baldylox Posted Sunday at 12:04 PM So this little project has been in the works for literally years. It started on Facebook almost 2 years ago when this poor doll was listed for sale. I don't know if you guys remember her but these photos are from the sales post. Screenshot_20241005_161218_Instagram by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Screenshot_20241005_161226_Instagram by Billy Bennett, on Flickr That Rin is THE MOST damaged doll I have ever seen. Period. I cannot even imagine what caused all that. Everyone that saw the listing was like nope, no way to save that, she's beyond repair. That's not possible to clean up. Well my good friend Kat in Texas decided to buy her before I could. 😉 Kat planned to give it a go and try to get this poor Rin repaired and cleaned. She bought her and got her in hand and then.... life happened. Things came up, got in the way and Rin sat in her shipping box for a long while. Like for over a year and a half. Every month I would inquire about her with Kat and Kat would say the same thing... that she wanted to try and clean Rin up along with help from her mom and friends. But after almost 2 years of not having time, Kat finally caved in and let me get Rin. Rin was STILL in the shipping box from when Kat got her so she just dropped that in the mail for me. When it arrived, it looked like USPS had played soccer with it as it had a huge hole in one side of it. Luckily nothing was damaged on the inside.... well... not damaged more than it already was. So anyway, all of this leads to me going through the processes of cleaning this poor girl up. Or trying to. I really wasn't sure if I could or not but I wanted to try because no doll deserves to look like that. As part of my deal with Kat, I had to fully document my trip with Rin, sharing every step of how I did this and what the results were. I did it all on Instagram as it happened which was back in January of this year. It took me an entire month of cleaning in order to fix her back up and this post will show what I did and how so that in case anyone else ever finds a doll in similar condition, they can see that it *IS* possible to fix it! So come along and see how this goes! When I opened the box, she was in one piece and did have her wig and outfit set. The wig was actually in good shape, it just needed to be washed. The body needed to be heavily washed so I took it apart. 20260121_152330 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Unfortunately for me, as soon as I tried to pull off the top torso piece, it broke. Seems the original seller had tried to glue the spine back together with super glue and we all know that doesn't work. Great, more repairs for me to do. 20260121_151409 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr The outfit didn't look dirty but the underwear was also yellowed and the whole thing had a smell to it. And the shoes were destroyed too, full of cracks and flaking faux leather. 20260121_145038 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr So everything goes into the wash! Let's make Rin soup! 20260121_153216 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260121_153233 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr I used HOT water and Dawn soap to soak the body and clothing in. They sat for 30 minutes before I took them out and scrubbed them with a magic eraser. Here's the body after the wash and scrub. A lot of dirt came off but the yellowing was really bad. 20260121_155622 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr It seems Rin had never had an eye swap, her eyes were still factory hot glued in. 20260121_152145 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr The rest of the body looked a little better but it would definitely need stain treatments, especially the feet and legs. That is from her default stockings for sure. 20260121_155635 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260121_155646 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260121_155656 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Even the interior frame support piece was yellowed! 20260121_155707 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr The bust actually came out nice and clean, no stains on it. 20260121_155719 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr But her head, ugh. Even though all the dirt was gone, she had stains and severe yellowing. I have never seen it this bad before. 20260121_155736 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260121_155742 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr So here is the lower torso and upper torso peg that was broken. It really sucks to have this busted because it's not easy to repair. Lucky for me, I've had to do this repair before so I know how to. But I'll show you that later. 20260121_155801 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260121_155817 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr So after she was washed and dried, I needed to try and remove that awful yellowing. The process for doing this is called Retrobrighting and it's not difficult, it just takes time and some odd bits. Total cost for all the items needed was between $80 and $100. Here she is ready for the process. 20260121_160115 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Here is all the stuff you need for doing this. 20260121_160221 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr First you need some type of clear container to put the doll parts in. I got these 2 acrylic boxes from Amazon. Then you wrap the lower parts with foil so the light will be reflected onto all surfaces of the vinyl. 20260121_160351 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Since these boxes weren't big enough to put all of the parts in at once, I had to do it in stages. So first up was all the small bits and her head. 20260121_160459 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Once in the boxes, you pour 6% liquid hydrogen peroxide on them and fill the boxes until all vinyl parts are submerged. You can use a stronger percentage of Hydrogen Peroxide if you want, I just used the 6% because it's all my local hardware store had in stock. 12% is also safe to use. 20260121_160553 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr These are high intensity UV lights which I also got on Amazon. These jokers are bright and get quite warm so be careful! 