How Dusting Led to Doll Repairs

Sunday Best Benji and Bonnie Lou by Terri Lee are 2003 reproductions of the original 1940s-1950s dolls.

After removing dolls to dust and to dust their display area, I discovered unsightly head seam separations of Sunday Best Benji and Bonnie Lou. Their clothing removal led to another shocking discovery. The seams on the sides of their bodies were separated, too. Their clothing had been holding the dolls together.

Their clothing had been holding their bodies together.

After removing their clothes and purchasing E6000, an epoxy glue, I removed their wigs and took the dolls to my husband to repair.

E6000 repair attempt

The E6000 was not strong enough to hold the head seams together.

The E6000 was not strong enough to hold their hard plastic heads and bodies together. "It peeled off like rubber," according to my husband. We both conducted separate online research, and interestingly, we found several different glues by JB Weld designed for gluing auto parts. 

A glue designed for cars worked well to hold together the separated seams.

From AutoZone, I purchased JB Weld Plastic Bonder high strength structural adhesive designed to glue emblems to automobiles. It is a two-part tan solution that comes in two connected syringes. It includes a mixing tray and a wooden stick for mixing. 

JB Weld was applied to all separated seams and allowed to dry...

...for more than a day to make sure the seams would not separate.

After applying the glue to the separated seams, my husband used rubber bands and masking tape to hold the parts together while the glue dried. 

Glue-filled and painted seam gaps below the ears are illustrated here.

This is another view of the gap-filled and painted seams.

After the JB Weld hardened, there were gaps in some areas of the head seams. I added more glue to fill in the gaps and after the additional glue dried, I painted over the glue to match the doll's complexion (not realizing that their wigs would cover these areas, but still... I knew the gaps were there and I wanted to fill them in.)

Rewigging

After the JB Weld glue dried, I applied Aleene's Tacky Glue on the dolls' heads for wig replacement. 

Aleene's Tacky Glue covers Benji's head.

Over the glue, the slightly inverted wig was placed on Benji's head, matching the widow's peak of the wig with the widow's peak area left by the original glue that stained Benji's head.

The same process was followed to replace Bonnie Lou's wig, but the glue was only placed on the crown of Bonnie Lou's head as it had been done originally.

Bonnie Lou's wig replacement

Both wigs are in place.

A scarf was tied over their heads and faces to keep the wigs snugly in place until the glue dried overnight.

Next, the masking tape and rubber bands were removed before redressing and placing the dolls back on display. 

Benji and Bonnie Lou are redressed but Benji is without his hat in this photo.

Sunday Best Benji and Bonnie Lou are once again whole.

Several other collectors have experienced the same seam separation issue with the reproduction hard plastic Terri Lee dolls. I believe the issue stems from the imprecise construction of the dolls' parts. The head sits poorly (too low) on the neck. The neck stringing causes pressure on the parts (pulling the head down onto the neck) and the seams eventually separate. The strength of the original glue also weakened with time and caused the front and back of the body to separate. No one knew this would happen until it did... to several of our dolls, unfortunately. 

 

©Black Doll Collecting/dbg

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