How to fix a DDII spine... and other stuff.

About 8 months ago, my Manami broke in half. Her spine snapped in two as I was trying to pose her on the bed. I totally freaked out. I had no idea what to do and I almost cried. Here was my girl, broken by my hand and me with no clue on how to repair her.

 

Luckily, I had just done some repairs to Mamimi, my DDS girl, and I had some stuff that would let me fix Manami and put her back to her former self. It took me some time but the process wasn't fun to try and figure out on my own. It was all guess work by me but I couldn't afford to buy Manami another DDdy body at the time she broke. I was stressed out, freaked out and pretty upset about the whole thing. Thankfully it all worked out.

 

This brings me to now. I saw a post here and on FFM about how someones girl had broken in half, just like Manami did. I knew the pain and frustration of this firsthand and I wanted to help. So I messaged them about it and told them how to fix it. Several emails and messages later, we decided to send this DD to me for repairs and some cleanup too.

 

I was happy to find out that the broken DD was a Fate Harlowan! I had never seen one in person before so I was excited to have her here. I was also anxious to get her fixed up so she could be a whole girl again and rejoin her family. I really felt bad for her because I knew how I felt when Manami broke. I didn't want that to continue here so I did everything I could to make Fate as good as new.

 

So here is how Fate arrived to me and how I repaired her spine and also did some cleanup on her.

 

PLEASE do not judge the owner on the damage to this girl, it's not her fault. This Fate has been owned by THREE other people before her so some of these issues came with Fate. Most were minor and not terribly hard to fix. But the spine break was an accident and not caused by any misuse. All I want is for the process of stain treatments and spine repair to be shown to help others out. I don't want finger pointing and such going on.

 

Now that THAT is out of the way, let's get to Fate and get her fixed!

 

Here she is right out of her shipping box:

 

DSC_5740 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

It's very hard to see here but on the top right of her head, she had some light smudges that wouldn't wipe off easily.

 

DSC_5741 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

Here we can see a light stain on her upper arm and also some odd stains on her torso. It seems that there was some type of sticky residue on her bust as well as her lower torso. It looked and felt like some type of glue or tape but I'm not positive what it was.

 

DSC_5742 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

More shots of the bust and it's sticky stuff.

 

DSC_5743 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

DSC_5744 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

DSC_5745 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

DSC_5746 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

Now, here we have the lower torso. It also had some slight stains and more of the sticky stuff.

 

DSC_5747 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

DSC_5748 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

A couple more small spots of staining on her thigh.

 

DSC_5749 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

And finally, her feet had some stuff on them too.

 

DSC_5750 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

I will go over the stain treatments in a bit but first I want to address the spine problem. Here is a shot of the upper torso with the spine broken off inside.

 

DSC_5751 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

And here is the lower torso, showing where the 2 parts of the spine peg broke off cleanly.

 

DSC_5752 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

I used Yukino's body here to show how the spine SHOULD look. Yukino is on the right, Fate is on the left.

 

DSC_5753 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

And this has been a question I've seen before. The spine piece on a DDII and DDdy body is actually TWO pieces. It's split in the middle and is supposed to be like this. I pushed my fingernail inbetween them so you can see how the default spine looks. It's supposed to be like this in order to help releive stress on the joint.

 

DSC_5754 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

Now, I took some small needle nosed pliers and grasped the parts stuck in the upper torso one at a time. I wiggled them gently back and forth until they came out. You need to be careful doing this because you need both of these pieces in order to repair the girl. Here is what the upper torso should look like after the pegs have been pulled out.

 

DSC_5755 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

THIS is the magic stuff! I have used this on Mamimi's shoulder tubes and I also fixed Manami's spine with it. It's an epoxy specifically designed for plastics. It sets in 5 minutes and hardens in 4 hours. Once it's cured, it's hard as a rock and super strong! You can find this in the US at almost any auto parts store for around $7-$10 a tube. Money well spent.

 

DSC_5756 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

Once opened, the tube has two parts that you must mix in order to activate it. The package doubles as a tray to mix on. Here is a pic of both parts squirted out into the mixing tray.

