Coach Rehab and Rescue Club
- Thread starter greenpixie
- Start date
TPF may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others
It's a bit stiff, but not much stiffer than any other bag that's dunked. I'll brush it and report back.
Got this beauty, and in the first 30 minutes of my ownership put two stains on it. The small one is oil, but the one near the buckle strap is pure water. A drop dried out, but left a stain. Question: had anyone try dunking a red bag from early 1970s? I am hoping it’ll help with the stains and with the shape too (the bag is totally flattened). On the other hand, I really don’t want to make it worse. And does it mean I should avoid rain with this one?
I have dunked early 70s bags but I try to avoid it. Expect the red dye to run. The water stain should go away with dunking, but probably not the oil stain. Maybe if you get to the oil stain quickly, though, it might come out. You could also try to clean the bag with vinegar. I think it would work with the water stain. The brass will probably tarnish if dunked but since it is solid brass, it should shine up okay.
I would dunk it without a second thought. And then give it some hefty conditioner such as Obenauf's which helps water proof it a little.
Any conditioner will provide some water protection. Blackrocks will water proof too and any darkening is usually temporary.
See the link below for before and after pics of 3 NYC 1980s bags, all in the red family, that I rehabbed. They were all dirty so they all got a bath and they came out well. The water turned red which was scary but the bags still kept their color. I think it would be fine to dunk your 1970s red bag:
https://forum.purseblog.com/threads/red-hot-in-nyc-three-bag-rehab-reveal.755638/
It's been years since I dunked and rehabbed a bag, but I found a great project bag, thanks to the authenticators here. This is a Patricia's Legacy bag made in Costa Rica, nice thick leather. It reminds me of the classic-style saddle bags that Coach released a couple of years ago. I had one that I used for almost a year daily, but a couple of times the strap undid itself, and I decided I'd rather look for an older original bag. This one was from Ebay. It arrived folded in half and crushed into a flat-rate Tyvek shipping envelope. 
But it didn't matter much, because I cleaned the kitchen sink and dunked it along with some Mrs. Meyer's soap. I didn't have Dawn or scentless soap on hand, but I decided to go ahead. I got lucky in the sense that the bag is really in great shape overall, though flattened from packing and storage, but no perfume or cigarette smells, and only minimal lint. It is draining now and will get stuffed with terry rags to dry and shape overnight. You can see how the water did pick up some dye, but not too badly.
I forgot to mention - the only weird thing is that the top flap in particular had this horrible gel-like feeling as I squished the soapy water through and agitated it. I wonder if it's full of silicone conditioners. The nap of the sueded side kept holding onto the soapy water and feeling like jelly when I tried to squish it. Sounds yucky, I know, but otherwise looks and feels like a great bag now that it's clean!
But it didn't matter much, because I cleaned the kitchen sink and dunked it along with some Mrs. Meyer's soap. I didn't have Dawn or scentless soap on hand, but I decided to go ahead. I got lucky in the sense that the bag is really in great shape overall, though flattened from packing and storage, but no perfume or cigarette smells, and only minimal lint. It is draining now and will get stuffed with terry rags to dry and shape overnight. You can see how the water did pick up some dye, but not too badly.
I forgot to mention - the only weird thing is that the top flap in particular had this horrible gel-like feeling as I squished the soapy water through and agitated it. I wonder if it's full of silicone conditioners. The nap of the sueded side kept holding onto the soapy water and feeling like jelly when I tried to squish it. Sounds yucky, I know, but otherwise looks and feels like a great bag now that it's clean!
Last edited:
Also, I miss some of the members who posted a lot a couple of years ago and who shared their accumulated wisdom, so thank you to Jessi319, Joodlz, and Ledobe for all their help. I'm glad to see many of the other experienced rehabbers are still here. Things change, and schedules, availability, and commitments evolve, so I wish everybody well no matter what they are doing today.
Thank you! This is my first red bag, but I previously rehabbed one for a friend - was walking around red-handed for a week. But that bag was fine after drying and conditioning. I wasn’t so lucky with a burgundy clutch where the color never set and continued to rub off even after Blackrocks. After that I was afraid to touch burgundy, but I recently did one from the same era, and it turned out OK.
I think I’ll take the plunge.