Pony Restoration questions

[Matcha]

I've got a couple of questions regarding pony restoration, can anyone help me out?

1) I've got a baby Glory and she's sort of an off-white cream color, can I make her white again somehow?
2) I have a baby Sea Spray, her head's faded to a dull pink while her body is mostly the original color, is this fixable?
3) I boiled a Whizzer to get rid of her pin dot mold then her hair started falling out after I conditioned it and tried to comb it out. Was this because of the boiling or because of some other reason? I think her hair might be breaking off.... I guess there's way to fix this other than rehairing?

[Blue Haired Ken Doll]

1) you could try a peroxide bath?
2) Again lol, you could try a peroxide bath, like just her head
3) I'm not too sure, but you could try adding extra glue to her plugs?

[Skeen]

1.  You can try sunfading but good results are hit and miss.
2.  No, unless you can fade the body to match.  It would be hard to replicate evenly and the color may not be the same shade.
3.  Unlikely boiling did that unless you were boiling her in OxyClean or some other chemical.  You've got to rehair to fix massive breakage like that.

[Matcha]

Thanks for the answers, guys! Whizzer was boiled in normal water so I was wondering what happened with her. What could have caused her hair to break like that? I was thinking I might have boiled her for too long but that doesn't seem like the case...

[Skeen]

Nah, she probably has sun damage or dry rot or something.  Where did you get her?

[Baby Sugarberry]

Pin dot is not mould.  It's ingrained dirt caught in the plastic's pores, and generally reversible. 

It's technically possible to use dye to fix head/body mismatch sometimes (or at least make it less obvious), but it's extremely easy to mess that up and make the problem worse rather than better - best left to very experienced customizers/restorers.  Long term stability is also an unknown.  Dye has the tendency to take on light coloured hair, so that would be a problem with Baby Sea Spray.  If she's otherwise nice, not worth the risk.

Beyond that, Skeen's got your answers.

[Matcha]

Nah, she probably has sun damage or dry rot or something.  Where did you get her?

I got her from someone who claims that she's been untouched for years, so perhaps its just the conditions she was stored in ):

[Shy Violet]

For Baby Glory you could try an oxyclean bath. I had a baity baby Moondancer that I decided to try oxyclean on for the first time and she is sooooo white now. She had ingrained dirt and was cream colored previously. After the oxyclean and hot water bath I scrubbed her with a toothbrush and toothpaste. I can't believe how white she is now. This can make their hair super dry though so use tons of conditioner after.

Unfortunately for Whizzer rehairing is the only way to fix her hair.

[lostpony]

I'm new but so far even after boiling for hours I have not seen hair become brittle/break from it.

I had a Sunnybunches tour the country for over a month before the US Pony Service ( ) figured it out and got her to me and her hair was very breaky and dry and had't looked that way in the ebay pics so I think sitting in a hot warehouse or something might have done it.  I just conditioned and combed until what was going to break off did and there was still plenty left so that you can't tell she had a problem, maybe you can just try that and see if there is enough left afterwards? 

I've heard about Oxy Clean for whitening but can't confirm it (edited to add:  Artemesia Floc says Oxy Clean is safe and effective and she knows what she's talking about and knows a lot more about plastics than most collectors especially me, so please try this first not peroxide!) and I have had great results so far with peroxide sunfade but look out, will fade symbol paint and hair so, be sure to mask them.  I only did it on Fire Chief so far.  Peroxide is considered a restoration and there are substantial long term unforeseen risks to the pony...use only as a last resort when other less dangerous methods fail and only on ponies considered LOST oh yeah boiling too don't do that either except as last resort when pony is otherwise lost! Sorry I didn't mean to sound so casual about risky methods please don't boil, bleach or peroxide good ponies!!  (edited to add emphatic admonition)

I use strong bleach soak for pindot, takes a while but works great and you can see it working day by day to decide whether it's working faster than the collateral damage to things like hair color.
(also edited to say I am advised by AF to never use bleach!!!!!!  I won't use it anymore unless there is no alternative)

Happy ponying!!

[Artemesia's Garden]

I've never had good results with rit dye, but I know it can be done because I've seen people's work online.  But I spent years doing molecular biology experiments and I still can't get it right so I'd say leave it to the experts.  The only thing I do is re-pinking occasionally. 

I'm not sold on hydrogen peroxide (HPO) but I use sunfading in a limited way if I've cleaned a pony inside and out.  I don't sunfade for more than a week or two depending on the weather because things either seem to fade in a few days or take a LOT longer.  Luckily many problems seem to improve a lot with just a few days on each side.  I worry a lot about long term problems with the plastic caused by long term sunfading, bleach and HPO.  But if sunfading for a few days improves my enjoyment significantly then I will do it and just monitor it after every sunny day. Some types of biro will be gone in a week which is very satisfying.  The effects here are gradual because the sun isn't that strong in the UK.  If you are seeking to correct a head body mismatch it's best to look up which ponies will respond well or badly to sunfading.  Majesty's head for example will go darker, people refer to this as 'sunburn' and if affects quite a few ponies.  Hope this helps.

p.s. about the hair -  I had a barnacle that this happened to and I know certain colours are prone to disintegration (reds), but the one you describe isn't one of those colours.  However, I have a theory that bleach can do this to nylon hair (you can look up how bleach affects some types on nylon) so maybe someone soaked poor Whizzer in bleach hoping to correct the usual head/body mismatch that you get with this pony?

