Repair holes/tear's and finger wires in TPE

[Tommo10]

Many of these repairs member on here will have done before, you may or may not have better methods, some of the ideas I have picked up from you guys here and members of other forums. I have done all these repairs before on other dolls but never so many all on the one doll.

This was a doll I was given to me a few months back, a member put her up for grabs on another forum along with her other dolls, the member was in a rush to part with them, she was moving to other accommodation and I was concerned this doll would go to waste, so I contacted her and paid the shipping to get the doll to me. I've been wanting to repair her for months although I have only just finished a project I was on last week so getting the time the last few month has been very hard.

I gave her a quick clean up when she arrived although I had to be careful because she got some major issues and holes, then I dressed and stood in various places around the house and this was the first time I have actually undressed her since the day I dressed her when she arrived .

I have done all the repairs before on other dolls although not quite like the one on the knee

Anyhow, My doll is called Holly, she's a WM157b #162.


So for the next five days the doll will be here....


I will do some repairs.

So I will hit you with some of her little faults ....

Repair the fingers and replace the wires both hands







Right knee


Left knee
Straight



Bent







Right Foot ( I will do this first)

TPE Closed




Open



The toe on the same foot.





Shoulder

[Tommo10]

First of all please follow all health a safety guidelines even if you notice that I don't.

I started on the Holly's foot last night it was the repair I thought was closest to Hannah's arm.


So this is what we are dealing with.....
It's not come out clear but two of the openings in the TPE are a little deep but we will see how this goes.



Baby oil... and in my case I usually put on lots.



I use my heat gun, I've got her toes pointed and the wound open it really isn't the best idea because they may melt apart,
my idea here is to heat and melt those tears just a little inside because they are a tad deep,
then when I see the TPE just start to melt I will push her foot in the opposite direction to close the wound up.
If they weren't so deep I would try and melt it shut, will just see how it goes.




The tear is closed up and still apply heat



I am using 400 grade wet and dry and it's not working well on this,
I keep putting lines in tpe because the shape of her foot,
So I switch to a sponge dripping in baby oil and I keep reheating her foot up.



It's not perfect but it's now sealed well, I will just keep replying heat until I get it flat.. glued her toes while I was waiting for the foot to cool down .




A few more times heating up and padding with the sponge, it's slightly better.




That's with the talc on and no shine although I will still need to fix that toe

[Tommo10]

The knee repair....

This is the knee at the start and I am going to glue inside those holes, and yes I know exactly what's going to happen, but I don't want to seal just the surface I want it held together mainly from inside first.



So i put drops of vendors glue I each of those holes, took a photo and straighten the leg.

It's always got to get worse before it gets better.

I actually left the leg straight for a few hours last night while I did the foot post, and the odd PM on the forum, I then was going to bed but for some reason I need to get the heat gun on it once it was dry,

Now I am down to a few holes to fill and a bit of heat gun work this evening

[Tommo10]

I am a big fan of xylene thinners mixed with chopped tpe, I'll make it up into various tpe tone and store it in jam jars in my garage, now I made mine up months ago and I am really struggling to describe the consistency I like to work with.... Crème caramel without the caramel, dead thick, this time because it's sat around it is brilliant






Getting the colour right is an art in itself, that's been my biggest fall down on most repairs in the past, Gemma's wrists is reasonable repair although the color match is noticeable, that's why she wants to wear a bracelet, Ginger's finger wires were totally replaced although that was a learning curve with hands of many shades of TPE, I replaced them individually when they broke which was the totally wrong approach and then in the end I replaced the lot, although the wires are great, cutting and sealing her hands 4 or 5 times has taken its toll.


This one however I have got the colour right and it works well.













Doing this on my phone is kinda difficult.

[Tommo10]

So let me explain a little more, this is the first proper time I have had the chance on my laptop.

I have set up everything in the kitchen my garage at the moment and in most winters becomes a dumping ground and a mess so the kitchen is the only place to work. My kitchen's got a tiled floor so that perfect for this sort of thing and turning into a baby oil skating rink.

The items I have got at hand is all these on the photos below, plus cocktail sticks and a pot of vendors TPE glue, and a spoon.

Dark Tan and Light Tan filler
The light tan is a mix of natural and Dark Tan, my light tan dolls are varying shades so they are harder to match


The hot spoon method usually works well, although I have only used it once before on the front of Victoria's neck when then heat gun was not giving the required effect. I will not use it unless I have to this time because the way I have got the doll on the table and my light setup I have no access to a flame without moving everything, so it will be microwave meals this week for me :

Okay, a quick recap of the repairs:-

The repair on the foot was done with heat only, no glue, I held it so the heat started melting the TPE slightly inside those abrasion holes, then closed the wound up and went over it several times with the heat gun warming it up and then flattening it down, I spent a lot of time on the foot trying to smooth it back out after I made lines in it with the wet and dry.
Now I have done that repair I can think of a better way, TBH there was only two deeper holes that I was concerned with and I would only be sealing the top of, I should have put a very tiny amount of glue in both of them like the knee instead and closed the wound then only applied heat from the top. Also worth a note and I use a sponge gave a little less harsh texture than the wet and dry and that was only P400 which is a fine grit, I have used P240 in the past, Holly's TPE is bloody smooth and my finished result is even with the sponge is more textured than the rest of her body TPE finish. I have a YL155D in tan and that's got a very texted finish and another in light tan that is not that textured at all but it is worth checking before you start.