 

DSC_5757 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

In order to make things easier on myself, I use a toothpick to mix and apply the epoxy. All you have to do is mix the two parts together for about 30 seconds and then start applying it. This stuff starts to harden very quickly so you kind of have to work fast. I found that it gets very thick after about 4-5 minutes.

 

DSC_5758 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

You need to get both of the spine pieces and line them up on the lower torso to get correct fitment. Make sure you have these lined up properly because once they set and harden, it will be a royal pain to try and adjust them. I used the toothpick to cover the area on the lower torso in the epoxy, making sure to add a lot of it so it could squish out the sides and cover ALL the areas between the pegs and the spine.

 

DSC_5759 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

I held the two spine pieces up for about 2 minutes, letting the epoxy harden some. Then I used the toothpick to swipe the leftover epoxy that oozed out from the pegs to make a coverage area all around the base of the spine. This will help stiffen the two peg pieces and make the entire joint much stronger.

 

DSC_5760 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

Now all that was left to do was let the epoxy cure for 4 hours. So since the body had to sit there, I decided to do some stain treatments as well. I use Oxy10 for all my treatments and I've had it work really well for me. In this picture you can see the Oxy10 slathered on the side of the torso. I have a desk lamp that puts out some decent heat right over the torso to help speed up the process for the Oxy10. The instructions for the epoxy say to let it harden for 4 hours but since I was doing stain treatments too, I let it sit for 6 hours until I checked it for stability.

 

DSC_5761 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

After the epoxy cured, it was time to do some cleanup. I use 600 grit sandpaper to smooth out the two spine pieces and also clean up the epoxy on the base of the spine. Here's the sandpaper.

 

DSC_5762 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

To sand down the spine, I just curl the sandpaper around the spine and rotate in a circular motion. DO NOT oversand this part! If you sand off too much plastic, the top torso will spin too freely and fit onto the spine loosely. Make sure to only sand a little bit at a time, then check fitment of the top torso. I did this about 8 times before stopping.

 

DSC_5763 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

And now for the fun part!

 

During the epoxy curing times and all the stain removal times, I was busy cleaning up Fate and her other body parts. Below is a picture of her head after I gave it a good cleaning. For Volks factory faceups, you *can* use a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser on them but I don't like doing that for fear of damage. So what I do is use a soft, white washrag soaked in warm water and add 2 drops of Dawn dishwashing liquid to it. This is non abrasive but still takes off any grease and dirt. Here she is all cleaned up and looking great!

 

DSC_5764 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

Remember all the funky looking sticky residues? GONE! I used a Magic Eraser to get most of that stuff off. I had to do multiple cleanings tho as the sticky stuff was on there pretty good. I always use warm water with the Eraser and it seems to really work well. Here are some pics of the body where the stains and residue used to be.

 

DSC_5765 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

DSC_5766 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

DSC_5767 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

The stains on her thighs were a bit harder to get out tho. I had to do Oxy10 treatments there for 3 days at 6-8 hours per day to get them gone. But they came out nicely. And since I had her shins off for cleaning, I decided to tighten the screws in her knees so they weren't so loose anymore. She has nice, tight knees now so she can stand even better!

 

DSC_5768 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

Her feet also cleaned up well, mostly with the Eraser but one Oxy10 treatment was needed.

 

DSC_5769 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

Here's the lower torso after cleaning. Oxy10 and Eraser scrubbing cleaned it right up! 3 Oxy10 treatments were needed to get all these gone too.

 

DSC_5770 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

Now on the front of the torso, I had some pretty deep spots of staining left by that residue. All the sticky feel is gone so she's nice and smooth but a few VERY faint spots remain even after 3 days of Oxy10 treatments. You might be able to make one or two of them out here but they are still very faint. I think it looks decent but since I did the cleaning, I'm a bit critical.

 

DSC_5771 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

So after all of that, what are we left with?

 

A cute little Fate DD who is extremely happy to be back in one piece!

