Safely de-rusting Beddy-Bye Eyes?

[MintyMyndi]

So, I ordered a lovely "Pair of 3" ponies a while back.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/776868766/vintage-1980s-g1-pair-of-3-my-little?show_sold_out_detail=1&ref=nla_listing_details
Well, they've arrived! Unfortunately, Sweet Pop does have a bit of a hair trim, but I'm alright with keeping her as-is for now. She needs boiling, but her foot isn't as bad as it looks!

From the listing photos, it looks like Baby Lofty is missing her left eye. I am pleased to report that that is not the case! She has both eyes and eyelashes, but they're a bit rusty. They work, too, but the right one sticks open.

At this point, I want to try my best to keep her eyes, but I'm not sure how to clean them without hurting them. Doo I need to take them out? Do I need to decapitate her to do so? Once I have access, what product do I use? I appreciate anybody's help!

[Leave a Whisper]

http://www.mlppreservationproject.com/symbols.html#Blush

What a cute trio. I always enjoy ordering a "pair of three."

[lovesbabysquirmy]

toothpaste w/gentle cleaning or
a chemical called simple green, home depot, etc has it [WEAR GLOVES]

[starrynights]

I second toothpaste, I've used it on all kinds of rust and it works great for me

[pinkkittywinks]

WD40, squirt into the eyes and it will clean out the rust It is great for tail rust and internal rust as well.

Love pkw xxx

[mlp4me]

Remember, the more water you put in those eyes & sockets, the more apt they are to stay crust-ay...
BBE's are kinda mah jammy jam when it comes to customs and general malarchy. Rubbing alcohol. Qtip gently worked in there. Corners I sometimes use toothpicks. There's a small chance that the lids may stay a bit discolored if the rust is that bad. I've re-painted eyelids with no issues.


I do not recommend popping out the eyes.

Creepiest winner? A BBE I opened up had an extra eye shoved in its factory sealed head.

[Leave a Whisper]

Is it cool or kinda worrisome that the stuff we use to clean our teeth can also clean off years worth of rust?

Post Merge: December 30, 2020, 09:46:53 AM

Remember, the more water you put in those eyes & sockets, the more apt they are to stay crust-ay...
BBE's are kinda mah jammy jam when it comes to customs and general malarchy. Rubbing alcohol. Qtip gently worked in there. Corners I sometimes use toothpicks. There's a small chance that the lids may stay a bit discolored if the rust is that bad. I've re-painted eyelids with no issues.


I do not recommend popping out the eyes.

Creepiest winner? A BBE I opened up had an extra eye shoved in its factory sealed head.

Might you have a picture of Three-Eyes?

[starrynights]

I'd also like to see the 3 eyed pony, sounds amazing

[lovesbabysquirmy]

WD40, squirt into the eyes and it will clean out the rust It is great for tail rust and internal rust as well.

Love pkw xxx

how long does that take to air out?

[mlp4me]

Is it cool or kinda worrisome that the stuff we use to clean our teeth can also clean off years worth of rust?

Post Merge: December 30, 2020, 09:46:53 AM

Remember, the more water you put in those eyes & sockets, the more apt they are to stay crust-ay...
BBE's are kinda mah jammy jam when it comes to customs and general malarchy. Rubbing alcohol. Qtip gently worked in there. Corners I sometimes use toothpicks. There's a small chance that the lids may stay a bit discolored if the rust is that bad. I've re-painted eyelids with no issues.


I do not recommend popping out the eyes.

Creepiest winner? A BBE I opened up had an extra eye shoved in its factory sealed head.

Might you have a picture of Three-Eyes?

Much digging...
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

[Leave a Whisper]

Because of course its Baby Shady. Thank you for digging for the picture.

Is it cool or kinda worrisome that the stuff we use to clean our teeth can also clean off years worth of rust?

Post Merge: December 30, 2020, 09:46:53 AM

Remember, the more water you put in those eyes & sockets, the more apt they are to stay crust-ay...
BBE's are kinda mah jammy jam when it comes to customs and general malarchy. Rubbing alcohol. Qtip gently worked in there. Corners I sometimes use toothpicks. There's a small chance that the lids may stay a bit discolored if the rust is that bad. I've re-painted eyelids with no issues.


