Operation Experimentation Update #3

Yet another couple of weeks have gone by and those boots are still parked on my front porch. One of my friends made a comment that only I would ruin a perfectly good pair of $60 boots for an experiment.

The boots are getting stronger sun exposure for a longer period of time now as well as more exposure to heat since it has definitely warmed up. I took another close look at the boots today and the hairline fractures in the rubber is even more extreme.

Both boots made the same crackling sound as before (like crunching up tissue paper) when I pinched the rubber together. On the right boot, which has not been treated with the rubber conditioner, the cracks are much more severe. Unlike the last time I checked them, this time the thin fractures in the rubber can be seen even when I don't pinch the rubber together. Before, these cracks disappeared when I released my hold on the boot. Although this is true for the right boot, the left treated boot, it is now in considerably better shape than it's mate.




You can hopefully see in this picture that the right boot (on the left in this photo) has a kind of dull look to it whereas the other boot doesn't. This is a result of all the hairline cracks over the surface of this boot.

The hairline cracks run the full length of the boots as well as along part of the sides which have been exposed to the sun. The cracks make the pattern appear faded more on the untreated boot. The inner lining of both boots is beginning to pull away around the top front. Again the back of both boots remain undamaged as they haven't been exposed to any sun.

So I would say that although the rubber conditioner doesn't 100% prevent damage it does slow it down. (Again NO sun exposure is best). Had to throw that in there....

I wiped both boots down, applied yet one more coat (that makes 3) of the rubber conditioner to the left boot and left the pair in their offical spot on my front porch to take more UVA/UVB abuse.

More in the next installment...

BTW...if the sun does this to a pair of boots with minimal sun exposure, just think of what it is doing to your skin without any sunscreen. Just food for thought.....