Derusting tutorial! -Ish.....
This is one of those things that I would like to make a video of but I just can’t do videos.
Sometimes you know a pony has rust inside because you can see rust coming out of the base of the tail, turning the hair that distinctive ruddy orange.
Sometimes it’s seeing discoloration from the outside.
Sometimes it’s rust or black mildew visible in the rooting holes on the mane.
And sometimes, there’s a rattle when you shake them that sounds like sand or a handful of little rocks.
That’s the tail washer having disintegrated.
Sea Breeze had everything but visible rust seeping out of her tail hole.
I popped her head off (she was cooperative! I always appreciate that), pulled out her tail, and took a look inside.
It’s difficult to get photos inside a pony with my phone, but you can see she’s pretty evenly coated with black mildew, rust, and some rusty chunks of metal here and there from her tail washer.
So! Here’s how I fix this.
I put the pony in a plastic container just big enough that they can fully lie down in with their head off, and deep enough that you can fully submerge them.
I only use these containers (which I thrifted and they were really gross at the time, but ponies aren’t the only gross things I like to clean) for derusting ponies and soaking doll/pony clothes.
These are not exact measurements, I just happen to have an old baby formula scoop in my Oxy Clean, but toss about a tbl/1 oz of Oxy Clean in there.
And add boiling hot water. You do need hot water. It’ll help kill off anything living inside the body and you need the body to be as soft and malleable as possible throughout this process.
The tools I use most often to scrub rust and mildew out of ponies is a toothbrush that I’ve cut the bristles shorter on (this allows it to get into the legs without the bristles ending up bent and useless), and long-handled cotton swabs.
I like to squish the head with the toothbrush to make sure it’s all full of Oxy water, and will flip the body after it’s been in there for a moment so that every bit of ick is coated and the hot water can start working it loose from the vinyl.
I can’t take photos of this part of the process because I need both hands, but you put on some gloves, pick up your pony, and start scrubbing.
Scrub inside the head, scrub the roots of the hair both inside and out if you need to, scrub all around and inside the body squishing and pulling and scrunching so you can get into every little crevice and dislodge that grime.
If you’re lucky it’ll all come off without having left rust stains behind.
Rinse them out every time they start to cool and become harder, then toss them back into the hot Oxy soak to soften again.
Keep scrubbing with the toothbrush and rinsing until everything you can get off is off. You may need a swab to get into the tips of their hooves (very helpful if they’re hot and soft as can be for the legs), ears, noses, unicorn horns, and if they’re a pegasus, scrunch them up really well and get into the tips of their wings with cotton swabs.
If you have mildew coming out of the rooting holes, don’t forget to part the mane and scrub the vinyl between the rows.
Also don’t forget to do that if you’re deflocking.
I prefer bar soap for this part. It’s about control, since liquid soap is drippy.
You’ll also need more Oxy Clean which acts like a scouring powder, here.
What I do is split the tail so it lies flat, then wet the toothbrush, scrub up a little of the bar soap (again, this bar of soap is ONLY used for this so I don’t have to worry about it being rusty or gross), dip it into the Oxy Clean to pick up some powder, and scrub.
Like before, keep repeating this process of scrubbing, picking up soap and Oxy Clean, and rinsing until the rust is gone. I like to take a paper towel and wipe up the rusty yuck water on the counter every time I rinse the tail, too. Luckily Sea Breeze’s tail crimp wasn’t rusty.
And that’s it! It does take some time, more or less depending on how bad off the pony is.
Oxy Clean is rough on the hair, so you will need to condition their hair before restyling.
There is still some mildew grime in the rooting holes. There’s no way to get in there to scrub it all out without removing the hair. The long, hot Oxy soak will help to kill it off, at least.
