Coach Rehab and Rescue Club

[Denise-WestAust]

As the Kiwi in the forum...I understand shipping woes intimately.

I try and get the large CPR conditioner when I can get enough to get the free shipping on Anazon. Sometimes going half with another friend her in NZ. Have you thought of that?
Maybe there's another Coachie is Aussie that you can talk to?

Hi Narnanz
Nice to hear from a neighbour. I spent a lot of time visiting family and holidaying in the South Island in years past, but not recently. You live in a beautiful country.

I am generally pretty happy with free shipping from Amazon and I don't know anyone else close to me that is a Coachie (yet). I was lucky with CPR and got that free shipping, I don't know how much you pay, but it was A$64.99. I'm sure those in the US will cringe at that price, but that's like for us, isn't it? I can only dream about picking up a bargain vintage bag in a thrift shop. I think my odds here would be about the same as winning lotto.

I have also purchased Leather Honey but a bit worried about using it on old bags with some of the comments I have read, but I've read good and bad about CPR too. Live and learn I guess.

 

[ConnieinSeattle]

Started work on restoring the ripped corner on the limited edition 9477 bag. To replace the missing plastic piece and close the rip. I'm using a piece of plastic coated garden wire. It can bend in shape to the corner, and it's about the right thickness. I glued that in place with leather glue, and now i'm doing the first layer of filler product. Here's the corner in process:

 

[Narnanz]

Hi Narnanz
Nice to hear from a neighbour. I spent a lot of time visiting family and holidaying in the South Island in years past, but not recently. You live in a beautiful country.

I am generally pretty happy with free shipping from Amazon and I don't know anyone else close to me that is a Coachie (yet). I was lucky with CPR and got that free shipping, I don't know how much you pay, but it was A$64.99. I'm sure those in the US will cringe at that price, but that's like for us, isn't it? I can only dream about picking up a bargain vintage bag in a thrift shop. I think my odds here would be about the same as winning lotto.

I have also purchased Leather Honey but a bit worried about using it on old bags with some of the comments I have read, but I've read good and bad about CPR too. Live and learn I guess.

Last time I got an order from Amazon free shipping. I had the large CPR, Bick 4 , Bick Exotic cleaner/conditioner..it came to about $116NZ. ...which was much better than the large CPR from the actual manufacturer which cost me about $88NZ including shipping.
We have to choose our battle.
I don't buy vintage Coach from ebay anymore. Shipping is between $80 -$100 . It's not worth it.
.
I was in Sydney in October to see Stray Kids. Loved it.

 

[squeakyrose]

Quick update on British Tan color matches, with thanks to @nursebetty and @desumiye along with so much other stellar input before —

If it’s helpful to anyone else, here’s a pic of Meltonian in Cognac and London Tan. I played with them mixed together in different unscientific ratios (measured in dabs), sometimes adding a drop of CPR, to improve a few lighter areas on the 80s USA BT Swagger. This included a fairly large lightened “bullseye” where a prior owner had unsuccessfully attempted to remove a tiny dark spot.

I tried a few different techniques to apply and, for this BT for these purposes, stippling with 1/8” paint brush was perfect. I would absolutely agree with prior posters, go in layers, let dry at least overnight to see true finished color. Worked brilliantly! With these two colors ($9 each from Amzn US) I think you can mix to work with almost any shade of vintage BT.

I have Saphir Renovatrice in Cognac 10 and Brown 4 on the way to experiment with worn corners on a different bag. I also plan to compare with the Saphir Medaille line when I get a chance.

 

[shanmac]

I have the curse of the never-ending ink blot on a recently thrifted coach. Thought I could get it out by blotting with isopropyl alcohol but I think the ink runs too deep, and all it did was lift dye and spread the ink further. I guess I have three options moving forward: leave it alone, try to remove as much as possible and paint or dye over it, or take it to a cobbler. Any thoughts?

 

[squeakyrose]

I have the curse of the never-ending ink blot on a recently thrifted coach. Thought I could get it out by blotting with isopropyl alcohol but I think the ink runs too deep, and all it did was lift dye and spread the ink further. I guess I have three options moving forward: leave it alone, try to remove as much as possible and paint or dye over it, or take it to a cobbler. Any thoughts?
View attachment 6118045

Ugh, so sorry. If you’re ready for last ditch efforts there are a few suggestions I’ve seen in the archives. From the pics it looks like it starts on the inside (like most do). I haven’t dealt with a big blot yet but I’ve read here on the forum that some rehabbers have had luck pouring boiling water through the leather from the opposite side to rinse it through and out. (So in this case you would turn it inside out first.) Or Renomat or Amodex, which both get mixed reports on heavy ink but some people have reported success. I also have The Leather Touch Up brand Ink Remover on my list to try for ink bc TPFers have liked other products in the line. There are many, many rehabbers with far more ink experience here than I, so definitely see what others have to say! Good luck!