 

DSC_5772 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

I also did the elbow mod to her so she could touch her face and pose a bit better. All this took was some twisting and tugging on her elbows to release her "hidden joints". She can be put back to default at any time and this mod does nothing to damage the frame or body. Here she is showing her newfound movement of her elbow.

 

DSC_5773 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

As a bit info for people who may not have seen it yet, I'm going to show you the neck mod I've done to my girls, using Yukino as a model.

 

Instead of spending $40 on a Cool Cats neck piece to get greater range of movement for my girls, I did a small cut to the top of the neck on the back of the bust piece. In this picture you can see the unmodded Fate with her head leaned back as far as it will go. And Yukino, who has the mod, is doing the same thing. But she can look up MUCH higher than Fate can.

 

DSC_5774 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

Here is a side view of the head angles.

 

DSC_5775 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

To do this mod, all you need is some small scissors or an X-Acto knife to make 3 cuts in the neck. To show the cuts, I took Yukino's wig off and tilted her head ALL the way forward. You make 2 cuts down and one across to pull out a small area of vinyl to give the neck piece more room to lean back.

 

DSC_5776 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

And this is how it looks with Yukino's head facing straight forward. You can barely see the bottom cut like this.

 

DSC_5777 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

With her wig on, you cannot see this cut at all. It's fast, cheap and gives your girls the added movement to get cool angles like them standing on the ground looking up at you, or them laying down and looking up or reading a book. Fate's owner wants this mod done to her too so I'll do that before she gets shipped out.

 

Since Yukino was with us thru a lot of the treatments and fixes, Fate has kind of latched onto her as a friend. So here are the two new friends enjoying some time together after Fate has been put back together.

 

DSC_5778 by balldylox, on Flickr

 

 

I do hope that this helps people out if they have issues with their girls. If you have this problem and have questions, please feel free to PM me and I can walk you thru doing this.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

Billy

Great post!! Sadly Aoi has some stains on her I did treat them and got most of them out, but there are a few left that didnt budge to well. Its especially hard to treat stains since I'm gone for more than a week at a time, so times in between treatments take longer. My wife doesn't know much about dollfies so i try not to burden her about it. I really need to try and treat them again soon.

 

Again, great post and guide to treatment and repairs. A must read for all aspiring and new DD parents!

 

On another note, I love Yukino's wig. May I inquire as to where you got it? I think i may want a dirty blonde or light brown in that style.

 

Wayne

This was a really great tutorial in showing how to repair a broken spine & the neck mod at the end. If my girl ever needs treatment I think I'll have to send her to visit you Fate turned out looking fantastic and I feel happy for her owner to now have her girl totally repaired and stain free

 

This thread along with SakuraSylph's Stain Treatment & PlasticFantastic's Shoulder Repair should be stickied to the top of this section

 

And goodness this explains Fate being with you! For a moment when looking at your Flickr I thought maybe you had secretly gotten Fate for yourself ^O^

That is a fantastic photolog and tutorial! This hasn't happened to my girls at this point, knock on wood, but if I find anyone else with a break like this I know where to refer them!

 

Also, Nanoha has a message for Fate:

 

 

Nanoha: "Fate-chan, I'm so glad to see you doing so well after this "spa treatment". I hope you enjoy your stay with the Balldylox clan too! However, if "boob monster" Manami gives you any trouble at all. . . "

 

 

Nanoha: "Tell Rei to tell me, and I'll come and get you!"

@Poofiemus: I adore how protective Nanoha is even when Fate is far from her reach

 

I'm sure the "Boob Monster" Manami will treat Fate well hehe~

Great post!! Sadly Aoi has some stains on her I did treat them and got most of them out, but there are a few left that didnt budge to well. Its especially hard to treat stains since I'm gone for more than a week at a time, so times in between treatments take longer. My wife doesn't know much about dollfies so i try not to burden her about it. I really need to try and treat them again soon.

 

Again, great post and guide to treatment and repairs. A must read for all aspiring and new DD parents!

