Rebuilt Red Wing 1907's myself
Bought new in 2016. Used in road maintenance until 2018. Sole seperated from midsole and footbed seperated from gemming from spraying them with diesel fuel when working with asphalt.
Had a stroke in 2020 and boots sat in closet, in pieces, for the next 5 years.
My father had a shoe repair shop in the 1980's, so I decided to see if I could repair them from what I remembered and what equipment I had available to me.
I first I chucked them into the washing machine and gave them 3 wash cycles to get all the diesel fuel and tar out of the leather and the footbeds. Then once dry, I cemented the footbeds back into the boots and then recorked them.
Then I purchased leather midsoles and cemented them onto the cork and welt.
Then having no way to sew them, I sent them to Red Wing explained what I was doing, and asked them to sew them and charge me appropriately. A few weeks later the boots showed back up at my house with the midsoles sewn to the welt at absoutly no charge. Many thanks to Red Wing!
Then the boots sat forgotten for another year until a week ago when I ordered Vibram christy soles from Montana leather. Once I got them, I cemented them to the midsole and then after a 3 day cure, I ground the soles down with a bench mounted belt sander from Harbor Freight, threw in some new leather laces and this is the end result.