Vintage Santa Repaint

I’ve been putting this off because I already have about  2 dozen hours invested in this repaint and still have probably at least one more.

Looking back, I just realized I repainted all 4 molds i got in the $10.00 lot. I’m a little upset someone snagged the small snowman before me, but I think I still got 4 solid pieces! Now they should all be good for another 35 years!

I wanted him to be restored to his former glory.

 

 

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VINTAGE 48″ POLORON SANTA

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The Restoration

1. Strip the mold.

This is absolutely my least favorite part. It smells, the stripper burns if you’re not careful, its almost reverse progress. But it has to be done!

I’ve heard other people use different brand strippers and I’ve seen people who even use oven cleaner. I guess you just find what you like and are comfortable with.

This is pretty much my strip kit minus rags (i just use old shirts) and a hard plastic  bristle brush I seemed to have misplace.

Holly Jolly Vintage Strip Kit

• Kleer Strip
• Magic Eraser
• Emery Pad
• Scrub Brushes of different sizes
• Latex gloves
• Rags
• Ammonia
• Water

1. In a well ventilated area wash your blow mold with ammonia and a scrub brush. This will get a lot of the dirt off and some of the loose paint. Allow the mold to dry.
2. Also, while in a well ventilated area apply a coat stripper to a small area of  blow mold. I usually do  about a 12″x 12″ section. Be careful   not to leave the stripper on to long and melt the plastic. I’ve never had any problems melting the plastic with Kleer Strip,but I’m sure if you left it on too long it could happen.
3. After you spend a billion hours getting the paint off ,sometimes you’re left with a tinted plastic or  “blush”. This is where you use your Magic Eraser, the eraser will get you to a nice white base.
4. Before moving on to the painting I  wash the mold with dish soap to remove any residue and then again with ammonia. This will allow the tape and paint to stick.

I had a really neat time lapse of this but I cant find it.

Some of the paint would just not come off!

Fill and patch holes

I had few holes and cracks  to patch and fill.

Heres what I did!

 

• Epoxy
• Hot Glue
• Replacement plastic (I used a milk jug)
• Tape
• Marker
• Crayon
• Paper

For the boot, Santa’s sack, and the crack in his eyebrow I just used hot glue. I applied the glue and once cooled I heated up a spoon to smooth it out. The hole on the boot wasn’t that noticeable to begin with, otherwise I would have patched it like the horn.

PATCHING THE MOLD

This was the first mold I had to patch and I sort of just winged was it.

This went way better than I had expected.

The first thing I did was take the paper and do a “grave rubbing” of the hole with the crayon and paper. Then I cut out the paper and traced it onto the plastic and cut out the plastic. I used a piece of the milk jug that had a bit of a fold on it so  that worked  really well.

Next step was to fasten the patch to the mold. I taped the edges of the plastic and mixed and applied the epoxy. I then placed the patch over the hole and let dry. After it dried I filled in a couple small holes with epoxy and smoothed it over with hot glue.

As you can see in the image of the stripped mold, it turned out fairly well. Once everything is patched and filled

 Tape the Mold

• Frog tape
• Masking tape
• Magazine/ Newspaper
• Xacto Knife
• Scissors

This is almost as bad as stripping the mold but at least you are getting close to seeing progress!

I generally start by painting the shade that covers the most area. In the case of this Santa  it was obviously red. I use Frog Tape on the edges following the shape of the Blow Mold. Cutting away excess tape with the Xacto knife. I fill in the areas I can with newspaper and magazines. I wish I would have had masking tape to hold the paper to the Frog Tape , but I was excited to finally get paint on him, so I just used what I had.

Ready for Red

 

Time to Paint

• Paint

I use Krylon Maxx Spray paint, again this is personal preference .

After each coat put the light in the mold and check for runs and bare spots. You would be surprised what you would miss when not lit up. If you think. the paint is too dull add another coat. If you have runs, I just strip the paint from that section (very carefully),clean the area and repaint.

Let each coat and color dry entirely before moving onto the next color.

 

I wanted to keep most of him as original as possible.

Some changes i did make were.

• I colored the belt loops red
• I did not give him the gold beard
• I placed a” P” on a block for my last name
• The Plane went from red and gold to red,white, and blue with stars. USA!
• Ill be giving him brown eyes instead of blue.

Thats it ! Thanks for reading!

 

 

Whats a tomatoes favorite condiment?

Ketchup.

Catch Up.

So, I didn’t abandon this blog or Holly Jolly Vintage. In the process of trying to expand it.

I’m trying to think back of all the new stuff we’ve gotten since my last post and my mind just keeps going back to the best week of the summer.

We snagged most of these molds in one trip after I searched “Santa’s sleigh” on Craigslist. She called them “plastic statues that light up”and I think really just wanted to get rid of them. We grabbed 10 candles ,2 cows, lamb, donkey,camel, Mary, Joseph,Jesus, 2 different angels,4 bears, 3 wise men, shepherd,shepherd boy,penguin,  a Santa, a reindeer and the small joy bear. $75.00. It was definitely our biggest haul so far.

Earlier in the week we grabbed the Jack O Lantern for $3. My wife got the snowman, soldier drummer, and a TPI Santa all for $10 from a BST site on Facebook .

We decided since I was off,  we should hit the Lincoln Highway yard sales. I wasn’t expecting much after the score we had a couple days before but I’m glad we went! We got another TPI Santa and “Coca Cola Bear” for a dollar a piece . We also got a box of the small Halloween lights, a pumpkin bucket and blow mold popcorn for another $5.00! I don’t  collect inflatables but for $5.00 I couldn’t pass up the snow globe! My favorite of that day is the NOEL light post for an astounding 50 cents!

