Pony Restoration Questions

[Catlein]

Hello all!

I am tackling a rather large batch of ponies that need some tender, loving care, but I am afraid I lack the knowledge to give them what they need! So I turn to the most knowledgeable pony people that I know! (Also, I really miss the official restoration thread on the old Arena. It was so useful! I can't wait until it gets moved over)

1. How do you get the tail out of G2 ponies? I have a Hip Holly with a rusty back-end and I can't get a hold of her tail! I've tried tweezers, but they are too big for the tiny space. Any suggestions?

2. Rust - I have several ponies full of it and in-ground dirt. I've been soaking them in water and soap for a while, but there is still some stubborn junk in their hard to reach spots (hair is fine). I've heard of collectors boiling in Oxy-Clean. What exactly does this do other than disinfect? And do I need to pop their heads off for that?

3. Colour-Fading - I have a Raspberry Jam whose body has faded severely in colour while her head remains pristine. Is there anything I can do to fix this? Or at least make it look a little less bad?

4. Cancer/Mold - I was lucky enough to snag a pretty minty Nightglider for about $1 the other day (excite!), but her beauty is marred by two spots!They are brown spots (lighter on the edge with a dark center) that I think are probably pony cancer. How do I most effectively treat them? I know that you can't "cure" pony cancer, but I want to limit its ability to spread. Fortunately, the spots don't show much while on display, but I want to take care of her as best as possible!

Thanks for all your help!

[SourdoughStomper]

I'll give this a bump for you, since you can only do it once every 24 hours.

[Catlein]

Thanks!

[michelle53]

The old Arena had an awesome thread that gave advice on how to handle rust/mold/regrind.  I'll look for it and try to post it here. 

[Chi]

For rust I generally use Dawn soap or whitening toothpaste, depending on where it is. Try using a toothbrush and lots of Dawn soap to reach it if it's inside the pony. You could also try q-tips, but I accidentally got the end of one stuck inside my baby Posey's leg, so I'm a bit hesitant about using those since they fall apart so easily.
Although I did oxy boil a pony with rust (not noticing it had rust in it's hair) and it came right off.


As for color fading, the only thing I could suggest is fading the head to match the body, but uh.. You're better off just leaving her as she is. D:


And for the pony cancer, I can't say for sure what is the best method since that does seem to sound more like mold than cancer. (The difference in the colour of it.)
Try using FarDreamer's lovely restoration page for the body to see what it looks like the most.
http://www.mlppreservationproject.com/body.html


If it's mold, you can just give her an oxy boil (or even just a normal boil) and it will indefinitely kill the mold. It won't get rid of the appearance, but it won't spread anymore. If it's cancer I'm not sure what to suggest since for some reason I haven't come across any ponies with cancer myself. (Though there is a spot on my German Starshine that looks a bit suspicious.)

[Griffin]

I'll try my best to answer at least some of your questions. (Possibly saying the same things as Flitter because apparently we were typing at the same time and I'm too lazy to edit now, lol.)

1. Maybe you could try warming up her body with boiling or really hot water? I have no exprerience when it comes to G2 ponies but I think boiling water would make even their hard bodies a little softer, so that you can squeeze her and get a better reach with the tweezers.

2. You should always remove the heads when boiling ponies. Besides, I take it you mean they're rusty on the inside? And have ingrained dirt on the outside. I don't know about Oxy-Clean but boiling should make the pores bigger so that the ingrained dirt comes off more easily, and I guess Oxy-Clean helps in that. I've also had some success with acetone.

3. Sadly I think she's unsalvageable. Of course you can always try dying or something, at this point she probably can't get any worse... she sounds pretty much baity anyway if she's severly faded.

4. If there are any living bacteria in the mould spots, boiling or any other method of disinfecting should take care of those. I think the centre dot mould that you have there is caused by bacteria rather than aging, i.e. the degradation of the plastic; I guess there's nothing that can be done to prevent the latter from spreading. But maybe there's someone who can tell you more about the different types of 'pony cancer' and moulds, I'm pretty much just guessing here...

[Sanadaookami]

I use curved hemostats to get out tails, super skinny and the curve is perfect for getting around the neck bend over to the tail- if all else fails get really hot water and warm her up- she will get all squishy and then you can just bend her till you can reach they can be found in most pharmacys

The head body mismatch is a common issue with Raspberry Jam styling the hair so it covers the area where the head and body meet can help make the mismatch a little less notable.

on Night Glider (congrats by the way! still looking for that girl...) I think the one with the darker center is mold- I would recommend the oxy bath (make sure she drys all the way!) if you can do so without damaging her symbols then cover all her paint/hair and sun fade the spots. you may get rid of that brown yet

quick example- very moldy cuddles after an oxy bath
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after a week in a light box with my ott-light (basically high speed sun fading)
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[DaffyDilly]

1. Push it through from the outside - use something like a screw driver to push it through to where you can reach it with pliers. G2 ponies are very hard to bait but they make lovely customs.


2. I second tooth paste. I tend to leave it on for 24 hours, wash it off, apply more, etc etc. Sometimes you'll never get the hair 100% but you can get very close. And you should always behead a pony when washing if possible, take the tail out too to give them the best chance to dry.


3. You could fade the head to match, but I don't think you can do anything about the body. You could get a bandana like the big brothers wear - I got a custom made one for my Thundercloud and it makes his head/body mis match a lot less obvious.


4. I'd try a good hot soak in oxy clean and then if you want to fade the marks, sun fading might help.

[Catlein]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions!