anyone here intreasted in repairing thier shoes ?

[messylaura]

Reason i ask is i not only do i wear my shoes for regular use i also wear them to get wet, either specifically to get wet or is i happens to be raining out or if i near fountain etc i'll go get wet, so i end up with a lot of shoes that need re-heeling, soles gluing up and complete rebuilds.

as a panel beater by trade i'm pretty good at repairing stuff so heels are easy to make myself from steel (plastic ones are pretty useless and normally get ripped off for steels before i wear them)

i have tested a lot of glues for soles, and when i mean tested thats to destruction, only one glue has had 0 fails and thats the original gorilla glue.

there are some good waterproof contact glues but the dont survive my regular wet walk session which is usually walking in rain getting shoes soaked for 2 hours
Gorilla glue survives that and more (several days of mud walking across fields through estuary mud, clay etc.

one thing to know about original gorilla glue it does foam so careful how much you put on and keep an eye on it after 15 mins up to an hour as you can remove any excess that comes out from the sole to body areas, once dry is a pain in the arse to get off, i usually use masking tape to keep it taped up when drying with some car wax around the body at the line to stop and glue sticking there.

i'm working of when i have time a system to rebuild the middle section of fiber board with a fiberglass resin soaked material so it is water proof and lasts longer

the life limit will then be how long the uppers can last as i usually call them done when they die.

why am i bothering to repair them?
well it gets expensive buying shoes every few months and i want to have a few pairs of shoes that will survive for along time so i can just keep using them.

most can survive a good 10 sess of getting wet and walking in for 1-2 hours at a time but then the fiber boars in the middle starts to let go of the metal stirrup bracing and they need major rework ( i never been into shoe burning or destruction as a kink, if i was i got a ton of material)

[davestratford1]

Thats very extensive. I like the idea of the fibre glassing though, might try that next time. I also get my shoes soaked scraped and filthy but i try not to kill them anymore, the tired look and feel works best for me. I find i wear the soles down a lot and that "Shoe Gue" from ebay is the best stuff for reglueing soles or patches.

[johneggers]

Nice and quite brief post mate, good luck.