Cleaning rusty BBEs?

[Taxel]

I finally got more Oxyclean and spent all day soaking, rinsing, scrubbing, and washing my rusty ponies. Next up is my BBEs. Gusty is okay, maybe an eyelid wipedown with a qtip and she'll be fine. But Shady... poor Shady is a mess. Not only are her eyes pretty rusty but the inside of her head is bad too. Her hair is caked in rust and its all around her eyes and everything.

With my normal ponies I was soaking them but I'm not sure how that would affect BBEs. Something tells me its very bad... probably the rusty eyes I'm not sure how to get the rust out of her hair without one or more soaks unless I cut it out and have her rehaired. Her hair's in pretty bad shape so I wouldn't mind this but I don't want to if I don't have to.

[Epona]

Have you tried scrubbing the roots of the mane with a toothbrush and tooth paste? It wont get all of it but it does a good job.

[Taxel]

Oh that's a good idea, thanks! I didn't even think of toothpaste since it didn't work on my rustiest girl.

[Shaiyeh]

Don't mean to hijack the thread but if you have any good ideas for how to scrub the BBE eyes I want to know, too. I gave up on that when I got my first ones (bck in 2006 when I started collecting) and painted over it, gonna try to save that >-< *feels bad*

[Taxel]

By all means, hijack! Shady needs more eye cleaning too but they're more acceptable than her hair so I forgot to mention them.

When I fist got her, her eyes were sooo much rustier. I just used qtips to wipe them down as best I could. That helped and what I could reach came off with persistent gentle-ish rubbing. I'd love to get the rest of the nastiness out cause she looks like she has jaundice.

[Baby Sugarberry]

Cleaning BBE's is really fiddly but possible.  Just takes a lot of time and patience.  Usually I use alcohol and a qtip; the main problem is being gentle enough.  There are two tiny little plastic pegs, one on each side of the eyeball, and they can be snapped off quite easily if you put too much pressure on the eye itself.

[princessluna11706]

Ooo maybe my childhood Baby Frosting has a chance then Poor thing has rusted out eyes from many times in the bathtub..

Does anyone have any before/after pics?

[FarDreamer]

I seen RIT Rust Remover recommended for this many times, but haven't tried it myself.  The photos folks who have done it have shared look really good.

[Taxel]

I've heard that but I haven't been able to find it locally. I'm hoping I can find it in California while I'm on vacation. Gotta take care of the ponies xD