Zipper repair (LOOOONG)

[ESokoloff]

Well they say a picture is worth a thousand words so as I didn't take any images to illustrate my story, stand by for 1k words

 

Earlier this week as I was zipping up my one piece Stitch, the torso zipper pull came off in my hand, Rats

I picked the retaining clip off the ground & after orientating it properly, snapped it along with the pull back on the zipper body & got on with my day. The next day I inspected the situation & found that the zipper body is a soft cast pot metal. The clip is a stamped ferrous thin gage metal that attaches to the base via a dimple arrangement. The dimples fit into the receiving hole in the base & allow the clip to pivot several degrees. This movement is for the brake feature.

What I found was that the dimple(s) had cut a grove in the soft base. I thought of a quick fix of merely filing off the side of the grooved base & pinching in the sides of the clip slightly.

Well, this only lasted about two zipper cycles, Rats(again). I considered sending the suit back for repair but the thought of being without it for 2-3 weeks or more got me to think of how to DIY.

I found a brad(small finish nail) that was slightly smaller then the hole cast in the base. I removed the zinc coating on the brad. Drilled out the dimples in the clip to the proper indexed size(for a snug brad fit). Remove the burs on the inside & scratched off the paint on the out side around the new holes. Installed the clip with pull onto the base. [Heres were I made a mistake by not placing the clip on the base properly. There is a small spring wire for the brake system that has to be on the inside of the clip to keep tension on the brake side(this tension is overcome when you pull on the zipper to unzip it). I had to manipulate the spring after the repair to get it on the inside of the clip.]

Note: make sure the brad stays straight as even a slight bend will make insertion into the clip/base tight & brad must be loose enough to pivot for zipper lock to work. Also I ground most of the brad head off before inserting so it would not interfere with the zipper pull(handles) movement. I had to "press" the brad in with a pair of slip pliers("Channellock" TM). Use cation here as the base is only soft pot metal and if yours breaks, well I don't want to hear about it.

After the brad was in place I carefully cut the end of the brad off using a cut off wheel with my Dremel leaving just a bit. I then soldered the brad ends to the clip using my Weller soldering gun & regular rosin core solder. This was the scary part as too much heat would(will) melt the zipper. I did alright as by using the hi wattage gun I was able to heat the joint up fast before the heat traveled to the plastic zipper teeth. If you are not comfortable with soldering perhaps this repair is not for you. I did not try it but perhaps wetting down the zipper would help out here.

After I soldered, I used the Dremel & a file to remove excessive solder/brad for zipper pull handle clearance.

I found that the clips brake movement was stiff but after rocking it back & forth several times it freed up.

Well that's it & I hope it helps some one but remember it worked for me but may not for you.

[Bobmws]

The other option is to call Aerostich and request a new slider. You then clip off the stop at the top of the zipper, remove the old slider, slip on the new one and clamp the new stop onto the zipper.

[Woodie]

The other option is to call Aerostich and request a new slider. You then clip off the stop at the top of the zipper, remove the old slider, slip on the new one and clamp the new stop onto the zipper.

 

After all that work, and then all that time typing up the instructions.

Cruel and heartless!! ROFLOL

 

 

 

Seriously, thank you both for the informative posts.

[EffBee]

The other option is to call Aerostich and request a new slider. You then clip off the stop at the top of the zipper, remove the old slider, slip on the new one and clamp the new stop onto the zipper.

 

That's exactly how it's done. The older BMW Savannas (my own included) had zipper heads and tongues that came off very easily. However, all the zippers on the new BMW apparel seem much more robust. Haven't had a failure in the past year.

[St0nkingByte]

I'm glad I'm not the only one with zipper woes. I'm ATGATT daily and I've destroyed the zippers on two pairs of FieldSheer riding pants in two years. The first pair had big plastic zippers that the teeth fell out of, the second pair had small metal zippers that I thought would be better until the zipping parts just fell apart, replaced em twice and I still break them because they're too small for the job. On one pair I gave up and sewed the legs shut down to the ankle!

 

I seem to do OK with jackets but the pants I just demolish. Right now I'm thinking of saving my pennies for a pair of BMW or Aerostich pants, that's assuming I can convince the wife that three pants in three years makes any sense at all!

[ESokoloff]

The other option is to call Aerostich and request a new slider. You then clip off the stop at the top of the zipper, remove the old slider, slip on the new one and clamp the new stop onto the zipper.

 

RATSX3

 

I looked on www.aerostich.com but nothing jumped out at me regarding zipper repair.

I've now found it.

Oh well. This repair took less time to write about it & should last a lot longer then just replacing it with the same non robust designed stock one

 

Perhaps a little lube is in order now to compleat my zipper service