Pony restoration - help!

[Enolaalone]

I've just received these poor little ponies from Etsy... they are looking very sorry for themselves.

Bunny Hop/Hopping Pocket is covered in what looks like pink highlighter, has matted hair, tail rust and is missing her pocket:

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Raincurl has matted hair, is extremely dirty-looking, has a few surface marks and some tail rust. She is doing the best out of the three:
 
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Moondancer, I have no idea. Although she's meant to be white she looks like she's been painted. She's also extremely squishy. Actually, the more I look at her the more convinced I am someone has painted her white. And put glitter on her horn. What can I use to take the paint off?

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So far I have given them all a bath, washed and conditioned their hair and I am part way through combing. I took Moondancer's head off because it seemed a bit loose, and cleaned her inside. I can't get either Raincurl or Bunny Hop's tail out - any advice? I also have some Sculpey as I want to try and make BH a new hop hat. I would also like to sunfade Raincurl and BH but at the moment there is no sun here so I can't see it going well.

Any more ideas to help my rescue mission?

[kissthethunder]

I think the later two looks like they'll clean up great Looks like mostly surface dirt and hair in need of taming, easy peasy stuff!! That Precious Pocket though looks like she has regrind though Good luck on your project!!

[Summer-blade]

I would suggest you start with full body washes on all of them soap and water with an old tooth brush for scrubbing

If you can get a hold of a mr clean magic eraser those work great for ground in stains. For takeing a tail out you may have to pop of the pony's head and fish it out with some calipers.

Tail rust is totally fixable it's the easiest flaw to fix all you need to do is open up the pony take out the tail and old washer, throw out the washer and scrub the tail with tooth paste till the rust is gone then make a new washer out of a plastic zip tie

you can find most of the things you need for all this at a grocery store and a place like Radio shack   

oh and don't forget you can sunfade Moondancer to make her nice and white again! just be sure to cover anything you don't want faded with foil or painters tape

[Enolaalone]

I think the later two looks like they'll clean up great Looks like mostly surface dirt and hair in need of taming, easy peasy stuff!! That Precious Pocket though looks like she has regrind though Good luck on your project!!

I think she's just covered in highlighter pen. I'm not sure how well the photos show it. She has also gone a bit hard which is odd but it's better than very squidgy Moondancer.

Post Merge: July 03, 2012, 12:42:28 PM

I would suggest you start with full body washes on all of them soap and water with an old tooth brush for scrubbing

If you can get a hold of a mr clean magic eraser those work great for ground in stains. For takeing a tail out you may have to pop of the pony's head and fish it out with some calipers.

Tail rust is totally fixable it's the easiest flaw to fix all you need to do is open up the pony take out the tail and old washer, throw out the washer and scrub the tail with tooth paste till the rust is gone then make a new washer out of a plastic zip tie

you can find most of the things you need for all this at a grocery store and a place like Radio shack   

oh and don't forget you can sunfade Moondancer to make her nice and white again! just be sure to cover anything you don't want faded with foil or painters tape

Thank you! I'll have a look for the cleaner tomorrow. They've all been scrubbed with a toothbrush and had their manes and tails conditioned, I am still in the process of combing out. I will have to try and get heads out to fish out the tails, haha. That'll be fun.

I think Moondancer is covered in paint. I know that sounds weird. I mean, it is weird. But she seems to have been painted white maybe in a misplaced attempt at making her brighter or something?

[Moonracer]

Body dirt and bad hair is something that can be tamed. All you need is just a tub of warm water, soap or any other cleaning detergent (one that won't cause any damage to the plastic that is), and hair conditioner and you're all set. For the tougher stains I suggest using nail polish remover with acetone or just pure acetone. This also applies to paint on the Moondancer.

Also, you may try sunfading all of them, to get rid of the remaining marker/paint stains.

When it comes to Bunny Hop - you can try looking up her pocket on eBay. If not, I've seen a tutorial somewhere (I guess My Little Pony Preservation Project) on how to make a pocket out of Sculpey - it looked pretty neat, you might try it out!

[Enolaalone]

Body dirt and bad hair is something that can be tamed. All you need is just a tub of warm water, soap or any other cleaning detergent (one that won't cause any damage to the plastic that is), and hair conditioner and you're all set. For the tougher stains I suggest using nail polish remover with acetone or just pure acetone. This also applies to paint on the Moondancer.

Also, you may try sunfading all of them, to get rid of the remaining marker/paint stains.

When it comes to Bunny Hop - you can try looking up her pocket on eBay. If not, I've seen a tutorial somewhere (I guess My Little Pony Preservation Project) on how to make a pocket out of Sculpey - it looked pretty neat, you might try it out!

