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RE: Question regarding repair of album covers

Agree with Manny- if it's a collector's item, don't touch it.

I have some LP's bought 50 years ago and any tape repair gets old and yellow and either flakes off, or sticks forever in some place you don't want it to! Probably shouldn't use tape if you're in it for the long haul.

For day-to-day listening faves, you can make a reasonably invisible repair by smoothing a tiny line of "clear washable school glue" - see link- along a split seam. Apply sparingly so it doesn't squeeze into the inside of the jacket, and wipe off excess with a damp rag. Smooth down the frayed selvedges into the glue. (I do this under a lighted magnifier with the tip of an Exacto #1 when I feel fussy.) Clamp the seam beneath a stiff ruler for an hour or 2 then let it dry fully. It sounds more complex than it is- only takes a few minutes.

When fully dry, the split edges are pretty well bonded and can withstand careful handling. My local EllPeeHut puts these out for sale when I trade them in (thinning the herd these days) so they think they look OK.

I use a damp rag to clean covers, the rag is actually this weird black as-seen-on-teevee "European" cleaning cloth that wrings out almost dry and leaves only a tiny sheen of water. Note than nothing cleans off ringwear and sometimes cleaning the sleeve makes the ringwear look worse, so be gentle.

Warm any labels with a hair-dryer (remove the LP!) and most peel off OK. Occasionally I'll apply a little WD40 to shiny jackets to get off gum from labels, but if it dissolves gummy stuff it also can dissolve ink, so use with great care.


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  • RE: Question regarding repair of album covers - mr.bear 11:41:00 07/04/17 (0)

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