 

On another note, I love Yukino's wig. May I inquire as to where you got it? I think i may want a dirty blonde or light brown in that style.

 

Wayne

 

 

Thank you sir! I'm glad this gave you some info. I know the treatments with Oxy10 may go slowly but they do work out the stains over time. So don't worry if you can't do a lot of them for Aoi all at once. Every little bit helps.

 

As for her wig, it came with her in that Ebay auction I won. It came with 2 long twintails too but I don't use them at all as they are a pain to keep looking nice. So I have no idea where this wig came from... sorry!

 

 

This was a really great tutorial in showing how to repair a broken spine & the neck mod at the end. If my girl ever needs treatment I think I'll have to send her to visit you Fate turned out looking fantastic and I feel happy for her owner to now have her girl totally repaired and stain free!

This thread along with SakuraSylph's Stain Treatment & PlasticFantastic's Shoulder Repair should be stickied to the top of this section. And goodness this explains Fate being with you! For a moment when looking at your Flickr I thought maybe you had secretly gotten Fate for yourself ^O^

 

 

Thank you very much! I'm glad you found this helpful. And if any of your girls ever need repairs, please let me know as I will gladly help you out! Fate really does look happy now and she's been all smiles since she was made whole again. I'm happy too. I figured people may think I got a Fate by seeing my Flickr stuff but thats why I wrote comments there too.

 

 

That is a fantastic photolog and tutorial! This hasn't happened to my girls at this point, knock on wood, but if I find anyone else with a break like this I know where to refer them!

 

Also, Nanoha has a message for Fate:

 

Nanoha: "Fate-chan, I'm so glad to see you doing so well after this "spa treatment". I hope you enjoy your stay with the Balldylox clan too! However, if "boob monster" Manami gives you any trouble at all. . . "

 

Nanoha: "Tell Rei to tell me, and I'll come and get you!"

 

 

Thank you very much Poofie! I'm glad you liked the post and info. I also hope your girls don't have this issue.

 

As for Nanoha's comments, I'll do what I can to keep Manami away from her but I can't promise it will work. You know how she gets when a new girl shows up here. But I'll let Fate know about this and I'm sure she will tell Rei if any problems arise. And I think this is the first time Manami has been "called out" by anyones girl before. Should I be worried?

 

 

 

Billy

Thank you very much! I'm glad you found this helpful. And if any of your girls ever need repairs, please let me know as I will gladly help you out! Fate really does look happy now and she's been all smiles since she was made whole again. I'm happy too. I figured people may think I got a Fate by seeing my Flickr stuff but thats why I wrote comments there too.

Definitely! Momoko did give you that key after all so who else could I trust other than you to fix her if she ever needed it?

 

Haha that was a good idea. When looking at them I thought at first you had gotten a Fate, but then realized as I was looking through all the pictures that this was a repair process. Plus you hadn't teased us here on the boards with any hints of getting a Fate so~

Thank you very much Poofie! I'm glad you liked the post and info. I also hope your girls don't have this issue.

 

As for Nanoha's comments, I'll do what I can to keep Manami away from her but I can't promise it will work. You know how she gets when a new girl shows up here. But I'll let Fate know about this and I'm sure she will tell Rei if any problems arise. And I think this is the first time Manami has been "called out" by anyones girl before. Should I be worried?

 

 

 

Billy

 

Haha! You don't need to be too worried. Nanoha's mostly pretty easy-going--except where people she holds particularly close are involved, and Fate falls under that category. (When you get around to watching the series, you'll see what I mean.)

Definitely! Momoko did give you that key after all so who else could I trust other than you to fix her if she ever needed it?

 

Oh trust me, I didn't forget that! If she ever has issues, I would make sure she got fixed up BETTER than new! Plus I'd give her the grand tour of the place here.

 

Haha that was a good idea. When looking at them I thought at first you had gotten a Fate, but then realized as I was looking through all the pictures that this was a repair process. Plus you hadn't teased us here on the boards with any hints of getting a Fate so~

 

 

So now if I don't tease you guys, it means I didn't get another girl? Hmm, I should write this down...