 

[desumiye]

Quick update on British Tan color matches, with thanks to @nursebetty and @desumiye along with so much other stellar input before —

If it’s helpful to anyone else, here’s a pic of Meltonian in Cognac and London Tan. I played with them mixed together in different unscientific ratios (measured in dabs), sometimes adding a drop of CPR, to improve a few lighter areas on the 80s USA BT Swagger. This included a fairly large lightened “bullseye” where a prior owner had unsuccessfully attempted to remove a tiny dark spot.

I tried a few different techniques to apply and, for this BT for these purposes, stippling with 1/8” paint brush was perfect. I would absolutely agree with prior posters, go in layers, let dry at least overnight to see true finished color. Worked brilliantly! With these two colors ($9 each from Amzn US) I think you can mix to work with almost any shade of vintage BT.

I have Saphir Renovatrice in Cognac 10 and Brown 4 on the way to experiment with worn corners on a different bag. I also plan to compare with the Saphir Medaille line when I get a chance.

Thank you so much for your feedback! I have to admit, I once purchased the Meltonian brand and couldn't get past the smell. 🫣 Given your result, I may go back and revisit the brand!! Excellent work 😍

 

[desumiye]

I have the curse of the never-ending ink blot on a recently thrifted coach. Thought I could get it out by blotting with isopropyl alcohol but I think the ink runs too deep, and all it did was lift dye and spread the ink further. I guess I have three options moving forward: leave it alone, try to remove as much as possible and paint or dye over it, or take it to a cobbler. Any thoughts?
View attachment 6118045

I think you can get to the other side of this one. I can share with you my own experience with an ink stain. I purchased a Forest Green Station bag with a heavy ink stain on the lower part of the front pocket a while back. Someone definitely tried to remove it, it spread a bit, got horrified and sold it to me. So in both of our cases, it's already been worked on. I personally have more money to pay in sweat equity for bags I want than cash so here we went. I tried basically everything, started with Amodex. In my case it spread the stain, but lessened it. This was a few times, over a few weeks. I then went to stronger ideas such benzoyl peroxide, and later alcohol, and acetone (from the inside). There are many suggestions here ranging from mild to more severe I would try in that order! There were days when I thought it was getting worse, but allowed it to dry out (take pictures as you go), reassess and then next step. I can lend you some hairdresser experience here: you must lift the color enough (without damaging the integrity of the leather) to then deposit the tone you want for the end result. Color won't lighten color (unless you resort to paint), so you must lift first. In my case a little easier because blue (ink) is in the green color family, and the color isn't as light as yours. I believe if you keep going you will spread it a bit further, but it won't go past the bottom panel anyway, keep going. Take your time. Once you think you're in the ballpark, I would dunk, it should help remove all the products and even out the tone, and then you can go about re-pigmenting with a conditioning cream, etc.. I look forward to the finish no matter what happens!

 

[squeakyrose]

Thank you so much for your feedback! I have to admit, I once purchased the Meltonian brand and couldn't get past the smell. 🫣 Given your result, I may go back and revisit the brand!! Excellent work 😍

Thanks! It’s funny about Meltonian’s smell, I know many people like you don’t like it at all. To me all I smell is the beeswax and I actually think it smells good. 😄 I’m doing another little bag with their Camel 089 as I sit here!

 

[pammbw]

I have the curse of the never-ending ink blot on a recently thrifted coach. Thought I could get it out by blotting with isopropyl alcohol but I think the ink runs too deep, and all it did was lift dye and spread the ink further. I guess I have three options moving forward: leave it alone, try to remove as much as possible and paint or dye over it, or take it to a cobbler. Any thoughts?
View attachment 6118045

I’ve had one bag with an ink stain. It started out pretty small so I had high hopes that I could get it out, but the ink gods smote me and the minute I started working on it, the darn thing bloomed and grew 3 times its size. I kept blotting and blotting, amazed at how much ink can be hiding inside the leather. I ended up dyeing the bag. My advice is to get as much out as possible, and then dye it to cover the color loss. Lots of creative ways to deal with ink stains. You could dye/paint just the bottom panels to do a color block effect, and maybe paint the piping a contrast color. Could be a really awesome bag!

