Coach Rehab and Rescue Club

[ledobe]

So I was checking out the staging site tonight, and then I walked into the bedroom, and there was my sad lil wrong side of the tracks City Bag. She's almost usable, but sorta dingy.

Here are her after pix:

http://forum.purseblog.com/coach/coach-rehab-and-rescue-club-624452-180.html#post21797856

Anyway, I was making fun of that purple colorblocked Willis on Etsy awhile back and while I wouldn't do a full color block on her, I saw her laying there on the floor and the colorblocked Patricia popped in my head. I wouldn't really change the color but maybe I'll be more aggressive, maybe use paint. Make it more of an "update" project than a "restore".

 

[Funeral]

Can't wait to see your pictures! My first choice is usually to give the bag a bath, even if it looks good, because I like to know that it is clean and because I have often been surprised but all the crud that comes off of a clean-looking bag. And you can firm up the shape at the same time.

There are some delicate bags that I hestitate to bathe, but I have dunked some of them and even run them through the washer if necessary! And most of the time they come out looking good!

I will definitely have pictures by Friday night! And I completely agree with you - I love knowing that a vintage bag is completely clean, inside and out. I was also able to adjust the shape by putting towels in the inside compartments, so I'm really happy! I'm definitely wary of rehabilitating a delicate, older bag, but something tells me a quick bath will likely deliver a favorable outcome!

My local Goodwill recently put out a Coach Bonnie Cashin Watermelon bag in tan, and it's in beautiful condition, save for being a little dirty and having a few nicks in the leather (nothing at all serious). I was thinking of investing in the purse and possibly rehabilitating it and selling it, and if it doesn't sell, it's a bag I wouldn't mind keeping!

 

[Rambler]

YES! Totally selfish!

(I thought the same thing)

Motion carried. Sigh.

 

[katev]

I will definitely have pictures by Friday night! And I completely agree with you - I love knowing that a vintage bag is completely clean, inside and out. I was also able to adjust the shape by putting towels in the inside compartments, so I'm really happy! I'm definitely wary of rehabilitating a delicate, older bag, but something tells me a quick bath will likely deliver a favorable outcome!

My local Goodwill recently put out a Coach Bonnie Cashin Watermelon bag in tan, and it's in beautiful condition, save for being a little dirty and having a few nicks in the leather (nothing at all serious). I was thinking of investing in the purse and possibly rehabilitating it and selling it, and if it doesn't sell, it's a bag I wouldn't mind keeping!

A cashin watermelon bag is rare and valuable, I would love to have one!

 

[NCBDTeam]

I loved reading this, and checking out the photos/slideshow. (But is it selfish of me to immediately start thinking of how much harder this article is going to make it for us to find vintage bags at low prices? ) Unless the gals who are used to owning a brand new bag, will now go buy the new ones and leave our old dusty beat up ones alone. Of course we are enabling the purchase of the beloved vintage bags by gushing about the addiction of refurbishing them on this thread all the time!!

That was my very first thought!! Immediately followed by "well at least I live on the East Coast in a small town and it will take years for fashion to get there" bwahaha

 

[Jessi319]

That was my very first thought!! Immediately followed by "well at least I live on the East Coast in a small town and it will take years for fashion to get there" bwahaha

funny and true. I'll have to spread out to the outlying farm towns and see what's for sale there. Probably just all a bunch of Walmart bags like in my hometown I grew up in...where fake purse parties are the social highlight.

 

[NCBDTeam]

funny and true. I'll have to spread out to the outlying farm towns and see what's for sale there. Probably just all a bunch of Walmart bags like in my hometown I grew up in...where fake purse parties are the social highlight.

Thats TOO funny!!! Cause ITS TRUE!!! I see more knock offs here than I have every seen!! What I do is go to the small towns with a bunch of "old southern money" hehehe they always have good stuff they dont care about

 

[Jessi319]

Others have mentioned before how great a Dremel can be when polishing the brass on bags. I swear I won't be able to go back to all hand polishing after using this thing!! My husband's grandfathers 35 year old Dremel was tucked away and I FINALLY found it and tested it out!

BEFORE
and this is after I'd polished it 2 weeks ago.

By jessi319 at 2012-07-13

AFTERS

By jessi319 at 2012-07-13

By jessi319 at 2012-07-13​

 

[ledobe]

Others have mentioned before how great a Dremel can be when polishing the brass on bags. I swear I won't be able to go back to all hand polishing after using this thing!! My husband's grandfathers 35 year old Dremel was tucked away and I FINALLY found it and tested it out!

BEFORE
and this is after I'd polished it 2 weeks ago.

By jessi319 at 2012-07-13

AFTERS

By jessi319 at 2012-07-13

By jessi319 at 2012-07-13​

did you have to do that? I've been purposely ignoring all this obssessive metal polishing business because it doesn't sound like very much fun to me.

and yes, we have a dremel (try to name tool my husband doesn't have.) I don't know if or what my husband used it for, but I used to use it on the dogs nails.

In otherwords, looks great. darn it.

