cleaning/restoring playsets

Templeflower

Teeny Tiny Baby Pony
Joined
Feb 28, 2011
Messages
9
Hi all you wonderful pony people! I'm pulling all my old childhood play sets out from storage. They need some cleaning up, stickers need putting back on etc. But I noticed a lot of yellowing issues on my dream castle. I'm so sad! That was my favorite set as a child, and its so icky now! I'm going to try to re-brighten the pink back to normal, and re-whiten the floors. But i cant exactly dump the castle in a jar of hydrogen peroxide. Has anyone tried using the "retrobright" recipe to restore their play sets? Or is there another, safe method. I have a precious two year old and an inquisitive Old English Sheepdog at home. So the safer the method, the better!

Plus I realized I need to buy a lot of the corresponding accessories. I hadn't realized how many of them have been lost over the years. (On the plus side, I have almost everything from my perm shop!)

Sigh.

Thanks for all your help!
 
I personally haven't had much luck with restoring the color to yellowed playsets. I have used various cleaners, including a bleach pen on white, but nothing really seemed to work well. The hard plastic just has different properties than the softer pony vinal.

Resticking stickers is easier. A good acid-free all-purpose glue works fine with just a very light coating placed on the back of the sticker, and then the sticker would be placed on the item.
 
I expect the only way to get it *really* white would be to do a full repaint, but then it wouldn't be safe for the two year old or the dog. Unfortunately, that's just what most plastics do with age.
 
I've been experimenting with a peroxide creme I got from a beauty supply store:

PeroxideCream.jpg


I've been applying with a cheap paint brush and then wiping it off (with a damp rag) and reapplying every two days or so. This stuff does burn; so, I wear rubber gloves when handling it and keep the sets closed up in the guest room so the cats can't get it on them. Here's the progress so far:

WaterfallBefore.jpg


WaterfallProgress.jpg


SignBefore.jpg


SignAfter.jpg


NurseryBefore.jpg


NurseryProgress.jpg


The pink is lighter than its original shade but at least it's no longer orange.
 
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Hair dye cream! That is brilliant, I would never have thought do to that but it makes perfect sense.
 
I've got more information about the peroxide whitening method here on my website:

mlppreservation

I believe that what's working with the hair creams is the peroxide, but if anyone uses one where that's not an ingredient, let me know!

Breyer600, can I use some of your photos on my website? They're really great!

Thanks!

- FarDreamer :heart1:
 
Sure thing! Use any of my photos that you'd like. I wish I had taken the before and after shots with the same lighting for a better comparison. I'll do that on the next ones I do, but that will be awhile yet. I'm still working on the Nursery - mainly the roof. The Waterfall is just about done with only a few stubborn spots. Most of my other playsets will get the same treatment eventually, but I don't have enough room to spread them all out at once, and these were the first ones I decided to try.
 
Awesome job on the whitening! The "retrobright" recipe I found is also a hydrogen peroxide base. That must be the key ingredient to fixing the yellowing. How long did it take you to get those results? And what are you doing about the areas with stickers? Painting around them? My nursery looks almost identical to your before pic! I'm so excited. And far dreamer- I'm completely in love with your website!
 
Yes, I'm painting around the stickers, and being very careful with the rag when I wipe them off as well. I didn't keep track of the time very well. It took weeks perhaps over a month to get them this far. The white parts do go much faster than the pink. The purple went pretty quickly too as did the aqua of a Baby Bonnet School of Dance I worked on, but that one was only very slightly yellowed (no pics unfortunately).
 
Wow Breyer, those results are quite striking. I'll have to remember this for future adventures of my own. Thank you very much for the tip and the examples.
 
I wanted to update everyone. I have had pretty good results soaking a yellowed baby bonnet school of dance bow handle in a strong oxy clean bath for several days. My daughter has destroyed our camera, so I cant really take pics... but I'm surprised and pleased by the results. Its not a fast process by any means, its still soaking after 5 days. But there is a noticeable improvement. And if you don't have peroxide cream on hand, its worth a try for smaller items.

I dont recommend that for ponies though... I tried a 4 hour soak to whiten my scoops. She is brighter, but her symbol paint bubbled, and her main body is not as smooth as it was.

I've had much better results with a soak in 3% hydrogen peroxide in the sun. My really gross gingerbread is much brighter, her cancer spots are considerably lighter, and no damage to her symbol at all! The only thing I noticed after 3 days in H.P. in the sun, was the glue for her hair softened a bit, and a small amount pulled out after a shampoo and condition. So watch that.
 
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