back in the jacket, prepare to go into a plastic sleeve and onto the shelf. This record is from 1958. Expect at information technology here, with its seam fixed and the pricing sticker removed. It'due south in bang-up shape. You can nevertheless even read the anthology title and catalog number on top of the sleeve. You well know that area used to be torn apart. That'due south why I fix seam splits.
Overnice piece of work!
I don't fix split seams, I just proceed the anthology jacket in a new outer sleeve and refrain from putting the inner-sleeved LP inside the split comprehend. The goal is to not make the damage worse.
Proficient thought, they look good. I'll 2d the greatness of lighter fluid, I've been using it to safely remove old toll stickers and adhesives from various types of collectible packaging for years, it works wonderfully and safely.
I recall we discussed you putting this up, quite some time agone. And so glad you did! Amazingly detailed instructions!
Bravo and thank you for sharing.
I don't get hangovers anymore.
I keep these effectually, but I suspect your DIY version is cheaper: Seamzeazy Tape Jacket Repair Strips ten Pack

ggergm and zphage like this.
Excellent tutorial and work!
I'k a "seam logroller" myself; album covers being IMO part of the whole point of collecting and playing RECORDS, one might as well fix them when needed to exist able to handle them at will, and go the maximum fun out of the experience...

But I must say that while I used to use backing tape myself before glueing the seams, at some point I abandoned this additional pace because I'm non sure that it's really necessary to brainstorm with... Mayhap at some betoken in time, my non-backed glued seams will tear open up once again, and I'll realize that the tape WAS necessary subsequently all... ??

At the moment, "project mucilage" (dries translucid) is all I use, finished up with a warm water, clean swipe. Simply I allow dry overnight under a firm press, existence careful never to crush annihilation such as the spine. For spines I press with low-cal newspaper clips.

...Well-nigh the Ronsonol on the tougher labels... I've constitute that letting the fluid soaking bath stand under some tight cup or cover for as long as necessary is the best mode to let information technology work for you, since information technology tends to evaporate so speedily. Even and then, in my experience very old labels of certain kinds volition reject to lift properly, and then I just forget about them.
For some reason, and I but can't assist myself, after I apply lighter fluid to remove those stickers and their remainder, I merely tin can't assistance throwing a match on the LP, watch the large flare upward, making a hateful smirk, and then dramatically walking abroad with my back to the burn down.

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I've used a similar method with tenting index cards and used a strong gum along with a prune to become the gum to harden and stick to the inside of the jacket. Completely invisible and returns the sleeve to a much less noticably battered state.
This is a great solution. Cheers for sharing!
Great tutorial.
I put all of my records in MoFi inner sleeves, so save any paper sleeves that are still brilliant white to cut upwardly as tenting for repairing seam splits. Most paper sleeves are very yellowed, so I toss them. If a paper sleeve is 30 years old and is still white, I figure that paper is pretty much acid-free.

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