diff --git a/darc/archive.py b/darc/archive.py
index 9075df5db..862c69905 100644
--- a/darc/archive.py
+++ b/darc/archive.py
@@ -285,10 +285,6 @@ class Archive(object):
                     xa.set(k, v)
                 except (IOError, KeyError):
                     pass
-        if have_lchmod:
-            os.lchmod(path, item['mode'])
-        elif not symlink:
-            os.chmod(path, item['mode'])
         uid = gid = None
         if not self.numeric_owner:
             uid = user2uid(item['user'])
@@ -299,6 +295,10 @@ class Archive(object):
             os.lchown(path, uid, gid)
         except OSError:
             pass
+        if have_lchmod:
+            os.lchmod(path, item['mode'])
+        elif not symlink:
+            os.chmod(path, item['mode'])
         if not symlink:
             # FIXME: We should really call futimes here (c extension required)
             os.utime(path, (item['mtime'], item['mtime']))
diff --git a/darc/test.py b/darc/test.py
index 54fd03588..ad93bd43e 100644
--- a/darc/test.py
+++ b/darc/test.py
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ class Test(unittest.TestCase):
         # File owner
         os.chown('input/file1', 100, 200)
         # File mode
-        os.chmod('input/file1', 0600)
+        os.chmod('input/file1', 7755)
         os.chmod('input/dir2', 0700)
         # Block device
         os.mknod('input/bdev', 0600 | stat.S_IFBLK,  os.makedev(10, 20))