Arthur's tpe doll repair thread inc. Rachel's resurrection

[seagull]

This never gets old, awesome work Arthur
Assume there has never been any issue with the Permatex RTV silicone reacting with the TPE

[Arthur1960]

Just another post to sing the praise of 3M Primer 94. Occasionally you will find splits in-between the fingers of tpe dolls, this can be due to tpe separation because of oil loss over time or damage during playtime or photoshoots, in any event before I started to use the Primer I found these pesky little splits tricky to fix. The problem with using heat in such a tight area is that you can easily cause damage to the surrounding fingers and end up making it look worse. For bigger splits the obvious solution is to mix up some tpe paste and I first tried that with Astrid who had a large split in-between one of her thumbs a couple of years back and the paste, made up with the Primer, worked a treat. For smaller splits all you need do is ensure they are clean and dry then coat the inner surface with the Primer and then close the splits dabbing up any Primer that squirts out. It's important then to ensure the surfaces stay closed together for several hours to ensure a good bond, a strip of crepe bandage is perfect.

So yesterday I found these splits on one of Donna's hand's, she's nearly 2 years old and had her last oiling 8 months ago but in any case I avoid applying oil on the hands due to the risk of oversaturating the fingers so should have smeared a tiny amount of vaseline on the area affected which may have prevented this. No worries, I just reach for my little bottle of primer, coat the splits, dab any excess Primer up with some tissue then secure the hand with some bandage, this morning the splits have sealed and Donna is good to go!

Nice to see that the 3M 94 Primer is still helping dolls. Good hand repair and nice to remind folks of the glory of a nail polish bottle with brush for applications.

For deeper or delicate repairs I have been using fine needles to inject just a drop deep in the cavity. Very easy to control the application. Blunt tip needles are available, as are those for insulin and other types. You can find blunt tip ones online and others from friendly medical or dental processionals. A 1ml syringe is about the right size for fine applications.

The only trick is to rinse the inside a bit with iso alcohol after using the 3M primer, then a drop of oil in the tube/plunger assembly to prevent it getting sticky from the primer.

Good repairs.
Cheers!
... W ...
NEEDLE OPTIONS
Needles(2048).jpg

Thanks for this tip, brilliant idea! I actually still have an old glass syringe from my nursing days somewhere which would work.

This never gets old, awesome work Arthur
Assume there has never been any issue with the Permatex RTV silicone reacting with the TPE

Cheers seagull, no I've never had any issue with the Permatex but it doesn't really come into contact with the tpe as I wrap crepe bandage around the whole palm plate before I fit it back into the hand. One observation I would make is that once an original finger wire breaks and the copper wire makes contact with the tpe (If it pokes through the string wrapped around it) then inevitably the tpe will gradually react with the exposed metal. It pays to do a fix rather than leave it for too long otherwise the tpe in that area begins to lose its integrity making a repair that much harder.

[Arthur1960]

So today it's time to refit the palm plate onto Athena's skeleton. The Permatex has cured so the wires are now firmly fixed into the palm plate and because the Permatex is flexible the wires won't snap in the case of an accident etc. I wrap some crepe bandage around the assembly then screw the threaded section into the forearm tube to about 1", tighten up the first nut then lock it in place with the second nut.

[Arthur1960]

Then it's time for more bandage around those nuts and the threaded section after which the tpe is carefully smoothed back down so that I can measure the length of the wires against the fingers, trim the wires as necessary and then glue on the end caps.

[Arthur1960]

The next bit is like trying to put a pair of gloves onto an octopus although this time it went pretty smoothly as I've done a few of these now. Once you locate the finger holes and guide the wires in you just need to carefully smooth the hand back into shape and if the wires are just right you should find the initial incision in the palm will close up without too much effort thus making it a good candidate for sealing up with 3M Primer 94. The better condition the tpe the better this kind of repair will look. I've been putting Athena's repair off for a couple of years so her hand is going to look a little tired now although once the Primer has cured I will do some smoothing with heat. The important thing is she now has poseable fingers again and her wrist joint is tight. The bandage is on to keep the incision closed while the Primer does it's thing.

[seagull]

There is a lot of comment about articulated fingers, but repairs such as this are just simply awesome & cost effective

[Arthur1960]

There is a lot of comment about articulated fingers, but repairs such as this are just simply awesome & cost effective

Cheers seagull, yes that one went well so I will do the other hand the same way.

