Hemming and hawing over a Dance'n'Prance

[Sugar]

Hi, everypony!

So tonight's spa treatments involve my Dance'n'Prance Swinger.  I got her as part of a lot I won on eBay some time ago.  The rest of the lot was in fair (biro'ed SS Ribbon and, erm, enhanced Sparkler) to pretty great shape (Creamsicle and Gusty).  The only really grotty exceptions were Swinger and Applejack, both of whom have pindot/ingrained dirt on their hooves.  Swinger's lower body (not quite up to her belly, safely away from her clockwork) is currently soaking in a mild bleach solution, but the dirt on her has got me thinking about disassembling her to check her insides, to make sure she's not got something worse incubating deep within her guts.   But since her mechanism works dandily, I'm finding myself reluctant to fiddle with something in case I go and louse it up.

My question to you, [you], is thus:  Should I risk the DNP mechanism, or risk whatever may (or may not) be inside Swinger getting grosser (or even worse, afflicting the rest of my herd!)?  Or does anypony have suggestions for a third path to take to resolve my pony dilemma?  Thank you!

[Oneleo1]

I think her mechanism is all plastic, so soaking and getting her wet should not be an issue. I think you should be able to pop her head off without damaging the inner workings as well, so you should be able to drain her well.

I've never taken one apart though, only seen pictures and it's been a while since I've seen them.

Oh, and I think Oxyclean will get rid of the pin dot if the bleach does not

[partypony566]

I've never taken one apart, mainly because it seems like too much effort 

[BabyIceCrystal]

I would not recommend it for casual cleaning. There are indeed a few metal bits within the plastic casing so rust is a concern, but the entire thing is so firmly entrenched in the pony I don't believe it to be worth the effort unless you have strong signs of internal issues. I happen to have a bait DnP so here's some lovely pictorial evidence for you.

I got her in a bait lot with head already removed. I'm guessing that the little cut from the rim of her neck to the knob hole was put there by the customizer I got her from as it's not there on the other intact bait DnP I have. In fact I suspect the customizer got as far as this, saw how hard the rest would be and scrapped the whole idea. Even that extra play doesn't allow the mechanism to come out.

As you can see, the head is held on by a little groove to the inner mechanism itself, not the body of the pony.
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Notice the upraised line in the middle top of the mechanism. It leads to a tiny hole in the back which gives access to a tiny screw which will separate the two halves of this beast. In Tap Dancer's case, the hole is quite filled in with rust which is why I stopped this little exploration here. Perhaps some other day I may continue and get more pictures.

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You can see the axle where the winding knob used to be attached is made of metal. In poor nighttime pictures like these I couldn't capture it, but there are other metal parts visible through the sides of the mechanism. Strangely not rusted in this case. I tried to wriggle the thing out of the pony, but it is very firmly affixed in place. I suspect it was assembled inside the pony and that you'd have to reverse engineer it to get it out, but obviously I haven't gone that far so I really don't know.

At any rate, the whole procedure would be pretty complex just for the chance to scan if there were problems inside the body.

[hathorcat]

Yes I would second Baby IceCrystal's comments - they are a complete nightmare to take apart and only if you have the patience and dont mind if the pony's neckline gets damaged along the way would I bother. Also as you can see they do have moving metal parts which can rust if they get wet internally.

Personally D&P ponies are relatively inexpensive so I would clean her as much as possible and then display her - if she deteriorates with time you can always buy her a matching sister for a low amount of money.

[partypony566]

Omg that looks complex

[DaffyDilly]

The mechanism itself isn't too complex once you get it out, fiddly to fix yes but they work quite simply.

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The coil is tightened when you turn the knob, then when you let go and it unwinds a bit, it pulls the tail around with it using a series of cogs, which cause said tail to spin. Usually the coil is held within the casing so it's not as large as in the photo. The reason D&P ponies stop working is the end of the coil snaps off so you have to reattach it.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v315/Daffydilly/MLP%20Collection/DandPExperiment/

As you can see, having rust in a D&P is bad so I wouldn't risk getting her wet. TBH, if her mechanism is working perfectly then the chances of her having gunk inside are minimal.

Anybody with issues with D&P ponies can send them all to me 

[mlp4me]

Just a question here, what about a h202 soak, letting thoroughly dry (in front of a fan or outside a few dry days) then filling up feet with silica gel? H202 is supposed to help loosen up any rust and silica will absorb any extra moisture left behind...

[hathorcat]

Wow! Daffy that is the best "inside a D&P" I have seen in pictures...I love the "not so complex"...

[Sugar]

Thank you for the photos, everypony.   Although I'm beginning to think I'm utterly out of my depth on this.

Poor Swinger.   After I posted, I took her out of the bleach bath - much improvement on the pindot/dirt business on her hooves, btw - and noticed some brown schmucky stuff gooped around the knob at her neck.  It was a shallow bath vessel and she was undisturbed, but I took my handy Q-Tips anyway and started poking around... and now I know she's got some kind of colossal rust or other grot going on inside. *sigh*  Shame, since she's externally much improved from when I got her (even got her tail all untangled and unsnarled from around itself), but I'm really thinking she was stored in a garage or shed or something and the damp got in.

At this point, since I've grown fond of the little troublemaker, I'm heavily leaning towards hathorcat's advice - cleaning her as best I can and displaying her for the now (though separately from the main herd, just in case it's more than just rust going on), and keeping an eye out for an upgrade for when she starts to fail ().  I'm still relatively new to the whole restoration game, and not entirely sure of myself enough to risk completely botching her, especially since her twisting tail mechanism does still work in spite of everything.  But I'm grateful for the photos, BabyIceCrystal and DaffyDilly... they really let one know what one's up against in contemplating the standard behead-and-clean procedure!  And who knows - maybe someday, I'll work up the nerve to fully deal with her the way she needs to be dealt with (why do I feel like there should be a bwa-ha-ha after that? ).

[Oneleo1]

If you dont mind her not working you could always take the mechanism out

she is fairly common so if you wanted to upgrade her it would not be hard.