Edit: about pindot - I soak in cold water for several days, then oxyclean in warm water.  Then I scrub with toothbrush and toothpaste, then scrape with a blunt knife or fingernail. It can take ages but keep soaking then scraping and bit by bit you will get the dirt out. If you want the pony to last another 30 years I have to say... do not bleach!!

[Matcha]

I didn't know bleach was that bad for ponies! I had my so-soft Sundance in bleach for about 30 minutes then scrubbed with a sponge and detergent and she ended up alright (was trying to fix her yellowing but it didn't really change much).
I'll try to pick up some oxyclean for my Baby Glory, I've never tried it before but it should be fine for her, right? She has perfect hair/symbols which I would hate to ruin.
I might attempt to comb out Whizzer's hair to remove all the breaking strands but even when I run my fingers through her hair, several strands fall out which really scares me! It's fairly soft now but the hairs are just falling out when I touch it! I also don't think she's been bleached, she still has the iridescent coating on her eyes and I'm quite sure her previous owner  was not a collector.

[Artemesia's Garden]

I didn't know bleach was that bad for ponies! I had my so-soft Sundance in bleach for about 30 minutes then scrubbed with a sponge and detergent and she ended up alright (was trying to fix her yellowing but it didn't really change much).
I'll try to pick up some oxyclean for my Baby Glory, I've never tried it before but it should be fine for her, right? She has perfect hair/symbols which I would hate to ruin.
I might attempt to comb out Whizzer's hair to remove all the breaking strands but even when I run my fingers through her hair, several strands fall out which really scares me! It's fairly soft now but the hairs are just falling out when I touch it! I also don't think she's been bleached, she still has the iridescent coating on her eyes and I'm quite sure her previous owner  was not a collector.

Bleach might not affect the iridescent coating but I don't know. It's hard to find references that mention this kind of finish. However many cleaning products contain bleach so they might have just picked something up out of the cupboard whether or not they are a collector 

[lostpony]

TEs with the iridescent coating intact is pretty rare (I'm new but so far I have never seen it actually) and far more valuable than her hair...rehairing is really not as big a deal as it sounds compared with the risk of damage to those rare-condition eyes and the rest of the pony.  The hair is the only replaceable part (well you can replace the eyes but not original of course).

If she were mine I would soak that hair in a gentle unscented hair conditioner for a day or few in a plastic bag or something to keep it from drying out then rinse and comb and remove whatever hair comes off, knowing that if it all goes that it's the most straightforward, mechanical, and certain repair to be made.

As to bleach:  I have used bleach quite a bit on my ponies so far, and you don't have to wait to see the damage:  I used it to clean up some tough so softs and one of them I left in longer because it didn't whiten up well enough to suit me and that one which I checked hourly suddenly began to turn dark yellow....I pulled it out and rinsed immediately and the yellowing did lessen but I was left with a yellower pony than when I started (think it was the glue that suddenly turned yellow).  The very aged and stubborn pindot Sugarberry I just finished up took two weeks to soak off her dots and you can see the aging in the material...looks rather similar to nylon left to crumble in the sun but not really severe....what will happen to these over the long term?  At the very least years have been taken off their lives.  I don't mind, they were all bait when I started so what I got is better than what I had but...if the results can be achieved a less damaging way it's a lot better.  I went back and added strong disclaimers to my discussion because I don't want the risks to be overlooked and I was being a little cavalier discussing extreme methods I used on bait that others could turn around and do to their much better condition and more valuable ponies.  Plus, even bait is going to be the better condition pony in the future...it is easy to think of what we have now as the way things will be but, they won't be that weay because every year that passes ponies age another year and pretty soon a common pony isn't so common anymore and the future collectors will end up dealing with what we did to ours now...I hadn't thought about that so much before today...all my ponies are mine.  I am keeping them....well someday I will no longer own them one way or another and they don't necessarily die so....somepony will end up with what I did to them today.  Oh kinda mushy I guess but, not untrue...AF has kinda made me feel all responsible and stuff.

On the  other hand you can just sell me that worthless balding Whizzer at bait price and I'll take it off your hands....just kidding!  It's a nice pony, don't worry about the replaceable hair so much.

[Matcha]

I'll probably not touch Whizzer anymore haha, she actually looks alright, just that her hair breaks off if you touch it! I'd rehair her but I'm worried about how much the hair will cost... I'm pretty broke LOL. I might pry her head off and try gluing her mane but it's stuck on pretty tight, even after boiling her. Her plastic's also really hard so it might be quite difficult to get it off. Here's a pic of her.
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I'll definitely not bleach on my ponies any more! It doesn't seem worth it to risk it. Thanks for the tips, everyone!

[Artemesia's Garden]

You're welcome