Repairing cut soft vinyl instrument pouch - any ideas?

[TerraHertz]

This is a rather sad story. A very nice old HP 8175A arrived here, having survived rough shipping from the USA without damage. Except it turned out some careless bozo at the reshipper in the USA had knife-slashed the vinyl pouch on top that holds the cables and pods.
Pics below, and whole story online here: http://everist.org/8175/

Does anyone have any deas on how to repair the cut, for minimal visibility?

I'm thinking perhaps applying some packing tape on the outside surface with the cut edges pulled together, then running some solvent into the cut from the rear. Hopefully the tape would prevent the outside surface texture being damaged by the solvent.

But which solvent?
I don't have any scraps of this vinyl sheet material to experiment on.

The whole pouch is held on by 4 screws, so would be easy to replace. If I could find a spare one in good condition.
It's the same as used on the HP 1630 series logic analyzers. But every other one I've ever seen has been looking fairly well worn. This slashed one is new looking. So annoying!

[edpalmer42]

Before I tried anything, I'd take it to a place that does vinyl repairs and/or upholstery and see what they say.  This is the kind of thing where experience makes all the difference.  You can buy vinyl repair kits that kind of work on things like car interiors and vinyl chair seats ( I've done both of those repairs ), but due to lack of experience on my part, the repairs are quite visible.

Ed

[james_s]

You should try to get the reshipper to compensate you too since they clearly damaged it.

[TerraHertz]

Before I tried anything, I'd take it to a place that does vinyl repairs and/or upholstery and see what they say.  This is the kind of thing where experience makes all the difference.  You can buy vinyl repair kits that kind of work on things like car interiors and vinyl chair seats ( I've done both of those repairs ), but due to lack of experience on my part, the repairs are quite visible.

There are vinyl repair specialists? This had never occured to me. I shall look. But that's another can of worms - I'm in Sydney and the government is doing their utmost to completely destroy any semblance of a functioning economy. Theoretically I'm not supposed to travel more than 3Km from home, or leave the 'local government area'. Definitely can't speak my mind about the whole covid/mRNA thing here.

I knew there were patch kits for vinyl blow-up boats, but they are completely unsuitable since they involve gluing on a patch.

You should try to get the reshipper to compensate you too since they clearly damaged it.

Of course! Already in progress. That's what that online writeup is for. I don't fancy my chances though. Damage in shipping is covered by insurance but even then they have a history of refunding very marginally when damage is superficial, regardless of whether it's repairable or not. For eg this recent instance: http://everist.org/8594/   Somewhere on the way from USA to Sydney the box was bashed hard against something, the instrument front rim punched through the packing and met the solid something. Bent and cracked the cast front frame. Which is diecast alloy, brittle, no way to bend it back. From memory I think they refunded about US$120 - pathetic considering the total cost of purchase and shipping. Two reasons - they think it's trivial cosmetic damage, and also it passed through at least three carriers on the way here. I assume the 'loss or damage insurance' is flakey if the actual party that did the damage can't be identified.

If anyone in Oz or USA has a completely wrecked HP 8594E, on which the front rim frame is still intact and clean looking, please PM me to discuss purchase & post - of just that casting. Or maybe the whole machine if cheap and the CRT is OK and has no burn-in.

Most sellers are not able to pack delicate things well enough to cope with shipping. So things often get broken. It's very frustrating. Here's another:  http://everist.org/1345/

That one I was able to fix the broken bracket. See pics. But there was also a TO92 FET bent over on the exposed PCB, badly enough that a leg broke off. Unfortunately it's an odd/rare number. 2N4360. I don't have one in stock, still looking for some or an easier to find equivalent. Amusingly, it was Q1 on board A1.

[edpalmer42]

I knew there were patch kits for vinyl blow-up boats, but they are completely unsuitable since they involve gluing on a patch.

Nope.  If you search amazon for 'vinyl repair kit' you'll find lots of kits that include small pots of various colours of liquid vinyl.  Mix them together to match the colour.  Some use heat, some don't.  Some include 'graining tools' to help match the grain of the vinyl.  Most include some type of patch to put on the back of the repair to strengthen it.  Some claim to be suitable for leather.

I've used them but, like I said, experience is usually necessary to get the best results.

[james_s]

It will probably still require some kind of patch on the inside to give it mechanical strength. Most of those kits are for car seats where the seat foam is the backing. It should be possible for someone experienced to make it look reasonable though.