 

[Jessi319]

I resisted digging the thing out because I didn't want to add yet more "tools" to an already crowded messy utility room. But I love it!! I specifically am trying to fix up a NYC era Convertible Clutch. She had some issues and even with all my photo-lab earned color-match skills, she's been a challenge to spot touch because the patina colorization is all over the place! But here's a glimpse with dremel-poliished turnlock. The dog leash clips are seemingly original to the the bag though unusual, very aged and pitted (HARD to polish even with Dremel) so I'll ask Hyacinth about it.


Progession of some spot touch-up/ fixing and front view of bag:

By jessi319 at 2012-07-13

By jessi319 at 2012-07-13

By jessi319 at 2012-07-13​

[CENTER

By jessi319 at 2012-07-13][/CENTER]

 

[whateve]

Others have mentioned before how great a Dremel can be when polishing the brass on bags. I swear I won't be able to go back to all hand polishing after using this thing!! My husband's grandfathers 35 year old Dremel was tucked away and I FINALLY found it and tested it out!

BEFORE
and this is after I'd polished it 2 weeks ago.

By jessi319 at 2012-07-13

AFTERS

By jessi319 at 2012-07-13

By jessi319 at 2012-07-13​

I really don't want to start doing this. How hard is it to remove them?

 

[Jessi319]

I really don't want to start doing this. How hard is it to remove them?

I am not that good at it yet! It's not that hard in theory, but it's all about the right tools. I think Katev has done it more than I have, and therefore may have perfected the tools needed to make it smooth. I practiced on a fake bag. The little teeth holding down the turnlocks can be so tight that there's virtually NO surface edge to slip something under to pry it upwards with. Basically I just take the thinnest strongest flat edged doohickey/tool you can find (me, various sized tiny flat screwdrivers in which I managed to still scratch the hell out of the brass with). And to re-install, I"d re-press the turnlocks fasteners back down to flatten them, I used pliers to bend them back in a more "closed" position, then just used whatever was sitting around that had enough weight to push against the tabs to close it as tight as possible. I doubt I got it as tightly installed as it was done by the factory though. But it sure is easier to clean them and of course it's full of tarnish and some verdigris .

 

[katev]

I really don't want to start doing this. How hard is it to remove them?

I am not that good at it yet! It's not that hard in theory, but it's all about the right tools. I think Katev has done it more than I have, and therefore may have perfected the tools needed to make it smooth. I practiced on a fake bag. The little teeth holding down the turnlocks can be so tight that there's virtually NO surface edge to slip something under to pry it upwards with. Basically I just take the thinnest strongest flat edged doohickey/tool you can find (me, various sized tiny flat screwdrivers in which I managed to still scratch the hell out of the brass with). And to re-install, I"d re-press the turnlocks fasteners back down to flatten them, I used pliers to bend them back in a more "closed" position, then just used whatever was sitting around that had enough weight to push against the tabs to close it as tight as possible. I doubt I got it as tightly installed as it was done by the factory though. But it sure is easier to clean them and of course it's full of tarnish and some verdigris .

I've only removed the turnlock hardware on 3 or 4 bags, but it wasn't hard and it makes it much easier to clean the hardware and condition the bag. I follow DemRam's directions when I do it, see below.

dstalksalot was the first person to recommend both Wenol metal polish and use of a dremel, and she was right on both counts!

From DemRam:
"My husband has an X-acto set that has various shaped blades. The blades are very thin so I used the widest one (east-west) to gently pry up the "tabs" on the back of both parts of the turnlocks. (It's amazing how easy it is to get both parts of those old turnlocks off)

You can pry gently and jiggle them around so that they aren't too bent. I wouldn't want to do this more than once on a turnlock...because the brass may just snap.

When I got the turnlock parts off of my little Dinky bag, I couldn't believe how much "gunk" was underneath. (The leather was just yucky under the brass and no amount of cleaning from the outside would get rid of the green stuff).

Once the brass was removed, I cleaned them with Brasso and let them sit for days... until the bag was bathed, clean and completely dry.

When the bag was dry, I did the reverse and put the brass parts back on. I now have a shiny, clean, tiny little Dinky bag."

 

[chowlover2]

Others have mentioned before how great a Dremel can be when polishing the brass on bags. I swear I won't be able to go back to all hand polishing after using this thing!! My husband's grandfathers 35 year old Dremel was tucked away and I FINALLY found it and tested it out!

BEFORE
and this is after I'd polished it 2 weeks ago.

By jessi319 at 2012-07-13​

AFTERS

By jessi319 at 2012-07-13

By jessi319 at 2012-07-13​

WOW! I can't even believe it is the same turnlock as before, what a difference!

 

[Jessi319]

I bet an Xacto knife is definitely what I need. I worried that the knife's blades would snap, but its thin blades would be much better to pull up on those teeth. Here's one more little Dremel project I"m trying. I do notice that when tarnish is truly gone it polishes up perfectly, but it seems to "bake" some lingering tarnish after the polish has been driven off, and thus blackens some spots while it's polishing elsewhere. Not sure if others have run into this phenomenon, but just a bit of back and forth with the dremel and a qtip full of polish removing what the dremel didn't remove seems to be working. I will ultimately run some brass polish and a white cloth-post dremel- to finalize these buckles.

By jessi319 at 2012-07-13​