G1 Tail Rust Dilemma

Kosei

Kosei

Teeny Tiny Baby Pony
Joined
Sep 27, 2023
Messages
118
Hi everyone! I'm a really new collector, I started in May, and in the last month I've completely fallen in love. I recently was very fortunate and went to The Great Ohio Toy Show (in Ohio lol) it was a lot of fun, I met other collectors irl for the first time, and most importantly bought lots and lots of ponies. I hope to post the full haul soon :) My favorite find was a sweetheart sister! I think they are so funny and so beautiful. However, she has a little bit of tail rust, and in my reading online I've heard that if you don't fix it the rust can spread to her head- but I have also read that regluing the head never makes the neck look quite right. Her neck is beautiful, it's such a perfect neck. I mean it, it's immaculate, perfectly lined up with the rest of her body. But I'm worried leaving it will make it worse. Any advice would be appreciated....

Btw she's in my pfp lolol I did it on the fly
 
You can take the head off. You don't have to reglue the head down, I don't. Makes it easier to take the head off for future cleaning. There's little lines on the neck and head that you line up to get it straight again.

Tail rust can spread within the body. Pop the head off, remove the tail and replace the washer and metal clamp with white zip-ties. If there's rust on the tail, you can use white toothpaste to remove it. Wash with soap and condition.


Here's a good video on the process. Its pretty simple to do
 
One of my recent rusty ponies. The tail washer was completely disintegrated.

IMG_20231009_152042.jpg

Another user posted a rusty Bright Eyes in their charity shop find that's just as bad.
 
Draco said:
Also you can scrub any rust out of the body with dish soap and hot oxyclean. Use an old toothbrush to get in the legs . If the pony has glitter avoid oxyclean
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Thank you so much for the advice! I didn't respond earlier because I was anxious and I didn't need to be!

Alstroemeria said:
One of my recent rusty ponies. The tail washer was completely disintegrated.

View attachment 79758

Another user posted a rusty Bright Eyes in their charity shop find that's just as bad.
Click to expand...
I apologize for not responding earlier, I was. Anxious. So I guess it's better to bite the bullet so it doesn't get that bad?
 
If you see signs of rust, and have time to get to it, then yes you should remove that washer.

However, in a nice controlled low humidity environment (your home) the rust won't instantly get worse. You have time to get to it later.

Personally, I leave the crimps on if they're not rusty. I do use plastic washers for more support, but not everyone does.

Some of the early year ponys have nicer quality washers (thicker, higher quality steel, coated) that don't rust easily. The later ones with the little teeth are prone to rust.
 
Tail rust CAN spread, but that doesn't mean it will.

I strongly advise against using oxiclean; I used it on a Butterscotch and her hair was never the same again. It was so silky before! I washed and conditioned her hair so many times after the oxiclean bath but her hair was permanently altered. If you do use oxiclean I would ONLY use it on the body, not the head, after setting the tail safely aside.

Also, there's this recent trend where people replace the piece of metal crimping the tail together with zipties . . . but the crimped metal doesn't rust. They don't have iron in them so they literally can't. (Can you tell that I hate this ziptie thing, lol.) Rust comes from the tail washer. So all you actually need to replace is the washer. If I'm dealing with tail rust I replace the metal washer with a rubber washer of similar size from Home Depot.
 
I take out the washer on any pony that is rusty. I leave the metal crimp on unless the tail is so stained that I need to take the crimp off to get the hair really clean. And I give the body a good cleaning, usually just swishing some dish soap around inside the pony does the trick! I've done oxy soaks too just don't do oxy if she has glitter!
RetroGeek Crafts on youtube has a lot of really good videos on restoration and cleaning
 
LadyMoondancer said:
Tail rust CAN spread, but that doesn't mean it will.

I strongly advise against using oxiclean; I used it on a Butterscotch and her hair was never the same again. It was so silky before! I washed and conditioned her hair so many times after the oxiclean bath but her hair was permanently altered. If you do use oxiclean I would ONLY use it on the body, not the head, after setting the tail safely aside.
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I see, that makes sense. Its so fascinating what some people do and what some people dont do. I have a restored applejack i bought like that, her tail isnt fixed to one spot, swirling the tail will spin it. When i do that it sounds like plastic rubbing against plastic so i assume they did the zipties only. I really appreciate the note about the rusting only spreading *sometimes.* i wont be doing anything until the situation with the tail gets worse. Thank you!
 
Neelah said:
I take out the washer on any pony that is rusty. I leave the metal crimp on unless the tail is so stained that I need to take the crimp off to get the hair really clean. And I give the body a good cleaning, usually just swishing some dish soap around inside the pony does the trick! I've done oxy soaks too just don't do oxy if she has glitter!
RetroGeek Crafts on youtube has a lot of really good videos on restoration and cleaning
Click to expand...
Retrogeek actually got me partly into pony collecting. I started watching videos of theirs and it looked so fun to restore ponies. It started with my childhood collection, just scrubbing them, getting rid of paint and doing their hair. Now look at me. I really appreciate the advice! Ill def consult this thread in the future.
 
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