Here are some pictures of a Holton 181 bell that had been bent around quite a bit and the bell rim had become dented and weakened.  It was no longer supporting the bell and would crease very easily, so I removed the bead, which did not have a strengthening wire, and installed a Nickel Silver repair garland.  The garland, also known as a kranz, has a bead and strengthening wire of it's own.  The bell did not lose any of it's diameter in the process.  Below are some pictures of the damaged bell rim.  These are just a couple of examples, there were dents all the way around the rim from previous folds and subsequent repairs.

After removing the damaged bead, I was left with just a flat edge, which I straightened out to remove any creases and waviness so the garland would sit true.  Once that was done I started crimping down the edge of the garland around the bell flare a little at a time.  Once I got all the way around, I tapped the edge down to draw the garland tight against the flare (otherwise it would buzz when played).  After several rounds of gentle tapping, the inside edge of the flare has a nice flat bit of garland holding the two together.  There is no solder used to hold the garland and bell together, just metal pressed against metal.  The finished product is seen in the last picture.

PLEASE NOTE:  This was done as a repair to a bell that had sustained damage to the edge of the flare, but was still in pretty good shape otherwise.  I will only do this operation to bells that have similar damage, as an alternative to replacing the entire bell just for the flare.  I will NOT do this as a modification to a healthy bell.  Please contact me if you have any questions or comments about the procedure.