Can any one point me towards a local service, in the Plymouth area that can repair a straight forward tear in the sleeve of my ME hard shell jacket. I found a few on the Gortex website, but they are miles away and I don't really want to be without my hard shell for weeks, at this time of year.
You need quite some equipment to properly repair hardshells so I would be inclined to bite the bullet and send it away for a few weeks. If the tear is small enough you could consider mending it temporarily with Tenacious Tape or other waterproof textile repair tape but I would say this only works if the tear is only a few centimeters at most.
I tore my Goretex pro shell jacket a few years ago. Its was a right angled tear about 1" each side if the corner. I just lined the edges up and used seam grip on the inside (covering the whole tear and 15 mm either side. Once cured I then treated the outside as well, it's water tight and I can't physically pull it appart.
I'd go with captain paranoia's suggestion. Slide a patch of seam seal tape between the undamaged layer and the torn outer, sticky side to the tear. Line the edges of the tear up as closely as possible and iron over the outer.
Ah, mine tore straight though, I treated the outside with seam grip as well. Where it's torn has it delaminated/been pulled off of the silver backer/layer? Or is the silver layer separate on your jacket?
Thanks all for your suggestions. The tear was indeed all the way through when I looked properly. No delamination, so I was able to cut and attach 3M tent seam tape inside and out. Appears to be a good strong repair, but time will tell.
Here are a few of photo links of the repair for others to reference in the future.
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