Club Obi Wan

Hi... my first post (wooh! )

I've found a MkVII bag in a shop nearby (I've asked the guy to hold it for me for a day or two), but it's not in the greatest shape.

1) The snaps and vent holes are not shiny like pictures on the site here - they're dark (rust, I guess). The ring strap holders are the same.
2) The bag has some rust marks on the front
3) It's tan, not green.

Good points... physically, the bag is fine (no holes, tears, etc...), and it's cheap (certainly less than £10).

How easy / feasible would it be to get this bag up to a good-looking state? Can the snaps and other metal pieces be rescued and returned to the shiny brass originals? Will the bag be easy to dye? Can the rust marks be removed?

lol - so many questions... basically, is it worth my while buying this bag, or should I let it pass me by and continue looking?

Thanks very much

I would say yes go ahead and buy it. For less than £10 its a steal. The rust stains could probably come out mine did when I gave it a wash. The snaps could be buffed up abit using a little brasso or you could replace them. I was able to pick up some similar type at a leather dealership.

IHS,

Welcome to the Forum. The bag sounds like a good one. It can be redyed, as discussed in many previous posts, to the more authentic green shade. For a distressed Indy-like look, you may consider leaving the snaps and drain holes as is. Sounds like it has character, IMO. If you can pick it up for less than 10 quid, I say go for it. When I was in London, I spent over 20 Pound on a MarkVI, and thought it was worth it. If it's cheap, even if it's not GREAT, it sounds worth it. If you decide against it, lemme know, I might just get it

I used steel wool to clean up the metal hardware on my Mk VII. I'd try this before replacing them.

The first thing I have to say is do not redye your authentic MKVII! Just what I think... Different bags were used in different movies and even perhaps different shots in my opinion. The ToD version has always been a dirty "tan" one to me, a bit like my bag found in this link:

http://www.indygear.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3937

Compared to the image below it looks pretty close:


I redyed my WPG bag shown in this thread with pleasant results.
As for the buttons, the vent holes, the rings and the disk I agree with PBG using steel wool. I even found steel wool with soap in it for easy removal of the rust stains, easy as pie and good as new with still some distressing left in there. (The disk and the ring strap holders are supposed to be black, don't worry about it.)

The bag can take as many washings as you would like, at least my authentic one does allthough the WPG one shrunk a bit hightwise when redyeing it using a higher temperature than I should have.

Also, the original strap doesn't have to be removed by cutting it off.
Just remove the stitches in case you'd ever want to place it back on!
There are still collectors out there wanting to use it for reenactment...

Congratulations on finding your bag, I know you'll love it.


Regards,
/Swindiana

Thanks for the help, guys. I'm still undecided on the whole dyeing issue - I'll see what I think once I actually get it home and can have a good look at it.

So, thanks again. I may post images some time to gauge further opinions.

See you later

Images are a MUST if you are able to get a few.
I've sort of developed an interest for the bag and its history outside of it being an Indy bag.
Oh, and you're most welcome!

/Swindy