He Got His Boots Fixed At A Local Tire Shop

He Got His Boots Fixed At A Local Tire Shop TIRES/WHEELS Miscellaneous 30-1-44 When one of Jerry Tkachuk's winter rubber boots recently sprung a leak, he simply treated it like a flat tire and took it to a local tire shop to get it "running" again. There were actually two punctures in the top of the boot, but Tkachuk knew there was a lot of life left yet in those boots. "I'm not going to throw away a perfectly good pair of boots just because one's got a hole in it," Tkachuk says. "Those boots are worth about $40, and a patch is only buck and a half, so I thought I might as well get another couple of years out of them." Rick Provencal, manager of Fountain Tire in Westlock, Alta., says that although he has no desire to get into the shoe repair business, he likes being able to help out his good customers. "Jerry buys his tires here and we consider this a customer service kind of thing," Provencal explains. "We've fixed boots for a couple of different people, and we've even done the occasional swimming pool and bike tire." Fountain Tire employee Chris Humphrey says the boot repair didn't take long to do. "First, I buffed out that area of the boot with a grinding wheel to make the texture rougher. I put the glue on and let it dry a little before putting on the patch," Humphrey explains. "The hardest part was holding the inside of the boot rigid so it would be like a foot was inside while I used a roller to run across it and secure the bond. To do that, I placed a can the same diameter as a 2-liter bottle inside the boot." Tkachuk says he's had his boots repaired at tire shops a couple of times over the years, and it's a cheap, effective way to extend the life of his boots. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Jerry Tkachuk, 10535 û 105 St., Westlock, Alta., Canada T7P 1M3 (ph 780 349-3611).

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