Acetone sounds like a good plan, especially for the paint. Thanks! I will try sunfading when we actually get some sun here, it has been very dull lately so I don't think it'll do much good putting them in a window.

Ooh, I will have to look for that tutorial. I have some Sculpey and I'm quite enthusiastic to try using it!

[Elisto]

That Moondancer does look like she's been painted, but her symbols look like they're in surprisingly good shape for that to be the case...very weird! If you use acetone on her though, be careful not to take off her eyes and symbols. Before you do, though, how is the paint around her hair plugs? It looks almost too neatly done...is that her original hair, and could she have been her previous owner's restoration attempt?

[Enolaalone]

That Moondancer does look like she's been painted, but her symbols look like they're in surprisingly good shape for that to be the case...very weird! If you use acetone on her though, be careful not to take off her eyes and symbols. Before you do, though, how is the paint around her hair plugs? It looks almost too neatly done...is that her original hair, and could she have been her previous owner's restoration attempt?

If you look carefully (I'll post another pic when I get the chance) the person has painted around the symbols so the stars don't have very straight edges. I'll have a look at the paint around her hair plugs, I started using nail polish remover to take the paint off which is going reasonably well, but I haven't got near her mane yet.

I'm avoiding her symbols at the moment as I have no idea what will end up happening to then. Not sure if I can take the paint off around them or I'll have to try to redo them.

At the moment she is headless and upside down in an attempt to dry her out as I think she retained a bit of water from when I washed her. I hope the other ponies are not too distressed by their upside-down headless friend with paint on half of her body...

[hathorcat]

Can I be nosy was this a UK based lot on etsy or international?

For the first 2 I agree with others taking them apart - scrubbing, acetone and a sunfade is going to be needed. For Moondancer she has me a little curious!

[Enolaalone]

Can I be nosy was this a UK based lot on etsy or international?

For the first 2 I agree with others taking them apart - scrubbing, acetone and a sunfade is going to be needed. For Moondancer she has me a little curious!

It was a US one - I felt very sorry for them!

Rainbowcurl is going very well, washing and acetone has made her considerable whiter, it's only her rusty tail and really poorly conditioned hair that are still problematic. I'll have to try and take her head off.

Bunny Hop is fine apart from the pink highlighter which is proving stubborn. You're probably right about the sunfade though.

Moondancer is... going to be a long job.

[hathorcat]

Can I be nosy was this a UK based lot on etsy or international?

For the first 2 I agree with others taking them apart - scrubbing, acetone and a sunfade is going to be needed. For Moondancer she has me a little curious!

It was a US one - I felt very sorry for them!

Rainbowcurl is going very well, washing and acetone has made her considerable whiter, it's only her rusty tail and really poorly conditioned hair that are still problematic. I'll have to try and take her head off.

Bunny Hop is fine apart from the pink highlighter which is proving stubborn. You're probably right about the sunfade though.

Moondancer is... going to be a long job.

Its going to take time no doubt but the before and after pictures you can brag with will be AMAZING!

[Enolaalone]

Can I be nosy was this a UK based lot on etsy or international?

For the first 2 I agree with others taking them apart - scrubbing, acetone and a sunfade is going to be needed. For Moondancer she has me a little curious!

It was a US one - I felt very sorry for them!

Rainbowcurl is going very well, washing and acetone has made her considerable whiter, it's only her rusty tail and really poorly conditioned hair that are still problematic. I'll have to try and take her head off.

Bunny Hop is fine apart from the pink highlighter which is proving stubborn. You're probably right about the sunfade though.

Moondancer is... going to be a long job.

Its going to take time no doubt but the before and after pictures you can brag with will be AMAZING!

I know, I'm quite excited about it! I'm glad I took good before pictures. 

[butterflybuttons]

I'd love to see updated photos.

I'm with cat in regards to moondancer. She has me curious too

[hathorcat]

I'd love to see updated photos.

I'm with cat in regards to moondancer. She has me curious too

Does she strike little memories for you with the School ponies which had the painted finish? Its very odd...

[Vintergatan]

goodness me, why would someone do that to Moondancer :S
And yeah, bunny Hop doesn't have regrind (not sure white ponies would have pink regrind) and thus pink highlighter is only really removable by sunfading (whenever you feel sunfading is useless in Cardiff, just remember you don't live in Iceland ).

I personally despise decapitating ponies  but that is the only way to go with tailrust I´m afraid

I would be so excited to see these girls when you fix them up, no matter how far you get them it´s really nice of you to have given them a second chance