 

 

 

Billy

Oh trust me, I didn't forget that! If she ever has issues, I would make sure she got fixed up BETTER than new!

 

Aww That makes myself & Momoko so happy! I think you have to add another title to your list:

DD Healer

 

Plus I'd give her the grand tour of the place here.

Momoko has been reading up on your photo stories and is amazed at how big a DD family you have with you! She says that the Baldylox Clan has so much fun that she can't wait for Saber to arrive so she can have fun like that too A grand tour of the Baldylox home would be a treat for Momoko hehe~

 

So now if I don't tease you guys, it means I didn't get another girl? Hmm, I should write this down...

 

Billy

It indeed means this! You just can't help but tease

Aww That makes myself & Momoko so happy! I think you have to add another title to your list:

DD Healer

 

Ha ha, Healer, that's funny.

 

Momoko has been reading up on your photo stories and is amazed at how big a DD family you have with you! She says that the Baldylox Clan has so much fun that she can't wait for Saber to arrive so she can have fun like that too A grand tour of the Baldylox home would be a treat for Momoko hehe~

 

Oh nice! That's too cute that she's been reading backstories of my girls and their antics. I hope Saber arrives soon too so she and Momoko can have tons of fun together. Of course I'll want to see stories from them.

 

 

It indeed means this! You just can't help but tease

 

 

Sigh, I guess I'm busted.

 

 

 

Billy

Great guide. I hope this never happens to any of mine, but good to know how to fix it if it does.

Great guide. I hope this never happens to any of mine, but good to know how to fix it if it does.

 

 

Thank you! I'm hoping this can help people know that all is not lost if this happens to them.

 

 

Billy

Great walk-through. I hope I never have to do this, but if I do, I'm glad this post is here.

Thank you for this great post i fixed my doll and hope she doesn't break anymore.

Great walk-through. I hope I never have to do this, but if I do, I'm glad this post is here.

 

Thank you! I hope that NO ONE will have to do this but unfortunately, it happens.

 

Thank you for this great post i fixed my doll and hope she doesn't break anymore.

 

You're welcome! Did your girl break like this or did something else happen? And how did you fix her?

 

 

Billy

She broke exactly like this. Unfortunately i got her in this state -.-. I got the spin out of her upper torso with needles and glued the spin with a plastic glue (there was only this glue to buy) on the lower torso. For now it looks pretty good and i hope it doesn't break.

She broke exactly like this. Unfortunately i got her in this state -.-. I got the spin out of her upper torso with needles and glued the spin with a plastic glue (there was only this glue to buy) on the lower torso. For now it looks pretty good and i hope it doesn't break.

 

Ahh, ok. Sorry to hear you had those issues but I hope your fix works out. If not, maybe you can use this method to repair her for good.

 

 

Billy

Thanks for this post, Billy. My mdd had a really loose ankle and when I tried to tighten it up, it turned out that it had broken I tried super glue but it just re-broke. That's when I remembered this post, and I went and got some of that plastic weld. She's much better now, although not quite as good as new. She does stand, though, with the only falling being the typical top-heavy toppling. So close enough

Thanks for this discription, that will help when something like that will happen (But hope it will never happen >:____<)

Thanks for this post, Billy. My mdd had a really loose ankle and when I tried to tighten it up, it turned out that it had broken I tried super glue but it just re-broke. That's when I remembered this post, and I went and got some of that plastic weld. She's much better now, although not quite as good as new. She does stand, though, with the only falling being the typical top-heavy toppling. So close enough

 

 

Ahh! I'm glad my post helped you out a little bit! Even if she isn't perfect, at least she can stand. Thanks for letting me know, it makes me feel good when someone cold use this info to help one of their girls.

 

 

Thanks for this discription, that will help when something like that will happen (But hope it will never happen >:____<)

 

 

You're welcome! Hopefully you'll never need to use this info but I'm glad it's here on the off chance you do.

 

 

Billy