Looking good.
About 6 CPR coats. Repaired rivet.
About 6 CPR coats. Repaired rivet.
Coach Rehab and Rescue Club
- Thread starter greenpixie
- Start date
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Rivet kit.
I've never been concerned about originality..just wanted it to be secure.
It's another part of its history.
I didn't want to buy a riveter so I used a screw on type once. It worked fine.
I've got those but didn't want to have to widen the hole to get the who-gi-whats-it in.
Spent yesterday evening doing some clean up work on my compact slim satchel. I’d reached out for advice on how to clean out the verdigris in the rings so decided to tackle that. Turns out the bag needed a lot more than that (it was in the listing but I must’ve blocked it out in the eagerness to get the bag). There was verdigris through the entire zipper, on the outside and really intensely on the inner parts of the zipper. The whole area felt a bit… not sticky exactly.. I guess tacky? I wish I’d taken before pictures - random sticky marks on the inside, like the entire fabric part of the zipper had dark black residue of some sort. I really don’t know how to describe it. And it was also very dry in random parts I hadn’t noticed before.
Anyway, I went to town with diluted Lexol #1, soaked a microfiber cloth in it and just progressively rubbed the zipper to get rid of the black gunk and also used a cloth to rub the verdigris. Used the toothpick suggestion to try and scrape out the verdigris in the rings, and followed up with a q-tip and vinegar (had to also use a toothpick and a paper towel for the tighter rings). Happened to have some polishing cloths to finish up the zippers and all the hardware.
Used the diluted Lexol #1 on all the leather parts. Then rubbed Bick4 on the leather. Buffed with the horsehair brush.
Truly stumbled my way through this but I have to say, the bag feels so different now. The gumminess is gone. Verdigris mostly gone (still a little in a couple of the rings but I’m not sure how to get them out).
The only before/in-progress pics I got (featuring verdigris and cloth covered in the weird black gunk on the zipper):
Very grateful for this forum and all the tips and experience you all share! Some after pics:
Anyway, I went to town with diluted Lexol #1, soaked a microfiber cloth in it and just progressively rubbed the zipper to get rid of the black gunk and also used a cloth to rub the verdigris. Used the toothpick suggestion to try and scrape out the verdigris in the rings, and followed up with a q-tip and vinegar (had to also use a toothpick and a paper towel for the tighter rings). Happened to have some polishing cloths to finish up the zippers and all the hardware.
Used the diluted Lexol #1 on all the leather parts. Then rubbed Bick4 on the leather. Buffed with the horsehair brush.
Truly stumbled my way through this but I have to say, the bag feels so different now. The gumminess is gone. Verdigris mostly gone (still a little in a couple of the rings but I’m not sure how to get them out).
The only before/in-progress pics I got (featuring verdigris and cloth covered in the weird black gunk on the zipper):
Very grateful for this forum and all the tips and experience you all share! Some after pics:
Love when they look like the old catalog drawings
You didn't dunk? It looks really good, much better than I expected you could get without dunking. I never would have thought to use lexol on the zipper. Did it discolor the fabric at all?
Didn’t dunk! Considered it but wanted to try this way and see how it went. And thank you so much. To be honest, the zipper teeth and the fabric around it had so much of the green all over, I didn’t even consider possible discoloration. Fortunately, I don’t think the color changed 🙌
Beautiful work! Amazing you could get it looking that good without a dunk (I’m a dunk-everything girl 😊). We can all appreciate how much time and care it must have taken to clean up all that residue and verdigris. I have some really beautiful rehab bags with really bad verdigris that I’ve been pretending not to see in my bag closet. Inspired to tackle!
You’ve reminded me how much I love the duffles. I’ve no business buying anymore bags right now but I’m on the hunt nonetheless. 😂
Speaking of "duffles," next in my rehab lineup: small duffle sac, from 2002. 
Here she is! Dunked and scrubbed, including the lining, which had really horrible ink stains. Ink had transferred to the exterior as well. Leather CPR applications and some edgekote on the strap sides and near the buckles. Blackrock. The lining still looks sort of bad but at least it's clean (er).Speaking of "duffles," next in my rehab lineup: small duffle sac, from 2002.
View attachment 6188047
I've just completed a challenging rehab. I wasn't very enthusiatic about attempting the rehab but my friend asked me to give it a try. The bag belongs to her elderly Aunt and she said that "her Aunt loved it and carried it everywhere for years" but it was badly soiled and marked.
I've had some poor outcomes after attempting to rehab other light-colored bags that were dirty and stained, but I agreed to give it a try to salvage this bag, because my friend was hoping that her Aunt would be able to carry it again.
The bag is an Ava Crossgrain Tote F57526 that was made in 2017. I'm not sure of the color but I've been calling it "Blush" with gold hardware. It is a very pretty color and it is a nice-sized, MFF, zipper tote.
Here are the before pictures and you can see that it is very dirty, spotted and stained, and the lining has a lot of pen marks. Also, the handles were cracked and frayed, the bottom corners were worn, and the hang-tag is missing. I will post the after pics with the next message.
I've had some poor outcomes after attempting to rehab other light-colored bags that were dirty and stained, but I agreed to give it a try to salvage this bag, because my friend was hoping that her Aunt would be able to carry it again.
The bag is an Ava Crossgrain Tote F57526 that was made in 2017. I'm not sure of the color but I've been calling it "Blush" with gold hardware. It is a very pretty color and it is a nice-sized, MFF, zipper tote.
Here are the before pictures and you can see that it is very dirty, spotted and stained, and the lining has a lot of pen marks. Also, the handles were cracked and frayed, the bottom corners were worn, and the hang-tag is missing. I will post the after pics with the next message.
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Oh, wow, I wouldn't have wanted to take that on either!