Almost all of my bags are rescued!
I'm currently in the process of restoring my Black Epi and Blue Vachetta Raspail (France, February 1992). I should be done with the restore by tonight though, I'm only re-lining the zipper pocket with a blue silk suede fabric (the inside is the same blue leather that is on the front of the bag) in order to make it usable again (aka covering up the black stickyness), going to polish all of the leather, color in any scuff or scratches with leather stain pens (although there are barely any flaws), polishing the brass hardware, and I have already made the zipper run easier by running some bar soap over it. It is by far, my favorite LV bag.
I also have rescued these:
For the top two bags, the Mono Raspail (top right, France, February 1992), Mono and the Mono Concorde (top left, France, September 1989), I relined the inside of each zipper pocket, using a dark clay colored silk suede fabric, polished both bags all over, colored in some scuffs and scratches on their trims with leather stain pens, polished the brass hardware, and ran some bar soap over all zippers in order to make them run more smoothly. I also added an adjustable vintage LV cross-body strap (in the same darker colored leather w/ a buckle) to the Concorde.
The Mono Pochette Bordeaux (center, France, January 1984), required a lot more work. I had to reinforce the straps where they snap into the bag with additional leather. That leather then was colored with leather stain pens. After I finally managed to match the new leather color to the original leather, I also re-lined the zipper pocket (with the same fabric as the Mono Raspail and Mono Concorde), ran some soap over the zipper, polished the brass hardware, and colored in all of the scuffs and scratches.
Lots of work, but definitely worth it--a little extra work means that you can carry a unique vintage bag that no one has ever seen before!
