Fantastic restoration of my 1979 Al Holland gamer

[TNTtoys]

All,

I picked up a fairly beaten up 1979 Al Holland game used Giants home jersey. I thought it would make for a nice project. It was not in particularly good shape, but had some promise. I first had it professionally cleaned, and then set out to get the back fixed up. I asked Lon Lewis if he can help out...

Not even two weeks later, I have the jersey back in hand, and it looks fantastic. I thought it would be very worthwhile to show you all a job well done. The most amazing parts of this job were:
1. the "new" nameplate was constructed out of the original nameplate material used by the Giants (not manufactured since 1982). Lon luckily had some of this and it matched the jersey almost identically. Matching is extremely rare, as these whites tend to darken over time.
2. the letters themselves come from Al Holland's original nameplate which Lon had in his workshop! The nameplate itself couldn't be used because it had been damaged in multiple places upon removal from the jersey, but the letters were all salvageable. The damaged original nameplate even matched up to the holes / outline of the removed nameplate on my jersey -- this could have in fact been the original nameplate from the jersey!
Enjoy the photos...

[momen55]

nick;
what is the contact info for lon? i've read nothing but praise about him and could use his help also.

[012562]

I had a nice giggle over this restoration job on the Al Holland Giants home white jersey.

I have had some interest in the name panels removed from MLB jerseys since the early 1980's. I always thought that someday I might find somebody who needed the name panels I had so they could get mounted or restored on the jerseys that had a missing name on back. Without much effort or focus, I have acquired some nice small lots of these name panels over the years, even on teams where I do not have much interest. I just put them away and don't really think much about them, and have about forty of them, including groups of Phillies, Padres, Indians, and a few from other teams like Mets, with some decent name players mixed in, such as Mike Schmidt and Bob Boone. The biggest group of fifteen from one team came from the Giants jerseys of the late 1970's/early 1980's. One of the panels I have is a white Al Holland with nice overall fading from washing and wear that would have been a great match for the Holland jersey shown.

Does anybody else collect the MLB name panels?

Tom Duino

[Marichal27]

momen33...
Lon's number is 775-856-4253. He is the VERY best at restoration. He's done a ton of work for the late great Dick Dobbins plus Rob when he owned Sports Warehouse.

[momen55]

thanks marichal27. i know rob and he always had nice stuff so i know lon must do great work then.

[TNTtoys]

Tom,

I would be interested to know which Mets nameplates you have in your collection. I have a few old Mets jerseys which had the nameplate removed. Can you please send me a list to TNT_Toys@yahoo.com


Ivan,

I see someone beat me to the punch with Lon's info. I was intending to speak to Lon first just to get his ok to pass his # to you -- so I was not going to reply on the forum immediately.


Nick

[lon lewis]

Nick,
thanks for the kind words, in the case of your jersey it was probably more luck than skill regarding the plate material and letters. Anyhow, glad you liked it.