 

[shanmac]

I think you can get to the other side of this one. I can share with you my own experience with an ink stain. I purchased a Forest Green Station bag with a heavy ink stain on the lower part of the front pocket a while back. Someone definitely tried to remove it, it spread a bit, got horrified and sold it to me. So in both of our cases, it's already been worked on. I personally have more money to pay in sweat equity for bags I want than cash so here we went. I tried basically everything, started with Amodex. In my case it spread the stain, but lessened it. This was a few times, over a few weeks. I then went to stronger ideas such benzoyl peroxide, and later alcohol, and acetone (from the inside). There are many suggestions here ranging from mild to more severe I would try in that order! There were days when I thought it was getting worse, but allowed it to dry out (take pictures as you go), reassess and then next step. I can lend you some hairdresser experience here: you must lift the color enough (without damaging the integrity of the leather) to then deposit the tone you want for the end result. Color won't lighten color (unless you resort to paint), so you must lift first. In my case a little easier because blue (ink) is in the green color family, and the color isn't as light as yours. I believe if you keep going you will spread it a bit further, but it won't go past the bottom panel anyway, keep going. Take your time. Once you think you're in the ballpark, I would dunk, it should help remove all the products and even out the tone, and then you can go about re-pigmenting with a conditioning cream, etc.. I look forward to the finish no matter what happens!

Thank you for your advice! I know this will take a looooooooot of elbow grease and I won't have results right away, and honestly, I did get scared when the ink started to spread. I'm a little worried I will damage the leather before ever getting this stain out. Do you know where I can find a color match for British tan for leather dyes/paint?

 

[katev]

I have the curse of the never-ending ink blot on a recently thrifted coach. Thought I could get it out by blotting with isopropyl alcohol but I think the ink runs too deep, and all it did was lift dye and spread the ink further. I guess I have three options moving forward: leave it alone, try to remove as much as possible and paint or dye over it, or take it to a cobbler. Any thoughts?
View attachment 6118045

Just to let you know, many years ago I bought a nice, vintage, putty-colored Coach tote. It was made in the US and it was a Light Tote, style 4065.

It was inexpensive but it had a lot of stains and imperfections, not ink, but there was an ugly big stain that was visible both inside and outside of the bag. I made several attempts to rehab it and I did make it look better, but still not good enough that I would feel comfortable carrying it.

I finally took it to a cobbler and asked him to dye it black, but I overlooked an important point. He did dye the outside of the bag black and also the inside zip pocket black and the bag looked much better, but he left the inside of the bag the original color - so it was still ugly on the inside and I still saw that hideous big spot everytime I opened the bag!

So, if you decide to dye the bag, or have it dyed professionally, you may want to make sure that it is dyed both inside and out! You can see before and after pics of my poor, beat-up putty tote at the link below; good luck!.

Dying a Vintage Coach Bag - Before and After Pics

In September I bought a "Made in the United States" large putty tote at the Savers Thrift Store for $13. Hyacinth authenticated it and told me that "It's called a Light Tote, style 4065 from the Lightweights line, probably right around 1990 give or take a year. It has an industrial-style...

forum.purseblog.com

 

[ConnieinSeattle]

Working the rip. Looking better... This is an absolutely gorgeous bag.

 

[mandy nicole]

Once again I forgot to take “before” photos, but I’m not sure that it would have much impact as this Abbie zip in Bone was in fairly good condition when I got her.

There was a reddish discoloration on bottom corner that I used Saphir Juvacuir in “Creme” in very thin layers, gently tapped. I did not go for full coverage because the shade of Juvacuir is a shade lighter than the rest of the purse. I figured, just get it ‘close enough’ that it’s not noticeable from a distance, and that would be good enough. You can see “close up” and “from a distance” as last two photos to see what I mean.

 

[Denise-WestAust]

How do you know when enough is enough conditioner?

As I am new to owning pre-loved bags, I have a lot to learn. I have purchased a large tote and with the side snaps open it easily accommodates a A4 ring binder need to cart around to/from work everyday. I think it is called a Hampton Business Tote, there are some satchels in a 2006 catalogue that look similar. I have tried looking at the creed in different lighting conditions and taken an assortment of photos to see it I can work it from them, but I can't. Best I can work out is A06 ? -5749

This bag is pebbled leather, but I don't know how that leather should feel. It is not a structured bag, so put it down and it is floppy. The leather is flexible (ie there are no cracks or stiff bits to it), it feels soft but sort of powdery. I hope this description makes sense to someone.

I have conditioned it with Leather CPR but is still feels the same. Should it feel like this or do you think should I apply more conditioner?

How do you know when you have used too much conditioner? (as a guideline for any bag)

Thanks, Denise