Need some cleaning advice - Rusty Surprise

[cobalte]

To start off, I suspected my Surprise had a bit of tailrust as I spotted brown staining on her tail after I got her. She gave me a surprise when I took off her head and was really dirty with rust stains... probably some mold too.

Her head for the most part, seems to be cleaned now. Only a few black dots in her ear which I can't reach.
The rest has been a bigger struggle.

I've given Oxyclean soaks to the tail and body. I've tried filling her up with a mix of Oxyclean and water and giving her a shake, then emptying. That helped a bit but still had a fair bit left.
Tonight I decided to give it another go and scrub the insides with the mix using a toothbrush. I then filled the body up with the mix and let her sit, gave her a shake, scrubbed a bit and rinsed her out. An improvement, but there are still marks. There's also brown staining on her tail hole (will have to post a pic to explain this one).
Do I keep persisting with scrubbing? The legs are a problem area that has been really tough to clean too.

Also soaked her tail with Oxyclean and gave that a scrub. No difference there so it might be time for a new tail, though I'd like to try and restore her current one the best I can.

Does anyone have some tips? I'm pretty sure that the most of it is rust, as a lot of the stains and spots are brown, but unsure if any of it is mold. I don't want to bait her because I really think she just needs a bit of work - her outside is fine and just needs a bit of sunfading for pink marks (regrind?).

[Baby Sugarberry]

Rinsing alone isn't going to get rid of the poor pony's rust issues, you're going to have to get down and dirty with a toothbrush!  If you've got an old one, use that, or just pick up any old cheap kind at the dollar store.  Kid sized are good since they fit inside the legs better.  Get Surprise nice and warm with a hot water bath then you should be able to manipulate her legs much more easily to scrub out all that clingy rust.   Toothpaste (make sure it's actually paste, not colored gel, preferably the white kind) also works wonders on rust, and is nice and safe for people too.  It is possible to get out virtually all rust, it just takes a lot of elbow grease.

[Stormness_1]

I find that to get the rust out of tails and ponies in general, bi-carb is your best bet. although with some really tough cases, I've resorted to my bathroom cleaner. It's a all-round tile/sink/grout cleaner, and dries the hair out horribly, but that's nothing an overnight conditioning won't fix. It got the rust out of my mommy meadowsweet's tail, which I was pretty ecstatic about, being a perfect pony otherwise. It's best to have a look at the ingredients in it first though..!

I've also heard that toothpaste works on tail rust, but I've had no success with it myself!

[cobalte]

Rinsing alone isn't going to get rid of the poor pony's rust issues, you're going to have to get down and dirty with a toothbrush!

I have been scrubbing with a toothbrush... said so in the original post. But I'll try with toothpaste and bi-carb tonight. Might have to take the advice on a kids-size toothbrush for the legs, I've just been using a normal one and reaching down there is a big squeeze. Will post back with results. Thanks guys!

[hathorcat]

Denture cleaner is great too - you can break one up and stuff it down the legs of a pony and then fill with hot water and allow it to fizz away. Usually a great way at loosening stubborn stains. Pipe cleaner is handy for getting down into the legs and into awkward areas!

[cobalte]

I tried bicarb soda first thing on the body and it turned out great. It got all the stray stains out. Thanks stormness_1! Unfortunately there are some marks left but they look to be something like pindot mold, as they're in the vinyl itself.
The only issue left of the inner body is that there's still rust staining inside the hole of the tail. Not on the outer butt or the insides, but actually on the edges of that hole, if that makes sense. Not sure what to do about that.

Bicarb soda also helped the tail but brown marks remain... I'm trying to rest it in a paste of the stuff now to see if that helps. I used scrubbing with toothpaste (though I only had the gel) and that did nothing.
Also, will rust stains on the metal 'divider' part affect the rest of the tail later on? I'm alright to leave it as it is as long as it doesn't end up spreading again...

[rybett]

Pipe cleaner "suppository" for the tail hole.    I use a baking soda/peroxide toothpaste for rusty hair.  Lots of hot water and scrubbing for the pin dot. 

[cobalte]

Ahh, too bad the old arts and crafts supplies ran out. Will have to get some tomorrow.

Just focusing on the tail tonight, I've tried that paste combo you mentioned above Rybett. Letting the tail sit in the mix for a bit seemed to help a teensy bit, but there's still patches of faded brown. I gave it a scrubbing with the stuff for good measure but that didn't seem to do anything. Is there a certain method to it?

[hathorcat]

The other thing which works on rust on tails is rit rust remover - I have found soaking a tail in that shifts most stains. But as this is Surprise you ll need to be careful as her hair colour is not colour fast.

As for the tail washer - unfortunately its metal and if its already started to oxidise and rust it will likely continue. However, that can take a long time if its kept as dry as possible and been cleaned as much as possible. The key if you are putting the washer back in - is just to keep an eye on it!

[rybett]

Fingers and work it in.  I wonder if these would work?
http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110127031231AAxRpbQ