When is too rusty?

[Sugar]

I have a super-cute baby G1, and I knew when I bought her that she had tail rust.  No biggie!  What I didn't know was just how tremendously the rust had spread inside her.   She's currently soaking in Oxi-Clean and hot water, and I've scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed.  The rust is coming out of her body, but her poor little head!  Her mane's roots are just thick with rust, inside and seeping out of the holes in her neck.  And where I've been scrubbing at her outside root holes - the rust is permeating her vinyl and turning into smooze/ingrained dirt.   At this point, I honestly don't know if I'm going to be able to save her original hair.

So I ask you - when is the point when rust damage becomes too horrid to contemplate saving the original hair?  When do you throw in the towel and decide to rehair?

(Pics to follow later; for now, my son is insisting on using the pc. )

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Never... I stick them in a jar of CLR and a month later they are usually clean!  Then you just scrub the ^@)@Q( out of them with toothpaste! 

[ooizza]

I've wondered about CLR. Do you dilute it or use it straight out of the bottle. I haven't found a suitable bait for a test yet

[himmie]

I generally just scrub like crazy with toothpaste. Unless a pony has a hair cut, I try to save the original hair. Today I received a pony that I was already planning to re-hair. The previous owner had cleaned it out as it was very rusty. It had a hair cut and such. So, when I went to remove the old hair, there was still a LOT of staining/rust round the holes in his head. It's hard to know if it is actually all gone unless you remove the hair. Granted, it is probably fine if there are a few specks left.

[Sunshine]

I too say never, you can get it out of the mane holes with some of the tips that the other users have posted about, Oxy, CLR, Rust Remover, Toothpaste... I personally love restores, while it might be a lot of effort, you'll be so proud in the end when all that gunk is out of her mane holes and hair!

[hathorcat]

You could try a soak in Rits Remove Rust or even a dental cleansing tablet - they usually manage to shift even the most stubborn rust.

I completely agree that it is worth trying just about everything prior to remove it. But there could very well be a case which is simply do bad and so ingrained and so stained that every cleaning tip imaginable will not shift it. If thats the case, I see no harm in rehairing.

If the pony is not in wonderful condition to start with and if in theory re hairing is not going to decrease her value too much then I would probably just rehair away.

[Sugar]

@ lovesbabysquirmy:  CLR?  I never would've thought of trusting a pony to it... please, tell me how you use it?  Diluted?  Straight?   Spill your pony prettifying secrets!  Please?

Thank you everypony for suggestions - here are the promised pics:
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The big reveal.
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Here's the culprit... darn those metal washers!
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And here's me removing the tail clamp at my handy-dandy vice-grip (pardon the workbench mess)... this is one of those cases where I kind of figured I had to.   The inside of the clamp is rusted also, in spite of the centrepiece of the tail being relatively cleanish.  So... in order to prevent further rusting (if I do indeed decide to keep her original), off it comes!
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And here's what has me concerned.  It doesn't show as well in the photo (showing my age... I almost typed "on film," ), but the rust is deep and dark around the root holes.  And pindotting her poor neck now, alas.  Yay for my longish nails of the moment - I'll be able to scrape it away.

But considering her hair is rather faded anyway, maybe a rehair wouldn't be a bad idea?  Ugh... I really don't know which way to turn with this one...

[himmie]

Well, re-hairing would certainly be a good option for her. Otherwise, get her some whitening toothpaste and a toothbrush.

[hathorcat]

I would honestly try the methods listed above...and if no luck...then simply rehair

[mlp4me]

The situation that you have just described is usually when I go for a full re-hair. Especially when it's white/pink haired ponies, socmetimes you just can't get that rust to lighten up enough even with a good scrubbing...

[lovesbabysquirmy]

It's true... you may have to rehair in the end. 

However, my secret is to.... fill a pickle jar with CLR.  Label it in a very obvious way that it is CLR and therefore dangerous.  Take the pony's head off, pull the tail out, de-clamp and replace with ziptie, put tail and head and pony body into CLR jar.  Put under childproof sink.  Leave for about a week.  Gently but thoroughly wash and rinse.  They need conditioner afterwards for sure.