OK I know I'll get hate for this.
I have a bates highwayman 1 or 2 from the 70's.
It was in bad shape.
I had the sleeves cut to remove damage (luckily I have shorter arms than the guy that originally bought it) and some zippers replaced (I had one side saved, just replaced the blown out zipper side).
I probably won't get too much crap from those mods.
But.
The dye was typical of something that was neglected for 30 years..
I bought a spray can of dye and intended to just recolor the white portions on seams, but went overboard.
Now it looks like a garbage bag (not as bad as you think, but bad).
Can I selectively strip the spray dye off the majority of it without damaging it?
For the record, I've seen a lot of 50 year olds jackets that have aged well and the discolor/no color looks awesome, this was not one of those jackets. It just looked ratty.
For the record, I started riding back in '95 or so. Friend of the family said I needed to be protected so he gave me this jacket.I did my best in my 20's to take care of it but I was young and dumb...