20260121_160629 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr I put the lights on top of the boxes and turned them on. From here all I had to do was let them sit for 12 hours. I checked on the parts after that and they still had yellow on them so I moved them around inside the boxes and let them sit for another 12 hours. 20260121_160720 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr While Rin was cooking, I decided to try and clean the outfit. Hoo boy, this was interesting. I got a large bowl, filled it with hot water, Woolite and Dawn and let everything soak for 15 minutes. 20260121_161105 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260121_161301 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr I put the skirt and shirt and undies into one bowl and did the stockings in another because I knew the stockings would release a lot of dye. 20260121_161355 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260121_161527 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr After soaking for 15 minutes with no stirring or touching them, this is what the water looked like. 20260121_162526 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr As for the other clothes. this was their bowl. 20260121_162543 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr I wrung out all of it and redid the water bowls 2 more times. After that the shirt and skirt were good to go, no more dye released and the water was clean. But the stockings? Nope. Here's the water after FIVE cleaning cycles. 20260121_165552 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr The panties were put into a separate bowl after their first cleaning because they were still yellowish They were soaked for 30 minutes in water and bleach. 20260121_201049 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr They cleaned up but the elastic was worn out and the fabric was so thin that they were unusable. So I tossed them. The stockings finally quit leaving dye after 7 rounds of soaking. All the clothing was then put into a delicates bag and washed with my regular laundry as a final cleaning. I air dried them after that for a few hours. Next up we get to see how the Retrobrighting process worked! Billy 12 1 I gave up counting the girls I own, they keep multiplying and won't stop. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Testament Posted Sunday at 01:19 PM Holy mother of... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kemonomimicry Posted Sunday at 04:06 PM That either was stored in a shed open to the elements or maybe near a chimney.🤯 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baldylox Posted Sunday at 04:12 PM 2 hours ago, Testament said: Holy mother of... Yep. Pretty much my thoughts too. 5 minutes ago, Kemonomimicry said: That either was stored in a shed open to the elements or maybe near a chimney.🤯 Or in a store window in full sun at the Arctic Circle for 13 years. 😉 Billy 1 4 I gave up counting the girls I own, they keep multiplying and won't stop. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
caiusdolls Posted Monday at 06:42 PM (edited) Wow. You weren’t kidding when you said worst condition Dollfie you’ve ever seen lol. Good on you for doing your best to give her a new life! Edited Monday at 06:43 PM by caiusdolls Typo Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
thisjaelynn Posted Monday at 07:47 PM That poor Rin... she already looks SO much better than she did! I can't wait to see the final results! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sunlightandtea Posted Monday at 08:19 PM Billy, I think even more than my hairdresser, you deserve the title of 'miracle worker.' Good work, holy smokes. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baldylox Posted Monday at 09:59 PM 3 hours ago, caiusdolls said: Wow. You weren’t kidding when you said worst condition Dollfie you’ve ever seen lol. Good on you for doing your best to give her a new life! Thank you! Yeah, I have done some cleanups before but this girl was way beyond all of those previous. This is a big part of the hobby for me though, I really love getting dolls like this and giving them another chance. Just wait til you see how she turns out, you won't believe it. 😉 2 hours ago, thisjaelynn said: That poor Rin... she already looks SO much better than she did! I can't wait to see the final results! Thank you very much! The initial cleanup did make a good difference for her but the Retrobrighting did a truly amazing job. Wait til you see those pics! 1 hour ago, sunlightandtea said: Billy, I think even more than my hairdresser, you deserve the title of 'miracle worker.' Good work, holy smokes. Hahaha! That is too funny! 😄 More pics are coming so stay tuned to see her final look! Billy 3 I gave up counting the girls I own, they keep multiplying and won't stop. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Scholar Posted yesterday at 02:21 AM I am invested!!! That is a lot of work, but I am glad the doll has someone who loves and cares enough to put the work in! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tippetarius Posted yesterday at 03:02 AM I look forward to seeing how this goes I love toy restores. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baldylox Posted 15 hours ago 16 hours ago, Scholar said: I am invested!!! That is a lot of work, but I am glad the doll has someone who loves and cares enough to put the work in! It was definitely a lot of work but very worth it to me. She is doing very well now as you will soon see. 😉 15 hours ago, Tippetarius said: I look forward to seeing how this goes I love toy restores. Thank you, me too! More pics in just a few! Billy 1 I gave up counting the girls I own, they keep multiplying and won't stop. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ShadowXM1 Posted 15 hours ago Wow, Billy, that's incredible what you've done so far for her! If that were one of my daughters in that condition, I would be livid! Good on ya for giving this poor girl a new life. Really miss you in chat on Discord buddy, maybe one of these days... But, until then, you have my full attention, sir! Can't wait to see the next pictures of her! