I thought long and hard where to put this post to. Whether ai should create a new thread for it, or if it is even Elvis-related. But I finally decided it is, I hope that no-is aggravated that this off-topic
I think the majority of us here are vinyl collectors of some kind. That's why I thought it would be interesting to know how do you repair or maintain the vinyls and their sleeves that you buy and what is your "policy'" for doing it is... some people are determined to not doing any fixing after they buy records.
As for me, I try to fix the old vinyls and especially their sleeves and inner sleeves that I buy to a degree. If they are broken or dirty, I try to do what is possible.
When I get sleeves which are dirty or broken in some way (as those old Elvis vinyls often are) I do the following:
- if the sleeve has some dirt that I consider removable, I use the paper towel with a bit of water and wipe the sleeve. This usually works pretty well to get rid of superficial stains or dirt,and it doesn't add any unwanted chemicals.
- If the dirt in the sleeve is more sticky kind,such as residues of old stickers,etc. I use a combination of Zippo lighter fluel with paper towel,and wipe away the dirty spots. I might repeat this many times depending on how sticky the dirt is. Just be careful not to rub with too much force since that could affect the color of the sleeve.
- zippo fuel is really a God-send. It dries up pretty soon and doesn't leave the sleeve wet or does not leave any color of its own
- zippo fuel works very well also with unwanted stickers. For removing those, I need a laboratory kind of knife,the kind if small and very sharp ones that they do surgeries with. I will apply fuel on the sticker,leave it for 15 second or so and then try to peel of the sticker from the side of the sticker with a knife. Sometimes I need to apply the fuel multiple times in order for the sticker to get fully soaked. This method always works,you just have to have patience. And there is no trace of the the sticker or the glue in the end.
- if the inner sleeves are torn,I might use invisible archival tape to fix them. The tape won't get "greasy" or yellow after some years like normal Scotch tape does.
If the sleeve is torn on the side,I usually fix them. I have a method that I thought I would share with you here. It has worked pretty well, although it takes some practice to get it done well.
Fixing the torn edges of sleeves
I have this wonderful old US gatefold pressing of Date With Elvis. I had just a plain white inner sleeve in it,but I just got the original inner from a fellow collector for which I am forever grateful to him. Now the record is complete after many decades!:) The sleeve is made of very thick cardboard,which is torn on the side from maybe half of the length of the side. You can see this type of torn happening with US pressings, and it cannot be fixed with just applying glue. Now that the record is complete with correct inner, I wanted to fix the torn side to make it complete from that pint of view.
I have pieces of thin cardboard of different colors thst I've bought from a hobby store.The idea is to match the color of the inner cardboard surface of the sleeve,which can be white,brownish or grayish,depending in the age of the sleeve.
I just cut a piece long enough to fix the torn area, and I fold the thing in half. I apply glue from glue stick on the other side of that piece. Then I just put the piece inside the sleeve to just hold the edges of the sleeve together. I press the repaired edge for some minutes. If you can apply some object or have some tool to keep the edge together and the glue to stick,that works fine. I just like to use my fingers so that I press only where the glue is.
I'm pretty happy with how fixing of this sleeve was. I'm attaching some pics of the sleeve before and after the fix. Actually the "after" state looks better in real life than the photo! Hope this is of any use to anyone
Ps. I know that there are those cardboard slips with glue ready applied that you can buy online. If anyone is using them,please share your experiences