I finally finished the Poloron Santa and will be putting the tutorial together as soon as I’m done with this post.

We also repainted two candles for Halloween.

The top left is how we got the candles. We got them in a lot with the Poloron Santa and a couple of other things. The bottom left was a botched repaint attempt. In our defense , it was winter and cold outside. The tape wouldn’t stick and it was our first ever attempt at a repaint. I’m still torn on the skulls to fill the holes or if i should wait a bit longer and see what other options i have. I have two candles from the large haul that are cracked so im repainting them for Halloween as well. I’m going to do a candy corn paint job with cauldrons on top.

I think thats everything.

We started a webstore: Holly Jolly Vintage

and a Facebook Page .

One last thing. 

 

A subtle change!

We have decided it would be more beneficial for us to strictly use this as a place to share our ever growing collection of Blow Molds! We are pretty new collectors and fell in love pretty instantly. We will from time to time touch on other nostalgic holiday decor,but rather than be a jack of all trades,we wanted to master one.

So, to keep you up to date here is pretty much whats been going on with our collection!

Friday we went “Blow Molding”,  we hit a couple yard sales before deciding to hit a Goodwill Outlet. The one closest to us is an hour away, we’ve never been so we didn’t know what to expect. For the most part it was like an indoor rumage sale, just less organized. They did have a small section with Christmas decorations. They had a couple of 3d wireframes ,two holographic trains,a few trees, and one 1995 Empire wreath!

The bow is all there,just was getting dark when I started taking pics and couldnt see the mold without a flash!

We ended up also finding three Jack-O-Lantern pails I’ve been hoarding for an arch. The pails were .76/lbs and came out just under a pound. The wreath was a whole $3.00 and  now I need another before Christmas! The entire haul –> $3.74 .

L->R :Back Row: General Foam Pail, General Foam Pail, Empire Pail. Front Row: Empire Wreath.

Saturdays were spent at work for me while Holly went to a few more yard sales. No luck. 😦

I did however get a Facebook notification that one of my keywords has popped up in a BST site. I usually am disappointed but this time…JACKPOT! 4 miniature molds for $10.

 

Empire Santa Sleigh (1970)

L –>R : Empire Scarecrow (1969) ,Bayshore Cat Pumpkin Lamp, Bayshore Scarecrow

Lastly, Ive started a repaint on a Poloron Giant Illimunated Santa.Ill post the after pictures when im done!

This is before I strip the paint.

—Jolly

Blow Molds

I really wanted to wait and not let the cat out out of the bag. I tried to contain my fanaticism and play this on a level field. But, I’ve decided to just jump in and share my first vintage Christmas love.

Blow Molds.  I’m not sure what it was about them, I didn’t grow up with them, I didn’t know anyone that had any. In fact,  I thought they were tacky.

One day last summer,  I was browsing the local Facebook BST site and somebody had a Poloron snowman for sale. I didn’t buy it but it really got me interested. I joined a couple of groups on Facebook and started looking for molds on craigslist and at thrift stores. In hindsight I wish I would’ve bought that snowman.

The snowman for sale looked no where near as nice as this one!

Halloween rolled around and I still hadn’t found a blow mold to call my own. A couple people on one of the groups were finding  General Foam Black Cats and Scarecrows at Wal*Mart. We looked at 5 or 6  different locations one night and still didn’t find one!

We did end up recently finding an original Black Cat O Pumpkin at a yard sale!

A few weeks went buy and I told my mom, to keep an eye out when she was at the auction for them. Of course, I had to explain to her what they were. Well, it paid off because, she had one in her basement! It came in a lot she had  bought and she wasn’t sure what to do with it. I was pumped! I was now the owner of an Empire ghost, a blow mold!

I bought a couple of pumpkins from a lady on the BST site and that was pretty much my display last year!

I did eventually find my first Christmas mold in early November at a Goodwill. It was a waving Santa. I’m not sure why, but I never really researched it so I don’t even know the maker!  So far,  we ‘ve collected somewhere between 15-20 molds. The neat thing is for the most part you can easily repaint them and most collectors wont mind! So far we’ve repainted two, a 1971 Empire Santa , and an Empire snowman (one just like the Poloron I first saw!)

I wanted to paint him so he could stay out and cheer on my Penguins in the SCF!

I wanted him to be restored to his former glory.

The spirit of the…blog.

Nostalgia.

The holidays mean different things to different people. For some, its the birth and celebration of  Jesus. To many, its the spirit of giving and charity. For the young and young at heart, Christmas magic has no bounds.

The lights, the glow of the presents under the tree ,the stockings hung from the chimney. The smell of cookies baking and dusty ornaments fresh from the attic. The chill in the air and the crunch of the ground after winter’s first snow. Egg nog. Ugly sweaters. A roaring fire and roasted chestnuts. Friends. Family. The hustle and bustle of city sidewalks. TV specials. Bing Crosby records. The panic and excitement waiting in line for the department store Santa. The Nostalgia.

Nostalgia . C9 and bubble bulbs. Blow molds. Aluminum trees. We could spend on all month rattling off baubles and treasures that pull on the heart strings and not grow weary. Its what this entire thing is dedicated to. We have a true love and affection for that Christmas feeling.

Its early June and Christmas is still 200 days away, the spirit of the season still runs rampant through our home. We hope to have that reflect here and bring you the  joy of the holidays year round. Vintage will always be our forte no matter how tacky or gaudy the modernist might think it is.

My wife and I  very excited to fill this blog and become the premier source of vintage Christmas content. Neither of us is a  web designer, photographer,or a journalist. But what we do have is a tremendous passion for Christmas and spangle of yesteryear! Hopefully, we will have our About section completed soon! Thanks for visiting and please make sure to follow us!