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baldylox Posted 14 hours ago Now that Rin has completed her Retrobrighting process, we can move forward with her repairs! The following pics are of how she looks as she came out of the hydrogen peroxide. 20260123_142753 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260123_142850 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260123_142900 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr On the arms, notice that the frame joints are now back to the NS color they used to be, beforehand they were extremely yellowed. 20260123_142925 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr The feet still have stains because Retrobrighting does not clean those up. But we know what does! More on that below. 20260123_142939 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260123_142959 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr This piece was also super yellow and now it's not! Unfortunately, I didn't notice the big crack on the front of the neck piece. Gotta fix that too. 20260123_143010 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Now for the big thing, the head! Just look at the following pics to see how she turned out. 😉 20260123_143054 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260123_143102 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260123_143107 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Here's the torso. 20260123_143128 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Speaking of the torso, this next job is no fun. The broken spine isn't easy to fix but it can be done. Here's how. 20260123_143159 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr These 2 pieces were really jammed in there. I had to pull them out with pliers. These should never be that hard to pull out. 20260123_143301 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr I had to heat up the parts with a heat gun in order to get them out. 20260123_143402 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr To fix the cracked neck piece, I had to pull that inner piece out from the cover plate. These are in the old DD2 and original DDdy bodies so some of you may not have seen them before. 20260123_143635 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260123_143744 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr This is the stuff you need to fix up broken frame parts. You can find it at auto parts stores, Walmart and Amazon. A tube like this costs about $10. 20260123_144347 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr It's an epoxy so you have to mix 2 parts together. I use a toothpick to mix. 20260123_144537 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr The main spine has to be held together for about 5 minutes for this stuff to set. Keeping those pieces held straight up and down is a royal pain. But once this stuff sets up and dries, it's like concrete. 20260123_144836 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr I put some on the neck piece as well to strengthen that back up. None of this can be seen when the doll is all together so you don't need to worry about sanding it down or anything. 20260123_144959 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Here's another old trick for the old doll heads. Nowadays the girls come with soft flexible vinyl but back in the day, the head caps were super hard and and difficult to take off. You usually needed a butter knife or something to separate them from the heads. I use a pair of Lexan cutting snips to fix this problem. 20260123_150445 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Cut small triangle out of the edge of the cap like this, it only takes 2 small snips. 20260123_150533 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Then do 4 of them in even spacing all the way around. This makes it a lot easier to pop off the head for eye changes and such. 20260123_150614 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Here comes the most fun part of cleaning bodies! Stain removal! UGH. Not my favorite part at all. 😉 20260124_074834 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr The feet and legs are the worst stained pieces so those will get done. None of the stains on her head can be seen when her wig is on so I'm not messing with those. 20260124_074920 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260124_074944 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr There's a bit of misinformation out there about stain treating but there's tons of good stuff too. This is the way *I* do it and it works very well for me. Others may do it differently but this is the safest way I have found to do it, even tho it takes a bit longer. First up I bought 2 lamps from Walmart that put out some heat from old style bulbs. Since LED lamps don't emit much heat, those won't work well. The Oxy10 I use needs heat to activate it and this setup works very well for me. 20260124_074951 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr This is the Oxy10 I use. It costs about $8 and you can get it at Walmart, drug stores and Amazon. I used this entire tube to treat Rin. 20260124_075006 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr I slather this stuff on SUPER thick then spread it to cover all stained areas with my finger. 20260124_075031 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260124_075115 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260124_075215 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260124_075432 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Then I take the lamps and put 1 in front and 1 in back for good coverage of the affected areas. 20260124_075505 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr This is how far away I have the lamps from the vinyl. I get no damage from this. 20260124_075514 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr After about 5 hours it will dry up. I take and peel off the stuff I can then if there is any left, I wash it off under warm water and scrub with either a soft sponge or magic eraser. 20260124_130819 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260124_130825 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260124_131400 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr After doing this process for a week and a half, the body was finally clean! 