How to fix the plastic insert on a President case

[IronHammer]

I picked this up today and it turned out to be in fabulous condition except for the plastic insert inside the lid. What, if anything, can be done to "bend" the insert back into shape? I thought about removing it, flattening it and heating with a hair dryer and then reinserting it but I wanted to check with you all first.

I tried to show the mis-shaped plastic insert in the pics but they don't show that well.

Thanks, in advance!

EDIT: The images are clickable so you can see the Hi-Res version without loading down the thread.

[ezmike]

Todd,

I'm not too keen on heating old plastic because I never know how it will react. To tell you the truth, unless I'm just missing it, I would leave it alone. It looks to be in pretty nice shape..

Mike

[mandoman]

looks good to me i would just leave it as is

[IronHammer]

Hmm. Good point. Too much heat and the plastic would just curl up. I notice that the plastic seems to be held in place by four tiny glue spots on the fabric. Now, I'm leery of trying to pull the plastic off the fabric. I keep thinking, if I could just get the plastic flattened out on a desk, under a book or something for a few days, then I could just put it back in. The pictures don't show it very well, but the plastic is curled pretty badly. Maybe I will try to get pictures tonight. My iPhone doesn't do up-close shots too well.

[Rasierhobel]

my plastic in my president case is in the same condition. but i will not do anything to fix it cause i'm afraid it will look worser :P

[KM-instructor]

Soak in Hot water for a few then try and reinsert it whilst it's pliable

[Rasierhobel]

soahing in hot water?? wouldnt do that because of drying..

[eastomjac]

try a light bulb placed close to the plastic,you need to monitor it CLOSLEY,to insure you dont over do it,this should let you reform the liner w/o removal+-,and cautoin is key you dont want to over heat and scorch the cloth.good luck:}o and when its in place try some more glue dots for retention

[IronHammer]

Here is a better shot of the the plastic. I took some better pictures when I got home this evening.

[ras120]

Personally, I wouldn't mess with it. Most likely you'll just make things worse.

On another subject, did you realize that you have the rarer version of the President with the smooth bottom band?

[IronHammer]

Interesting. I didn't realize that the smooth band version was rarer. I knew that some were made with exiting parts from the Aristocrats but I don't know anything moremthan that. That's cool! How rare is it?

[ras120]

How rare is it?

Production numbers-wise, I wouldn't know, but it is certainly a lot less common than the model with the knurling on the bottom. The few that I have seen are usually Y1 or Y2 date codes, so perhaps they were only made the first two quarters of 1953. And even at that, they were made alongside the bottom knurled model because I have also seen those with Y1 date codes.

The funny thing is, that as soon as you think some razor is rare, ten of them show up on eBay.

[IronHammer]

The President I picked last week is fully knurled and is a Y1. This one today with the smooth band is a Y2 so apparently they mixed and matched the parts on the assembly line as they saw fit. Has anybody ever seen a smooth banded Y3 or Y4?

As far as the plastic insert I think I will just leave it be. This is such a nice case I would really hate to hork it up. Thanks for all the suggestions though.