I have an old lute case where the black covering on the edge of lid is worn away. The wood joint underneath is exposed. Even the wood is banged up somewhat.
I think this probably affects the strength and water resistance. I found some vinyl repair kits online, but they seem meant for small rips, not 60 x 4 centimeters of exposed wood. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
