Half Chap Zipper Woes

A couple of weeks ago the tab on my right half chap partially broke off. Kind of one side of the part that hooks through the zipper head. I babied it for a couple of weeks, picked up a replacement tab, and googled how to fix it. But I didn't bother to actually fix it. This weekend it broke all the way off.

Apparently ProChaps use some speshul kind of zipper, because I cannot pull the piece out that I need to in order to attach the replacement tab. It's a locking zipper, so I have a feeling that there is something in there that that tab is supposed to release when it's flipped down.

It's too small to grab with pliers, and we can't poke it through from the other side. 

Of course, it's a long weekend and I have a lesson scheduled for the next day, so slim chance of getting it fixed before my lesson.

No issues, I have another set of half chaps. My old, reliable, Grand Prix half chaps. Well, except that one of them also had a broken zipper tab. Maybe it was the opposite leg that was broken and I could use a mismatched set for a bit??

Nope. Apparently, I yank only on the zippers on my right leg. 

There was a standard zipper head on it though. And I could kind of pull it down, but it was jamming and I couldn't pull it back up. I have zero patience with this kind of thing, so off to Pony Grandma's house I took it. 

Pony Grandma figured out the problem right away - the zipper had skipped a couple of teeth. It took about 25 minutes of yanking and poking, but Pony Grandma worked her magic. I rubbed a bar of soap (for lubrication) against the zipper just in case, added the replacement tag I had bought for the ProChap, and I was good to go.

I think most of the elastic panel is stretched out, but they still work nicely.

These half chaps have had a solid 10 years of abuse, and other than that zipper snafu, are in excellent, worn in condition. They need a coat of conditioner after sitting in the garage for the last four years, but have lots of life left in them. And even better - they didn't shrink while in storage. I hate it when that happens. 

I sent an email to ProChaps to see if I can purchase new zippers from them that I could get replaced locally. They're a heavy duty zipper that I like, so it would be nice to have the same kind. My second option would be to see if there is a trick to getting that piece out of the zipper head so that I can put a replacement tab on them. And if those options don't work out, I think there might be a local saddle fitter that does repairs to chaps that I'll try. I'll need them before winter - the Grand Prix ones probably won't do up over an extra layer of clothing.