Rebecca chest split

[Everhard]

Rebecca is a body 4 (and head 4) Realdoll made in September 2000. The skin below her lower right-hand rib has split, revealing the point where the upper core of hard yellow foam rests on a base of silicone rubber at tummy level:

Images on page 2 of my Techniques album.

What is the best way to repair her? (I have some two-part silicone of the correct shade from Abyss Creations.)

[PBShelley]

Ev, I don't have anything to suggest, but wanted to offer my condolences. I know Rebecca is your First, and this must be awful for you Poor thing! How did it happen? I can't remember how you store her; could that have had anything to do with it?

In any case, I hope that someone here can help, or that perhaps Abyss or Realdoll Doctor can offer a suggestion.

Best of luck with the repair,

PBS

[Thomas]

If both sides of the tear fit perfectly together the clear silicone adhesive will provide the strongest bond. If you have to fill a gap, use the colored silicone.

Use staples to hold the sides of the tear aligned until the silicone is cured.

[Everhard]

Yes, the sides of the tear fit perfectly together, but I would like to get some idea of the underlying cause so I can prevent it happening again. I have not done anything different with her lately compared to the last five years. I store her lying on her back:


Should I spread clear silicone adhesive inside to glue the hard foam to the 'diaphragm' of silicone rubber it rests on?

Thanks for your time on this weekend.

[mahtek]

Everhard,

This is so sad to hear this happened to Rebecca. I would think that the silicone would adhere to the foam during the pour. So perhaps the foam has worked it's way loose. I would not use the clear adhesive inside the doll to attach the foam. There may not be enough space for the solvents to evaporate into, and this could inhibit cure.

I would wait for a reply from Thomas before proceeding. Best advice will come from him.

Best wishes for Rebecca's speedy recovery!

Mahtek & Phoebe

[Everhard]

Yes, that is what worries me about the adhesive. I assume it needs some way of letting the solvent evaporate.

[Ronny]

Everhard, I'm so sorry to hear about Rebecca's injury!

I'm in no way an expert on these matters (being a Realdoll owner for less than three months), but I was wondering if this damage could be from carrying her bridal style? The location of the tear seems to suggest that it's from bending her back, but since it's located on one side of her body and there doesn't seem to be a similar wrinkle on her other side, I think it would be logical if it's caused by something "asymmetrical" (like lifting her up from one side).

Whatever the cause is, good luck with the repair!


Ronny

[Everhard]

Seems plausible. Because she is in bed that way round, I am sure I pick her up from the left side more often than from the right.

[pygmalion2]

Everhard
I have had several similar tears with Katie in the groin area.
They seem to arise from separation of the rubber from part of the internal skeleton. In my case either the metal plate portion of the hip and the upper part of the foam core at the top of the thighs.

I have tried both the silicone adhesive and the two part silicone.
Surprisingly, here seems to be NO DIFFERENCE in the length of time the repair holds. Success for this type of repair is to make sure all the void areas (air) in the crack are filled with rubber regardless of which rubber you chose. Check inside the chest crack and see if you can feel the foam core of the chest. The separation of the rubber from the core probably on shows up from long-time use of the dolls.

My two cents. Mark and the Synthetiks

[Jerry]

The inner foam is semi-ridgid. As you press against it it eventually crushes a bit and doesn't quite bounce back as much. This causes an air gap. Eventually the air gap is large enough that the silicone above spans it and sometimes gets stretched across the void. Tears in silicone propogate like in a balloon. You stick a pin in a balloon and the tear spreads rapidly.

Silicone is similar... once a microscopic tear begins the tensile strength ov that area is diminished and the tear spreads... tension is released at that point and now moves to the area at the end of the tear... the tear widens. This continues until a nutral energy condidion exists.

I had a doll with a 1/4 inch tear on her arm. I said to myself, "Screw it... I'll get it tomorrow." And I went to bed. The next day her arm had fallen off. The tear worked its way around the arm to the starting point and the silicone slipped down like a glove. I got her fixed... but it illistrates my point.

You need to put some silicone in there to take the place of the now missing foam that got compressed. The 2-part will work... but depending on how big the void is... it may be cheaper to buy a pint of VSIL1068 since you won't see it anyway.

Then use either the tinted 2-part or the Shin Etsu RTV air dry to glue the seam back together again. Without actually having hands-on it is hard to tell you the best route. I can only say that you need to patch her fairly quickly or you will find the tear getting larger. Don't be surprised if you need to do another repair later in time.

Jerry

[Sith_Lord]

I would suggest checking the foam to see if something prevented the silicone from bonding to it in the first place (like residual mold release).

See if you can push your fingers in the split and seperate any silicone from the foam. If it seperates easily then open up as much of this as you can and clean this area with mineral spirits or acetone before applying any adhesive. Even lightly sanding the foam would help.

If you want to reinforce this area work some nylon mesh or gause in there before applying the glue. The silicone needs to make a good bond to the foam or this "stress point" will open back up.

This is the same point that a couple dolls split in half from being hung for long periods. The area between the bottom of the chest core and the top of the thighs is solid silicone and the heaviest part of the doll so this is a lot of stress for the 1/2" of silicone at this point. If the back joint has ever failed then it took that much more stress, this tear may have started at that time and eventually worked it's way to the surface.

[midnight]

Everhard....was this injury perhaps a result of the "orgy" from July

[Bill]

Everhard,

Sorry about your Rebecca. My Hollyis a 2000 body four as well.

I remember back when my early Realdoll had hard nails and one poked into the doll's side causing a small tear that increased in size when stressed but it was an easy fix with the silicone glue.
I also had a leg tear when her leg struck a table end when I was carrying her. A small cut seems to grow on its own when not repaired immediately.

[red_dragon]

I'm sorry this has happened to you (and her). I have a tear in Leslie's left hand that runs along the internal metal skeleton. I'm sort of confused as to the cause of it, too. Although it runs along the line of the skeleton, it's a pretty jagged tear and I'm sure will leave a nasty scar once I've glued it back. Hope your repair goes easier for you but you are far better able to repair things than I am.

[pygmalion2]

Everhard
For this type of tear I use a two-step fill. First clean as deep into the crack with Q-tip (cotton swab) and acetone. Fill the cartridge of a syringe with the silicone of choice and inject it into the bottom of the crack, taking care to fill all areas at the base of the crack. Then close the crack to the desired position and let cure. Go back and open up the crack and repeat the procedure until the injected silicone reaches the top of the crack at all points and all air bubbles are removed. Wipe away excess silicone, you can smooth the silicone a bit with a wet finger as well. For the heavy stress area of Katie's groin, the repair can last as long as 9 months, if I missed an area of trapped air I have had to do the repair again in as little as 1 week. Mark
P.S. For the body 5 lovers, Matt has made changes to fix this problem at the groin of the body 5. Katelyn (Mar 2003) has not yet had any groin tears. Katie on the other hand is an early doll from about Oct 1999.