Total makeover for a composition doll

This is 'Elizabeth'.

She is a family doll who has arrived for restoration.

She has many issues!

There is no useable paint left on her. One foot is broken off. Happily the foot piece was saved.

A close up of her surface.

Someone tried to spruce her up at some point with painted on features/hair and what looks to be a coat of varnish?

Elizabeth may have started life with a wig?

One clue is finding a staple under the thick black DIY hair paint.

And another clue is remnants of glue with a cloth weave imprint.

Dolls of this era were made and sold with molded painted hair as a basic model. The factory made pricier upgraded models by plunking a wig over the molded/painted hair and putting on fancier clothes.

To get Elizabeth repainted successfully, all her surfaces need to have the cracked and blistering stuff removed. You need a stable base to work up from. 

So here is one arm untouched and the other arm taken down to a stable base. The base in Elizabeth's case is her basic composition layer.

In the factory, this base of composition would have been dipped into a glue-like compound that was meant to smooth things out for paint. This compound was quite prone to cracking and blistering over the years.

You can see some big chunks of this layer at the top of this picture that were peeling off of the underlying composition.

This is progress.....really!

These are Elizabeth's eyes.

They are actually in pretty good shape. I am just going to clean them and fill in a sparse area of her eyelashes.

The eye construction is a less common sort. The visible parts are celluloid domes that are glued onto wood spheres to make eyeballs.

The other doodad in the picture is an expansion bar which holds the eye mechanism inside the head.

This is Elizabeth getting some fillers applied and fingers rebuilt.

Finally the many layers of filler/primer are done and she can head to the paint booth.

Here is Elizabeth finishing her journey through the painting process.

This is my high-tech drying rack :-D

After painting is done, her eyes get re-installed.

This is how they look inside the head.

And then, she gets reassembled.

She owns a lovely christening dress.

It is perfect for her!

3 vinyl dolls and their issues....

A large box arrives containing 3 vinyl dolls who have various issues to fix. They are much loved dolls whose young owner has agreed that it is time for her babies to see the doctor!

 

First out of the box is 'James'. He has an obvious issue with his body. He will get a new cloth body.

He also has wonky eyes that do not show in this photo. They do not open and close properly and the 'whites' are yellowed.

Here is one of his eyes extracted and taken apart. The eye did not open and close properly becaise the weight had detached. The yellowing is rust stain on the plastic.

The weight will get glued into the spot that it is supposed to be in. The rust stains are permanent.....so they get painted over. Then the eyes get reassembled and reinstalled.

James is done.

Now out of the box comes 'Emma'.

She has a tear in her body.

She has the exact same eye problem as James. These eyes do not open and close properly.

So out come Emma's eyes.

They are the exact same eyes as James has. With the same problem in that the weight has come out of it's mount. The weights get glued back into place and then it is time to reinsert them.

Here is a good way to remove and replace vinyl doll eyes. Vinyl softens with heat. If you fill the head part way with boiling water and wait a few minutes....the vinyl will be pliable and the eye procedure will go much more smoothly.

If you have a part that cannot be treated with boiling water safely, a hairdryer can be used to heat and soften the vinyl.

Emma's eyes now work.

 She has had a good bath and her torn seam is repaired.

Last out of the box is 'Ella'.

She has been here before.

She had a brand new body made but now.....

Her new body did not withstand all the loving she got.

Now she is going to get yet another body!

Ella gets her new body.

They are all ready to go home.