Vinyl care - tutorial 1 - sleeves

[DoubleHappinessRecords]

Sleeves

Sleeve glue has come unstuck?
You will need some good strong solvent-based glue, glue 'sticks' are not really strong enough. I am using Bostik 'All Purpose Extra Strong Clear Adhesive' at present , I've also had very good results with plumbers 'cement' in the past, it was easy to use as the pot had a brush built into the lid.

Apply the glue to one or both surfaces of the join depending on the instructions. Clean excess glue from the exterior with kitchen towel, etc. Hold in place until set with a couple of A4 binding spines, these are plastic spines used for making a booklet out of A4 paper sheets.

Split seam?
If the split is not too bad it can be fairly invisibly mended by applying masking tape to the split from the inside of the sleeve. Masking tape is best as if you don't get it in the right position you can peel it off and re-apply. Use the edge of a ruler to force the tape into position snugly against the inside of the seam.

Marker pen on the cover?
If the sleeve has a good laminated / gloss surface this should work. Use a 'dry wipe marker' to cover over and scrub away the marker pen. The marker pen will start to dissolve. Quickly rub off all the ink with a kitchen towel. Finish cleaning with Isopropyl alcohol (rubbing / lab alcohol) on a kitchen towel to dissolve off the last of the ink.

Price sticker or label?
This works in 80-90% of cases, depending on the adhesive used on the back of the label.

Spray some WD40 maintenance spray on the sticker. You can get 'own-brand' versions of WD40 which will work just as well. Leave for a good five minutes to soak in. This is very important, the spray must be well soaked in but not dried out. Cover with plastic or cling film to stop it drying out for best results. The sticker shoud now peel off. If it starts to break up try peeling from the opposite side, i.e. peel from all four corners towards the centre. Apply more WD40 to any gum residue that is now left. Rub in with your finger until the gum dissolves. Clean off with a kitcken towel. Isoproyl alcohol or wax-free furniture spray can now bee used to buff the surface up and remove any remaining film of spray.

Torn inner sleeves?
Tape up with masking tape. It makes a better job than clear or brown tape.

Creased inner sleeves?
Iron them flat.

Soiled laminated or gloss sleeve?
Clean with some wax-free furniture polish on a soft cloth. If the polish says it's OK for plastic / electrical goods it will be fine on a gloss sleeve. Not suitable for porous card sleeves.

Hope this helps. Next - looking after the platters that matter

[deltadelta48]

Great advice. Have been frustrated by those stupid price stickers in past on magazines etc. But doesn't the WD40 damage the paper? It is so strong, won't it remove the printing on the sleeve or magazine or book or whatever?

What is the stuff they always advertise for removing "goo". Is that same thing as WD40, it looks like yellow gell?

[DoubleHappinessRecords]

Glad to hear you enjoyed that.

WD40 should be fine for covers with a gloss / laminated finish. Highly porous covers might get an 'oily' stain from the WD40, but it does tend to evaporarate off to a fair exent anyway. Sometimes you will find when you are rubbing off the WD40 some of the ink will come with it but I've used this technique many dozens of times and I've never really known it to result in 'bleaching' of the cover print.

[free4all3076]

you can use hair dryers to remove stickers too, just dont leave the record in the jacket while your doing it, it heats up the glue makes it easier to peel off

[DoubleHappinessRecords]

Sounds good... Unfortunately a hair drier is something I don't possess... Not much use for one as you can probably guess by my avatar