Caroline,
These cases are covered in a weird fabric or wallpaper from the factory. I'm pealing it off because when the case came apart it tore the paper up and it looks hideous.
I'm not sure if I'm going to recover it with cloth or wall paper. But I'm going to try to match it as close as I can.
Got any idea where I can find alligator skin pattern wall paper in brown and black? Or a fabric like that? That's what I need.
Mirium,
Water or moisture is the a #1 enemy of these cases. I'm about 99% positive they used water soluable glue when they assembled them and after they soak up the moisture the glue just gives up. I've repaired 2 that were broken, and am completely redoing two that just came apart. The same glue was used in all of them. It's brownish and looks like a layer of thick shellack but it don't hold no more.
The glue I use is Elmers Carpenters glue. I've never had it come apart after gluing things together with it.