20260124_131624 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr Now for the big reveal! Scroll back to the first pics so you can see how bad poor Rin looked before you scroll down. Yeah, pretty dang bad. But now? BIG CHANGE. How big? THIS BIG! 20260127_172302 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260127_172308 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260127_172604 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260127_172611 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr It's like she was never damaged! 😄 Here she is with my other Rin, the newer version 2 of her. 20260127_172709 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr 20260127_172748 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr I think she's pretty happy now huh? 😉 20260127_172938 by Billy Bennett, on Flickr But...... That's not all that happened to her. She got herself a brand new faceup too! Several weeks after I got her cleaned up, my faceup artist Eblktty came by and gave her an amazing glow up. I'll share those pics in a few days so look forward to those! 😄 Billy 11 I gave up counting the girls I own, they keep multiplying and won't stop. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baldylox Posted 14 hours ago 47 minutes ago, ShadowXM1 said: Wow, Billy, that's incredible what you've done so far for her! If that were one of my daughters in that condition, I would be livid! Good on ya for giving this poor girl a new life. Really miss you in chat on Discord buddy, maybe one of these days... But, until then, you have my full attention, sir! Can't wait to see the next pictures of her! Thank you very much! As soon as I first saw the sales post for her, I felt so bad. Poor girl went through hell and back but now she's good to go! I just posted the finish so check those out! Billy I gave up counting the girls I own, they keep multiplying and won't stop. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Scholar Posted 14 hours ago That is incredible! She looks almost brand new!!! I can't wait to see her new face up! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Angelpaws Posted 13 hours ago It's amazing how good she looks now ! You really wouldn't be able to tell at all that she used to be bright yellow lol with how easily these dolls stain it can be easy to get worked up and worried about damaging them, but this just shows that even the worst of the worst cases can be fixed up with a bit of love and effort ! So happy to see her living a happy life rather than being thrown away ❤️ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Testament Posted 12 hours ago Wow, just wow. Great work, for me it's like black magic. Just a question: Why didn't you disassembled her to the bits? It's easier this way? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baldylox Posted 12 hours ago 2 hours ago, Scholar said: That is incredible! She looks almost brand new!!! I can't wait to see her new face up! Thank you! I was very happy to see that I was able to save her. The new faceup is awesome, she looks so good! 54 minutes ago, Angelpaws said: It's amazing how good she looks now ! You really wouldn't be able to tell at all that she used to be bright yellow lol with how easily these dolls stain it can be easy to get worked up and worried about damaging them, but this just shows that even the worst of the worst cases can be fixed up with a bit of love and effort ! So happy to see her living a happy life rather than being thrown away ❤️ Thanks! I'm still amazed that I was able to clean her up because when she first arrived, I was doubting myself. But with a month of repairs and cleanings, she came out just fine. 😉 27 minutes ago, Testament said: Wow, just wow. Great work, for me it's like black magic. Just a question: Why didn't you disassembled her to the bits? It's easier this way? It's some kind of magic for sure! 😄 I'm not sure about your question..... Do you mean to ask why I took her apart? If so, here's the answer. I knew she looked terrible on the outside so it stands to reason her inner parts would also be in bad shape. This is why I took her apart.... to check and see what was good and what was bad. Had I not taken her apart, I wouldn't have known that her spine was broken before I got her and also her neck holder was cracked. Seeing these things let me do all the repairs at once instead of her breaking later on and me having to take her apart again. Also, you are correct, taking her apart makes cleaning, repairing and doing the Retrobrighting way easier. Billy I gave up counting the girls I own, they keep multiplying and won't stop. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tippetarius Posted 11 hours ago She's looking great, glad you took the time to save her. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
froggubi Posted 1 hour ago (edited) It's insane how damaged she was, oh my goodness! I can't imagine what sort of misuse she had to have gone through to get that bad... It's even more insane how well you were able to fix her up though, that's incredible!! I don't know anything about this character, but as a doll lover I'm so so glad you saved her! I hope you bring each other lots of joy! Edited 1 hour ago by froggubi Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Testament Posted 41 minutes ago 11 hours ago, baldylox said: I'm not sure about your question..... Sorry, I didn't explain myself well. What I meant to ask is why the arms and legs weren't disassembled into pieces during the process. If I had to do something like that, the first step I would have taken would have been to separate the skeleton from the outer shell and then dismantle it into all its parts—ankles, hips, spine, insides of the feet, wrists, etc.—also to apply the products to every exposed millimeter of the pieces. Instead, I see you've kept the arms whole, and even the legs and pelvis assembled. I was wondering why. Wouldn't it have been more effective to have each piece separate? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
most-Kasane-Teto-fan Posted 35 minutes ago GOOD LORD Rin looked like she was smoking 5 packs a day while suntanning in-between packs- most people would've just thrown her out and kept the outfit at that state but really glad you didn't and she looks fantastic!! Can't wait to see the new faceup too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
