I’m a new rehabber but the ladies here will have good advice. I’m in the middle of rehabbing a dark brown bag that had similar corner wear, I just posted pics yesterday so they should only be a page or 2 back in this thread. After a bath and a couple of coats of conditioner the color has come back on the worn corners. It’s not perfect but looks really good. I have read that using a matching acrylic paint mixed with conditioner will help camouflage the worn parts. I doubt I’ll need to do that to mine but I will reevaluate once I have all layers of conditioner on and the bag is fully dry.
Coach Rehab and Rescue Club
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I’m a new rehabber but the ladies here will have good advice. I’m in the middle of rehabbing a dark brown bag that had similar corner wear, I just posted pics yesterday so they should only be a page or 2 back in this thread. After a bath and a couple of coats of conditioner the color has come back on the worn corners. It’s not perfect but looks really good. I have read that using a matching acrylic paint mixed with conditioner will help camouflage the worn parts. I doubt I’ll need to do that to mine but I will reevaluate once I have all layers of conditioner on and the bag is fully dry.
That’s not bad at all. I re-dye my blacks and dark browns because they are a lot more forgiving than tans. Dyes take on the characteristics of the leather so it does not completely cover stains on light colored bags. I had great successes with blacks and dark browns. Here is a picture of my first rehab
https://forum.purseblog.com/threads/coach-rehab-and-rescue-club.833400/page-1146#post-32472899
If the bag is black and IF you need to paint anything like corners or repairs, I recommend something called Leather Paint. They sell it on Amazon. Its a semi-gloss acrylic. It blended in to my Willis so beautifully. No need to use more than a couple coats, either. When it dries, you can put conditioner over it and you'd never know it was there.
They need to bring this back! I feel like most people prefer gray with silver or dark hardware but I think it looks so chic with brass.
Starting my newest project right now. My bone Court is currently soaking as I type this. My fiance got me some gifts today to aid in my dunking -- a bottle of Dawn and a new blue bucket! I had issues with our sink draining too fast (even when using the stopper) the last time, so he figures a bucket would work better. No draining! The only issue with that is making sure the thing is clean each time, but I'd have to do that with the sink, too.
Anyway, she is completely submerged and soaking. Here's some "before" pics. Note the bottom, and how it's a bit stained. That started coming out when I scrubbed with my brush. I have hope! Lol.
Anyway, she is completely submerged and soaking. Here's some "before" pics. Note the bottom, and how it's a bit stained. That started coming out when I scrubbed with my brush. I have hope! Lol.

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Thanks. How did you know you needed to dye? Did you try to wash and condition it first to see how it looked or did you just know?
Do I go through the cleaning and conditioning process first and see how it looks and then if it doesn’t look great, doI start over with dunking or do the paint on top of the conditioner and then condition again? Sorry for all of the questions.
Yes. Clean and condition first.. Always, always. Go through the whole process of cleaning and conditioning. If you find that area is still faded, then paint. Be sure it matches everywhere. If you paint accidentally on a non faded area, that's okay. Be sure to let it dry. The bottle says to give it two days. Then you can condition over it if you want to.
That doesn't look bad at all. Conditioning should be all you need. If you feel you have to use paint or dye, just a drop of acrylic craft paint mixed into a lot of conditioner is enough.
I consider Leather Honey to be a heavy duty conditioner. I only use it on very dry bags, and I usually only do one coat before switching over the Leather CPR. A few coats is probably enough. I would let the bag rest for a few days and see how the leather feels. If it feels supple, then I would use Blackrock Leather n Rich for the final conditioning.
I am new to rehabbing and my second bag has been a really weird experience! I’m not sure what to make of it. On my first rehab— a black stewardess from 1999 made in Costa Rica— I gave it a bath with minimal discoloration of the bath water, then dried and shaped, and finished with brasso and apple leather care. It came out great!
The second bag was a black rambler made in 1999 in Mexico. It was much blacker than the first, but I didn’t really notice. I gave it a bath, and a little scrub, and started to notice an unpleasant odor, so I rubbed in some bac-out and baking soda and left it to soak.
When I started rinsing it, black water was just pouring out, no matter how many times I rinsed it. So I really scrubbed the insides to try and get the excess off, but after about ten minutes the water was no clearer, so I just gave up and decided I’d let it dry and see how it turned out. (Plus I had to scour the white countertop to get all the little black water spots out. Ack!)
Anyway, I think that the bag had probably been re-dyed black at some point, and that was the weird smell. (That’s my theory anyway.)
So I have it drying and I just went to check on the progress, and I notice that THE CREED HAS DISAPPEARED! If you hold it just right you can see where it was with just slight indentions remaining.
I guess that the dyeing plus my vigorous scrubbing must have smoothed the leather out...? You’d think it was probably a fake, but comparing it to the stewardess from the same year, all the hardware matches exactly, and the (former) creed matched other ramblers from the Mexican plant that year.... It’s soooo bizarre.
Has anyone else had a similar experience??
The second bag was a black rambler made in 1999 in Mexico. It was much blacker than the first, but I didn’t really notice. I gave it a bath, and a little scrub, and started to notice an unpleasant odor, so I rubbed in some bac-out and baking soda and left it to soak.
When I started rinsing it, black water was just pouring out, no matter how many times I rinsed it. So I really scrubbed the insides to try and get the excess off, but after about ten minutes the water was no clearer, so I just gave up and decided I’d let it dry and see how it turned out. (Plus I had to scour the white countertop to get all the little black water spots out. Ack!)
Anyway, I think that the bag had probably been re-dyed black at some point, and that was the weird smell. (That’s my theory anyway.)
So I have it drying and I just went to check on the progress, and I notice that THE CREED HAS DISAPPEARED! If you hold it just right you can see where it was with just slight indentions remaining.
I guess that the dyeing plus my vigorous scrubbing must have smoothed the leather out...? You’d think it was probably a fake, but comparing it to the stewardess from the same year, all the hardware matches exactly, and the (former) creed matched other ramblers from the Mexican plant that year.... It’s soooo bizarre.
Has anyone else had a similar experience??
I've had creeds almost disappear but more often on lightweight leather or lined bags. It might come back some after it dries completely.
I go through the process of dunking and conditioning first. After the bag has been conditioned and dried, I assess if a dye touch up is needed.
I have a grey Willis with nickel hardware. I wish it was brass lol