Two ponies to fix up- help?

[Prince Primbrose]

I've never done anything more than wash my ponies and style their hair, so I don't know how to get started on this.

I got a Brush n Grow Brilliant Bloom pony in the mail today, and opened her up to make myself feel better. I knew from the description that there was some pink marker on the back of her leg, which I didn't think much of. But now that I have her in hand there is actually some ugly discoloration around the marker as well that didn't show in the photo. Is sunfading my best bet for the marker on her, and can the lightening of the plastic around the marker be undone?

Second, I have a Parasol. I bought her on the arena during the summer and put her right on my shelf. Lately I've seen some topics about rattling in the pony meaning rust, and I'm worried... There is quite the rattle inside her, something small in a high quantity that seems to almost fill her legs. I looked closely at her tail this morning; there does seem to be some rusty-coloured staining on an innermost part of the tail, and even a bit around the tail hole... Can anyone tell me how to go about cleaning her out, or point me to a good tutorial for that..? Or do I just need to pop her head off, scrub her out, and that's it?

(If needed for reference, I can get some pictures tomorrow when the sun comes up.)

[invaderhorizongreen]

For rust take the tail out ASAP and put some oxyclean and warm water in it to help get the rust out.  That is what I would do for that one, and you may have to soak it more than once.

[cricket]

Most likely the rattle is from the washer that was on the tail.  Pop her head off and remove the washer and the tail.  I agree with soaking the inside of her body with oxy clean.  I usually scrub the tail a few times with shampoo and a tooth brush and that will take the rust out.  Good luck!!!

[Prince Primbrose]

I don't have any oxy clean... I'm planning to take Parasol over with me while I housesit tonight to get some work in on her, and I'll see if my neighbour has any laying around. If I can't get ahold of any, will plain ol' soap and water do the trick? Or is there any other cleaning product that would do well?

[CarnationTwirl]

Toothpaste also works well for removing rust, but leaves the hair a bit frizzy.  Soap and water works well, as long as you put in the elbow grease to scrub it out.  Boiling water is great to get their legs flexible enough to bend so you can get your scrubbing tool in there.  I often use a small clipped off piece of scrubby clamped down in my forceps to get it in there since I haven't been able to find small enough bottle brushes.  Frequently rinse and change your water, and be prepared to get messy.

[Ayalah]

Hmm If the marking arund the highlighter is what i think it is there may not be much you can do. It sounds as though someone already tried to lighten the pink marks with peroxide or zit cream etc. I've had this happen. Even after repeated washing the color keeps fading (yet the dang pink remains) You could probably sunfade the pink, but the lightened area will remain discolored. Highlighter marks are evil.

As for the rattle, most likely the washer came loose. I do recommend a head pop. It's the easiest way to see exactly what is going on. You likely do have rust to clean out. A toothbrush and soap will do just fine. CLR can help too. Don't put the rusty washer back obviously

http://coolslaw.tripod.com/mlprestorationguide/id4.html

Link above had a section on tail rust. Scroll down

[Prince Primbrose]

I am so disgusted right now... After a couple hours of working at Parasol's head, (it was on there really good!) I got it to pop off. Sure enough, she was totally black inside, all crusted on and covering all her insides... Surprisingly the washer was almost intact- rusty and worn down and awful, but still holding on tight to the tail. I got it off and I've been working at all the crud inside her head and body, but I can see this is gonna take me some work...

I think the grossest part is that since I got her she's always had this weird, really sweet smell? I kind of liked it, and now I'm wondering just what was making her smell so fruity... Yuck. I also wonder if part of her severe brown discoloration isn't in part caused by all the black rust inside her? I can't wait to clean her all up and see if her outside color changes a bit from the cleaning.

I'm going to find a toothbrush and get back to scrubbing at her; I can see this is going to take me a while.

Hmm If the marking arund the highlighter is what i think it is there may not be much you can do. It sounds as though someone already tried to lighten the pink marks with peroxide or zit cream etc. I've had this happen. Even after repeated washing the color keeps fading (yet the dang pink remains) You could probably sunfade the pink, but the lightened area will remain discolored. Highlighter marks are evil.

Well shoot... The only prominent fading seems to be on the back of a leg, but it still bugs me. Ahh, well, lesson learned there.

(ETA: More bad news: When I started to drain the rusty water out, my neighbour's pipe under the sink started leaking all over the floor! Tonight is not a good night for me, lol.)

[CarnationTwirl]

I'm absolutely certain her colour will improve once you get all the gunk out of the inside.  Even moreso if you go after her outsides -gently-
Since she'll need a nice shampoo and condition after all that cleaning, why not treat her to an extra fruity smelling one?  I've noticed that kids shampoos have a scent that's very potent and lingering.

[Ayalah]

(ETA: More bad news: When I started to drain the rusty water out, my neighbour's pipe under the sink started leaking all over the floor! Tonight is not a good night for me, lol.)

That IS a bad night. EEk. Hope it gets better!

[hathorcat]

On the rust - this link to a tutorial by Ringlets is brilliant help http://www.mlparena.com/Forums/viewtopic/p=2747153.html#2747153

As mentioned before a good scrub - soaking with denture cleanser tablets and then toothpaste and a baby toothbrush or pipe cleaner to get into the legs will clean her out. As soon as this is done you ll probably be surprised by how much her colour changes on the outside.

On  Brilliant Bloom it could be break down in the plastic which is causing the central pink and fading out remarks unfortunately. And for that there is no cure. It is perhaps worth trying a sunfade in case it is an ink mark which is leaching into the surrounding plastic and it can be lightened up but by the sounds of it it does sound more like regrind or a botched fading attempt.

[Prince Primbrose]

I think Brilliant Bloom's discolouration is actually caused by some sort of zit cream or something... because the bottom of her hooves are still covered in it. Kinda gross, someone should have cleaned that off...

I'm going to look for some better tools to get into Parasol's legs and such on Tuesday. Until then I guess I can work at the rust in her tail.

[Ayalah]

Good for you! Diving in and tackling it! It can be daunting. I'm sure she'll clean up beautifully!

[hathorcat]

Thats a shame that its probably cream Unfortunately I think sometimes sellers use it to clean up marks and because they do not keep the pony they may not realise the actual damage it causes.

[Prince Primbrose]

I've been working on Parasol slowly, mostly letting denture tablets bubble up inside her... I'm going to see if I can just borrow some oxy clean from someone in the neighbourhood, because it was too heavy for me to buy and carry home today.

That aside, I bought a handful of old ponies in need of some work here in my brag thread. Some of them just need a proper scrubbing, but others have dark spots that look like mold or cancer? Someone has already told me that Sweet Stuff's dark mark is definitely cancer. Anyone know the difference in appearance of cancer and mold? Does cancer mean it has a dark spot in the center? And will sunfading do anything about mold?

[hathorcat]

Be careful with the oxy with Parasols glitter I have seen it remove some glitter in the past on ponies.

The easiest way to define the cancer/mould thing is that cancer is "in" the plastic its a result of the plastic breaking down where as mould is "on" the plastic and a result of external influences. The vast majority of the time however what you will find on ponies is cancer - mould it more likely to show up on occasion inside a pony when humidity and conditions have caused it to build up. Also mould will clean away...cancer will not. Mould will tend to be in clusters of spots or stains or a large joined area. Cancer is usually a dark central spot or under the skin bruising.