These shoes were almost beyond rescue. The foot beds were cracked and they are very difficult to replace without the original last. Furthermore the linings were worn out in several places. The replacement of the foot beds provided an opportunity to replace or repair the lining though. The linings in chelseas are very preshaped and more or less impossible to replace without the right tools to shape a chelsea lining. My only option was to repair the lining. The heel counters were also dead and needed to be replaced.
I recommended the customer to buy new shoes. The Crockett & Jones Chelsea 8 are €690, and I figured the job would cost around €600. The customer chose to restore them. When replacing the old foot beds it's very important to not change the size of the shoe. Since the foot beds are like shoe shoes chassi. The old foot beds needs to be copied exactly and everything put back carefully to exactly as it was. After I had glued the uppers to the foot beds I had the customer come in and carefully try them on to check the size before I locked it in place with the new welts. After that it was easy street, and quite standard procedures on everything.