Back onto the subject of nipples, those of the WM162F are quite tiny and a bit vulnerable to damage. One of Donna's had practically been severed and both were a bit frayed. 3M Primer 94 works really well to reattach a wayward nipple, just dab a little onto the surfaces to be stuck back and immediately dab any excess with a tissue. You may need to rest something on the nipple to apply a little pressure while it cures (several hours). I've also very carefully used a little heat (with my smallest nozzle) to smooth the nipple edges and then added colour via powder makeup. The smallest bit of vaseline is then applied to help fix the colour. Here Donna's nipples will look more natural once they have completely dried ...

[seagull]

Yep, really tiny, but cute

[Michaelangelo]

There is a lot of comment about articulated fingers, but repairs such as this are just simply awesome & cost effective

Second that! I'm happy enough with the articulated ones for Mira but new wires is absolutely an option. In fact, a combination of new palm plate and wrist assembly but wires instead of articulated is probably a happy medium for many thin-fingered dolls.

Great thread Arthur, the more pics and advice we have on fixes and repairs, the easier it all gets and the longer our ladies last, looking -- and functioning -- their best!

[Arthur1960]

I know I've mentioned nipple repair before but after a particularly successful repair of the nipple on my OR166D I thought I'd post a couple of pics to demonstrate what can be achieved with 3M Primer 94. So I discovered that somehow this particular nipple had become almost severed from the body, possibly during dressing? In any case it was hanging on for dear life and needed fixing. I did initially see what I could do with heat applied with a fine nozzle but to get the tpe hot enough to reattach would melt the whole area although heat will do a good job of tidying up any frayed edges. In this case I used an isopropyl alcohol swab to clean the parts to be bonded and then coated both surfaces with the primer. After dabbing up any excess primer with some tissue I quickly wrapped a piece of gauze bandage around the upper chest area to ensure there was a little pressure on the nipple and to keep it in place. Left over night I was pleased to discover that the material seems to have completely rebonded and Suki now has a nipple she can be proud of again! Nipples are by their nature, tricky to work on, while heat can be used provided you have a fine nozzle it's still easy to make things worse and trying Xylene (tpe 'glue') on one is likely to destroy it unless you are very careful so again the primer saves the day!

[Michaelangelo]

That is a great nip tip Arthur and well done on a beautiful reconstruction!

[Wheezer]

Nice repair nipple repair.
... W ...

[Arthur1960]

That is a great nip tip Arthur and well done on a beautiful reconstruction!

Hi and thanks, always like to be of service!

Nice repair nipple repair.
... W ...

Thanks Wheezer, high praise indeed from the the forums 'nipple repair and design guru'!

So I've set myself a bit of a challenge, which is to try and clean up and repair Sarah's old, original head 46 from 2016 which I replaced back in Dec 2021. At the time it was looking very 'weathered' and also had several years of make up and the ear lobes were split hence Sarah got herself a new noggin and the old one has been sitting on the head shelf. The hardest part is to try and smooth over the weathered sections of the face which can be tricky on the head as opposed to an arm or leg as it's basically easy to make things worse. So I used my smallest nozzle on the hot air station and as the head was already well oiled after removing the makeup I dove straight in with the heat and an oilled bit of cloth. Things looked pretty good although later when I powdered the face some of the.weathered bits were still visible, still if I can get the head good enough to use for pics again then that will do. I've found an old pair of Jinsan dark blue eyes along with a set of The Doll Laboratory eye backs which are very effective at seating the eye well in the socket. This is going to take a couple of days so I'll post my progress as I go

[Wheezer]

Thanks for the shout out, the nipple work looked so good I had to say repair twice.

The air work on the face looks good. When I am doing stuff like that I sometimes use some small wire brushes on longer handles (see below).
Sets are inexpensive and available from Amazon.

In some cases if the target area will need lots of work they do well to knock down the major bumps and speed final smoothing.
Other times I use them gently to give a natural effect of pores in specific areas, especially faces.
You can wrap the brush with tape to control how tight it stays and control the stippling effect.

Just heat the target area, dip brush in oil and gently stipple.
Of course, practice a bit first.

Hope it helps.
Cheers!
... W ...
MINI WIRE BRUSHES

Mini_wire_Brushes(2048).jpg (312.27 KiB) Viewed 711 times

[Arthur1960]

Cheers Wheezer, as always you have some top notch advice! I will definitely look into that.
So this morning I cracked on with this head repair and while I wasn't able to smooth the rough patches as much as I would have liked it still looks a lot better so I thought it was at least worth applying some makeup to see what the end result would be....