The knee repair didn't bother me tbh, I can cope with bigger stuff, it's fiddly stuff I have my issues with, the torn little finger am avoiding until I have a bloody good plan of approach. I hate doing eyelashes especially on silicone doll heads I re-attached an eyelash on my AD doll a few weeks back what a f**king fiddly two hour job.

Anyhow, because of the amount of tools, baby oil and mess I have around the kitchen I am only using my phone to take photos, of my boots, by the end of the night the phone is usually dripping in baby oil along with me

[Tommo10]

So the knee,
I bent the knee and decided to risk putting a tiny drop of vendors glue in each of the open cavities with a cocktail stick, and yes, I was bloody quick because the glue was eating into the TPE, you can see on the photo where I have miss the holes in my rush to put a drop in each, my phone was on the table next to me, I took a photo very quickly and straighten the leg out. I then left her like that for a few hours. There was a few little holes that I have filled with Xylene mix and I have gone over the entire knee with the heat gun, with this one I have now put a extra coat of xylene filler on the top and flattened it one finial time but this time with a spoon.

She's got a small hole and dimple in her arm, I think some of these injuries have happen transporting her to me she arrive upside down in a bit of a mess good old UPS.

This Xylene filler and Spooning
The fault


I put the filler in and then wipe it out just to clean it up.

[Tommo10]

let it dry

Baby oil



and this was done with the back of a spoon;)

[Tommo10]

That arm and leg were better than expected, but honestly doing a number repairs over several days until you are perfectly happy.....
I suppose, I keep going back and looking at them and thinking... nope I need another go at that.

I have done a hand repair today spent a full 9 hours,
and it went......... well...... technically ......I have messed it up
and Holly ain't happy........

Cut the TPE with a nice clean cut, make it easier to repair.
(although I will end up getting some messed up)


You will need to remove the resin and the broken wires with a drill or a multi tool.












It's best to move back the TPE down the arm if you can.

[Tommo10]

It's best to move back the TPE down the arm if you can. I sould have done this earlier before I slipped with the drill,

Now interestingly I was going to remove the wrist joint so I could work with it off the doll, the TPE rolled down the skeleton easily on Holly, when I did Ginger's wrists a while back the TPE was well bonded to the covering stuff of the skeleton, however Holly's wrist were nice and tight and also the bolt is welded, on Ginger it is always working loose and the bolts on both wrists are not spot welded, they obviously have missed them.






That is three pieces of wire not five







I pulled the hand back up and mark the wires at the point I need to cut, I have purposely cut them short they will end at the bottom of the nail hopefully saving pokes, the cut ends of the wire were then dulled off.

[Tommo10]

Superfine white milliput




The little wire is for pushing the milliput down,
I did cut off a couple of very small pieces of the wire and tap them in the gaps







I made sure the wrist was tight while I had it open, I covered the palm plate back up with fabric plasters strip.

[Tommo10]

Thats what happen when you get the TPE wrapped around the drill bit.





I haven't got any light tan Jinsan TPE block, so I used a SM block I've got.

[Tommo10]

For me the patch is not the problem, it can be fixed or removed when I get a better colour match
Holly's probably wondering why the hell she's got a patch of SM doll in her.
The wire I picked up out of my garage that I thought was the same size I put in Gingers hands was the bloody wrong size :wall, I bought it for Lisa's stand,
Those finger wires are not breaking, they are pretty fixed, in fact I can't move them or bend them at all.


I will do the other hand with some thinner wire when i get some.

Tommo:tu

[Tommo10]

I don't know what the hell I was doing yesterday, this is a better way to access that wires and wrist without wrecking all the TPE with the drill.

[Tommo10]

This is the other hand I basically wired it the same, with three wires, the thumb looping through the side hole to extend io to the index finger, the little finger looped through the other side extending up to the ring finger and one wire for the middle finger held by packing in milliput. This time I used 2.5mm electrical cable, today its been easier and taken two hours, I really was having a bad day, you know the ones... when everything you put down disappears, you lose, works against you, must have spent an hour looking for a block tpe :wall

Anyhow, today it's gone well and the fingers move.


I painted the inside in the wrist and the covered plate with Xylene mix hopefully so is sticks like it originally was, I did forget to take a photo of that.















All that's left is for me to glue her up and tomorrow I will be able to give her a good clean up.

That's me done thanks for watching
.

.

[Tommo10]

Showered and bed.

Think that's enough.




Let's get back to using my camera.

Tommo