I do not recommend popping out the eyes.

Creepiest winner? A BBE I opened up had an extra eye shoved in its factory sealed head.

Might you have a picture of Three-Eyes?

Much digging...
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

[pinkkittywinks]

WD40, squirt into the eyes and it will clean out the rust It is great for tail rust and internal rust as well.

Love pkw xxx

how long does that take to air out?

I forgot to say you can squirt it on a q-tip and wipe the eye ball to clean it.

I am not too bothered by the smell, it seems to go away quite quickly for me. If I have used it to de-rust a tail or inside of a pony, warm soapy water gets rid of it

Love pkw xxx

[MintyMyndi]

Okay, if anyone's been dying for an update on these guys, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting! Unfortunately, for Baby Lofty, things didn't go entirely in her favor. But let's talk about the good stuff first!

Sweet Pop and Princess Royal Blue cleaned up nicely! I've yet to un-squish the former, as her neck glue is still doing its job quite nicely (as it always is when you don't want it to!), but all three have been surface cleaned and had their hair done.
Sweet Pop's head is a shade bluer than her body, but it's hard to notice. I'm not sure if it's just because it's cut a bit shorter than it should be, but her tail is super curly! Her mane lays alright on her NDS, but if I move it to her DS, the now-white pale pink section and the cut portion of the lavender section don't behave. On her NDS, though, you can hardly tell they're cut!
As for Blue, she had a lot of marks between her back legs... including what looked like a pencil line. I'm not sure I want to know the story behind that! As for her hair, I ultimately decided that the little bit of factory curl Blue had left wasn't worth keeping the tinsel all scraggly, so I did my best to replicate factory curls with the curling iron I used for the defrizzing. It went amazingly well- for her hair, at least. Her tinsel is super straight! I may have to attempt a straw curl boil perm on her, but I always have an issue with those... For now, she's just gonna have straight tinsel and curly hair!

And now, for Baby Lofty... Her hair's alright, even if it lays kinda funny. Her body has a couple marks that I could maybe remove with a bit more elbow grease behind the Magic Eraser, but it's fine, at least for now. But I screwed up a bit on her eyes.
I opted for rubbing alcohol, since Rit Rust Remover is so elusive where I live (a rural area that just has a Wal-Mart that's technically in the next town over), and I got some decent results. As expected, her eyelid paint came off with the rust, but the slightly yellowed eyeball plastic underneath matches her body color enough that I'm fine keeping her like that. Due to my mistake, I didn't really get an opportunity to go deep into the bottom of her eyes, so there is a bit of staining still there.
Now, for my mistake: her right eye had nearly flawless eyelashes. Had. I saw a fuzz on them and tried to take it away, and about half the eyelashes came with it. Either the alcohol or her age weakened the glue enough for that to happen. After a stunned silence, I was able to jam them back in, but they're not the same at all. To add insult to injury, her left eye, which had shorter lashes to begin with (probably for the same reason Sweet Pop's tail is short), shed the occasional eyelash while I cleaned her eyes... Then, after her hair was done, I noticed a chunk missing from them!

Needless to say, Baby Lofty's a bit of a hot mess in the eye department, but she still has the unique cuteness of a BBE Baby, so she'll be keeping the eyes. It's not bad for my first attempt; you've gotta rip out a few eyelashes to make an omelet, right? I'm fine with flaws like this and, at the end of the day, her eyes are alright, but just alright. Next time I go for a BBE, I'll aim for much-better eyes or much worse ones to avoid having to do the restore. I'm not sure I can handle another chunk of eyelashes disappearing on me!

Also, all three of these guys are at least a bit squished, but only Sweet Pop is really bad enough to crack open. I just thought I'd mention that, since I'm staring at Blue who can only stand on three feet at a time! Pics maybe tomorrow, but I can't find my camera cord so it's a bit convoluted to get them from my camera to this computer.