repair guide needed - tightening floppy neck on WM doll

[curious_person]

Before I go cutting anything in my precious 174g .. I need a visual guide , photos of what the steps look like

* exactly where to cut into it, and how
* the tools I need to get
* sealing it afterward

The offending joint is the neck - moving side to side is fine, still tight. it's the forward/backward axis that is loose to the point that it flops forward instantly. (it was slightly loose from the 1st day, but got rapidly worse).

For this, would I cut into it on the side, or the back ?

regarding tools, I've only ever used screwdrivers, spanners, and alan keys. (PC building, trivial bits on bicycles, meccano as a kid..)

I have to make a trip to the DIY store with no idea what it is I actually need and I dont really want to ask them for advice there

Thanks for any help.

[Arthur1960]

Hi there, ideally this would be a straightforward case of just tightening up a bolt which you could access by making a relatively small incision close to where it's located on the neck. However, as with many issues with loose joints, you will have to deal with a spot weld that can be on either the nut or the bolt head. This is easier said than done and I gather the easiest method is to file the weld down to the point it breaks when you apply force on the bolt. Of course in doing this you will create a lot of swarf and mess that will discolour the tpe and frankly just create another problem. The damage can be mitigated somewhat depending on where the joint is and by far the easiest thing to do is to remove the joint where possible, (like a hand assembly), so you can work on it away from your doll. That's not possible in this case without drastic surgery so you are left with trying to work out how to wear down or break the spot weld without causing damage to your gal, sorry but I can't help you there although someone else might have some ideas? Of course there is always an outside chance that the spot weld has, in fact, failed causing the early occurrence of a loose forwards movement, in which case you could make a small incision using a sharp pair of pointed scissors about an inch in width and examine the bolt head. If the spot weld has broken then you could just tighten up the joint, you would need to make a cut on the opposite side to get a socket wrench in there to stop the bolt from spinning as you tighten. You would then need to figure out something to stop it from working loose again, maybe by replacing the existing nut with a lock nut? If you do decide to make an incision then be mindful that the joint will also have a layer of bandage to cut through before you expose the bolt. I've not worked on this part of a skeleton before and someone may chime in who has more experience with joints. I'm linking another thread that discussed a similar problem although in that case the fix was much easier. Pay attention to the excellent pic of the neck assembly as provided by our fellow member shigowa68 which gives a good view of the joint on your gal that is loose.

viewtopic.php?p=2448441#p2448441

Hope that's of some help, good luck

[Arthur1960]

I forgot to say that, any incision you make can be resealed using 3m Primer 94, it works particularly well for such repairs, if you do a search for it on here you will get lots of advice on how to use it.

[Arthur1960]

A further thought: Having just felt around one of my gals necks it's clear that the neck assembly is well towards the back of the neck so the tpe will be thinner, therefore much easier to cut through to reach the joint. If it were me doing this I think I would make a single incision right above the neck joint at the same level as the affected bolt, that should give enough access to the bolt head and the nut.

[curious_person]

Of course there is always an outside chance that the spot weld has, in fact, failed causing the early occurrence of a loose forwards movement, in which case you could make a small incision using a sharp pair of pointed scissors about an inch in width and examine the bolt head. If the spot weld has broken then you could just tighten up the joint, you would need to make a cut on the opposite side to get a socket wrench in there to stop the bolt from spinning as you tighten.
viewtopic.php?p=2448441#p2448441

Hope that's of some help, good luck

ok so this tool? 'socket wrench', i'd need 2, means cutting in from both sides sides, not the back, I guess.
this photo certainly helps me. So I see bolts held with welding.. it is indeed possible one of those has failed.

wmdoll_neck.jpeg (160.08 KiB) Viewed 257 times