I thought I would post this to inspire others to do the same. If you have an old Gillette case that looks good on the outside, but not so good on the inside, you can recover the inside, or at least the lining of the bottom. You could do the top's lining, but you couldn't duplicate the logo stamp, or at least I can't. Diplomats are good candidates for this, because they have a plastic cover over the top lining, which hopefully protected it over the years. I've done a 46 'crat case the same way that had a good lid liner. If I ever sell these things, I'll identify them as re-covered/restored cases. Here's how I did it.
Take it to a fabric store and look for velvet that matches the old stuff. If the red or white trim around the base and lid is damaged, get some fabric that matches it. You'll want that to be very thin stuff. You may also need some thin nylon or silk white fabric to cover the hinge. Fabric stores are foreign to most of us. Just ask them to help you get what you need. You won't need much of it, and will probably spend less than 10 bucks.
With a butter knife, gently pry up the metal tray. If you're going to reuse it, be careful not to damage the red trim piece around it. There's a thin cardboard tray under that metal tray that you need to get out, too. I tried lots of stuff to remove the old felt and glue from the metal, but the only thing that worked on the glue was paint stripper. I didn't remove the old felt from the cardboard, I just cut a new piece from the shiny, thin cardboard box a coffee pot came in. While you are at it, use the same cardboard to fashion a correct sized cardboard trim piece if you need to replace the red trim.
Get some rust remover that you paint on, not the spray on stuff. I used some from Rustoleum. Paint that on the inside of the case, and the metal tray. Might as well remove the lid's liner and rust proof the lid. Wear some gloves and dip a paper towel in it and rub the rust off the gold trim as best you can, then wipe it clean. It'll turn rust that it can't remove black, which is better than rust colored. Once it is dry, your tray will be black, which doesn't look good under the white velvet, so spray paint it white.
Using some spray fabric glue, re-cover the metal tray and the cardboard bottom plate. You'll probably have to fiddle with it. I used a larger than needed piece of fabric, and trimmed it to fit after I was happy with the glue job. Same thing with the red and white trim, although a glue stick is easier to use than spray for this purpose. A tip on the red and white trim is to glue it onto the cardboard backing strip, THEN bend the strip to fit. If you are lucky, any dirt on the plastic cover of the lid lining will wipe off with a Windex dampened paper towel.
Reassembly is a pain. First, clean the outside of the case real good. It's probably not leather, but I found that mink oil cleaned it up real nice. Probably Armorall would work well, too. Don't use anything too strong, because you don't want to take off those green star things. If there's any nicks in it, use a brown stain pen to darken them up and sorta hide them. Do this before you put your nice clean interior in, so that you don't risk staining it.
Put the trim pieces in first, then the hinge cover fabric, then the cardboard base plate thing. The hard part is getting the metal tray in without crushing up the red trim piece. I found that you can gently bend it to make it smaller, then press it back flat after you get it in. Now put the lid trim back, and you're done. Total time -- probably an hour or so, spread across several days. I bet I spent more time getting the fabric than putting it all together. Here's some before/after pics.
If anyone has an idea on how to re-cover that plastic on the lid, I'd appreciate it. This one's in decent shape, but I have 2 others that aren't. I'm also still looking for a way to fix hinges that don't snap closed.
Take it to a fabric store and look for velvet that matches the old stuff. If the red or white trim around the base and lid is damaged, get some fabric that matches it. You'll want that to be very thin stuff. You may also need some thin nylon or silk white fabric to cover the hinge. Fabric stores are foreign to most of us. Just ask them to help you get what you need. You won't need much of it, and will probably spend less than 10 bucks.
With a butter knife, gently pry up the metal tray. If you're going to reuse it, be careful not to damage the red trim piece around it. There's a thin cardboard tray under that metal tray that you need to get out, too. I tried lots of stuff to remove the old felt and glue from the metal, but the only thing that worked on the glue was paint stripper. I didn't remove the old felt from the cardboard, I just cut a new piece from the shiny, thin cardboard box a coffee pot came in. While you are at it, use the same cardboard to fashion a correct sized cardboard trim piece if you need to replace the red trim.
Get some rust remover that you paint on, not the spray on stuff. I used some from Rustoleum. Paint that on the inside of the case, and the metal tray. Might as well remove the lid's liner and rust proof the lid. Wear some gloves and dip a paper towel in it and rub the rust off the gold trim as best you can, then wipe it clean. It'll turn rust that it can't remove black, which is better than rust colored. Once it is dry, your tray will be black, which doesn't look good under the white velvet, so spray paint it white.
Using some spray fabric glue, re-cover the metal tray and the cardboard bottom plate. You'll probably have to fiddle with it. I used a larger than needed piece of fabric, and trimmed it to fit after I was happy with the glue job. Same thing with the red and white trim, although a glue stick is easier to use than spray for this purpose. A tip on the red and white trim is to glue it onto the cardboard backing strip, THEN bend the strip to fit. If you are lucky, any dirt on the plastic cover of the lid lining will wipe off with a Windex dampened paper towel.
Reassembly is a pain. First, clean the outside of the case real good. It's probably not leather, but I found that mink oil cleaned it up real nice. Probably Armorall would work well, too. Don't use anything too strong, because you don't want to take off those green star things. If there's any nicks in it, use a brown stain pen to darken them up and sorta hide them. Do this before you put your nice clean interior in, so that you don't risk staining it.
Put the trim pieces in first, then the hinge cover fabric, then the cardboard base plate thing. The hard part is getting the metal tray in without crushing up the red trim piece. I found that you can gently bend it to make it smaller, then press it back flat after you get it in. Now put the lid trim back, and you're done. Total time -- probably an hour or so, spread across several days. I bet I spent more time getting the fabric than putting it all together. Here's some before/after pics.
If anyone has an idea on how to re-cover that plastic on the lid, I'd appreciate it. This one's in decent shape, but I have 2 others that aren't. I'm also still looking for a way to fix hinges that don't snap closed.
