Help removing rusted clamp from Italians

[MintamenaPie]

Hi everyone. I recently got my first Italian pony, an Applejack. She was showing some signs of rust out her tail hole and I generally go into all my ponies that I get second hand to make sure that they’re clean. This is what I found. I have no experience with this, I’m good at removing tail rust and rust from the bodies itself, but I’ve not had an Italian before and I just wanna make sure if there’s an accepted process I’m violating.

If I were to go in with no advice I would just use pliers to try and remove the clamp, use a ziptie to go where the string is, and then work on removing the rust from the tail. I don’t generally zip tie my regular release G1, I’ve just had a lot of luck placing the tail clamp across the hole perpendicularly after removing the ring, and I rarely have ponies that are so loose the tail will pop out. Obviously I can’t get away with this here.

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[Apple Spice]

I don't know if this will help any. But I've been mostly watching https://www.youtube.com/c/RetroGeekCrafts. Seems like she uses 2 zip ties.

 

[Skybreeze]

@MintamenaPie you can a clamp of some sort of clamp (like pliers) to thin ends and squeeze down to bend the metal into a tube shape then just pull the tail out.

 

[MustBeJewel]

In my personal opinion, variant pony or not, once that clamp/washer has gone rusty, there's very little going back. I think you'd be looking at a lengthy and chemical-involved process to fully remove the rust and refinish the metal and/or seal it. The rust will only get worse with any exposure to moisture, so I concur with the 2 zip-tie method

 

[MintamenaPie]

Thanks everyone! Trust me as soon as I pulled it out I thought about how satisfying it would be for me to take my pliers and pinch and squeeze and get that metal off, but I just wanna make sure I’m not doing anything that’s thought of as untoward towards a variant. I don’t have a lot of them, and this isn’t necessarily one that I spent a lot of money on, but I just wanted to make sure I’m proceeding properly.

 

[Lilykin]

I feel that replacing the washer/crimper on g1 is just standard preservation. I try to avoid it if possible but, like Jewel said, once the metal starts rusting there's not much you can do to fix it without going to extremes.

Also your title makes it sound like you took out a hit on the Italian mafia

 

[Apple Spice]

You can also replace the metal washer with a rubber one.

 

[jazzmatazz]

pliers are your best friend, occasionally an Italian I've had to take the metal snips to it and risk a few hairs. I only replace washers that have started to rust but do behead everything coming into my collection so those who have retained washers I just keep an eye on. Thankfully my house is fairly dry