Protectobots Restoration

As mentioned in the June acquisitions thread,

I picked these guys up at the Dapto Markets for $1.
I felt that it was my duty to rescue them from the bottom of a flower pot of which it would appear that they had resided there for quite some time.

As I'm looking to basically perform a near complete restoration of the three, I was wondering where I should start and hope that you guys would be able to point me in the right direction.

Here are some photos of Streetwise, First Aid and Blades showing the spots where they are affected most:

http://i1032.photobucket.com/albums/...p/DSCN4083.jpg

http://i1032.photobucket.com/albums/...p/dscn4086.jpg

http://i1032.photobucket.com/albums/...p/DSCN4084.jpg

http://i1032.photobucket.com/albums/...p/DSCN4085.jpg

Streetwise seems to be the most afflicted as it appears that he is also suffering from Electrolysis?:

http://i1032.photobucket.com/albums/...p/dscn4088.jpg

As you can probably see, all three are suffering from varying degrees of UV Damage, Dirt, Sticker Wear and Rust.

What are your opinions and advice as to where I should start but also what I should do to treat some of these issues as any information would be greatly appreciated and I thank you for your time. :)

I'm lazy, I'd just strip them down and drop the whole lot in a Peroxide bath and see what happens;):)

:eek: Good luck with Streetwise. I think someone made a movie about this once :p

Those 3 guys are not in that bad condition, they are actually better than most despite residing under the flower pot for the last 20 years :)

Since they don't seem discolored, the H2O2 bath seems redundant. They appear to be just dirty. Give them a good clean with babywipes and then reassess their condition.

Streetwise may not be as deteriorated as he looks. Try to remove the metal chest an use some car polish on it until you remove all the grime and rust until you get to the shiny metal. There will be some imperfections on the surface but it will like 1000 times better than it does now.

First Aid just needs a clean up and some reprolabels.

When it comes to blades, clean him up and see if you can make a 'prosthetic' piece for his broken skid and super glue it in and then paint it white.

Go here - > http://www.reprolabels.com/Autobots/defensor.php ;

And here - > http://www.thetf.net/forum_posts.asp...204&PN=1&TPN=1

Electrolysis - > http://www.fergusonenthusiasts.com/r...%20Charger.pdf ;
You can also try using paint stripper to clean the metal.

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Originally Posted by 1orion2many

I'm lazy, I'd just strip them down and drop the whole lot in a Peroxide bath and see what happens;):)

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If I were in a rush, then I might of considered this approach. :p

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Originally Posted by 5FDP

:eek: Good luck with Streetwise. I think someone made a movie about this once :p

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lol, I don't know why they haven't gone further with that approach apart from Spike in the G1 Cartoon, Streetwise may have a couple of questions for you down at the station. :D:p

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Originally Posted by kup

Those 3 guys are not in that bad condition, they are actually better than most despite residing under the flower pot for the last 20 years :)

Since they don't seem discolored, the H2O2 bath seems redundant. They appear to be just dirty. Give them a good clean with babywipes and then reassess their condition.

Streetwise may not be as deteriorated as he looks. Try to remove the metal chest an use some car polish on it until you remove all the grime and rust until you get to the shiny metal. There will be some imperfections on the surface but it will like 1000 times better than it does now.

Dirst Aid just needs a clean up and some reprolabels.

When it comes to blades, clean him up and see if you can make a 'prosthetic' piece for his broken skid and super glue it in and then paint it white.

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I agree, they don't look terribly yellowed apart from First Aid's front windscreen section and his arm but the camera may not of picked it up annoyingly, I'll have to get some better light when I take the next photos. :D

Cheers for the advice Kup as I've noticed you seem to be pretty well experienced with the restoration with figures, would you be able to suggest a method of removing the old stickers and residue?

Duly noted on Blades and Streetwise's chest, with blades I'll see if I can track down some replacement arms and Streetwise's chest shouldn't be too hard as my Father is quite knowledgeable in that department. :D

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Originally Posted by Eruntalon

Go here - > http://www.reprolabels.com/Autobots/defensor.php ;

And here - > http://www.thetf.net/forum_posts.asp...204&PN=1&TPN=1

Electrolysis - > http://www.fergusonenthusiasts.com/r...%20Charger.pdf ;
You can also try using paint stripper to clean the metal.

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Cheers for the links Eruntalon.

The H202 thread looks quite interesting - It certainly seems to give figures a new lease on life.

The Electrolysis link I'll definitely give a good read but that area should be sweet as, like I said to Kup, my Father is pretty good in that department. :)

Cheers for the direct link for the Reprolabels too, I'm certainly looking forward to your progress on Fort Max as well, just got to find a dried lake bed to sit him in. :p


Thanks a lot everyone for your input and advice, I'll post some progress pics tomorrow hopefully but I'll definitely try to update this project regularly.

I would separate all the plastic from the metal parts and chuck the plastic into a detergent bath for a couple of days. I'd use something like a concentrated detergent/degreaser used to clean floors and the like. I guarantee that all the dirt will disappear and stickers slide right off leaving clean bare plastic. This won't affect the paint either.

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Originally Posted by gamblor916

I would separate all the plastic from the metal parts and chuck the plastic into a detergent bath for a couple of days. I'd use something like a concentrated detergent/degreaser used to clean floors and the like. I guarantee that all the dirt will disappear and stickers slide right off leaving clean bare plastic. This won't affect the paint either.

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Cheers Gamblor, I'll definitely be seperating all the bits and pieces when cleaning them and if the detergents get rid of the stickers and residue in one go, that'll make things much easier. :)

I suspect they'll come out quite nice. The bots don't have a lot of play wear and the paint looks quite good.

Use diluted OMO, its good in small quantities. From the looks of the pics its just mostly dirt and grime, a few good baths , some elbow grease with an old toothbrush to clean it will give it a good nice lease of new life. For Blades, I actually have a junker blades which have the landing gears you need.

Its an amazing find actually Hursty. Especially Streetwise. You have no idea how many times Ive always seen one that ALWAYS is MISSING the hood, and for Blades to have intact rotors, soooo lucky! So for you to find a complete ones for that amazing price is absolutely awesome!!:D:D Cant wait for this project's progress pics. good luck!

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The Protectobots I found at the Dapto Markets and felt compelled to rescue them from the bottom of the Flower Pot of which they seem to of been dumped in for quite some time at a cost of $1

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I just read how you found them - So they were under a public flower pot since the 80s?

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Originally Posted by liegeprime

Use diluted OMO, its good in small quantities. From the looks of the pics its just mostly dirt and grime, a few good baths , some elbow grease with an old toothbrush to clean it will give it a good nice lease of new life. For Blades, I actually have a junker blades which have the landing gears you need.

Its an amazing find actually Hursty. Especially Streetwise. You have no idea how many times Ive always seen one that ALWAYS is MISSING the hood, and for Blades to have intact rotors, soooo lucky! So for you to find a complete ones for that amazing price is absolutely awesome!!:D:D Cant wait for this project's progress pics. good luck!

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Thanks Liege, I sure am going to be getting the old toothbrush out and give them all a good scrub.

You're not wrong about finding them as normally the Dapto Markets ends up being a 1 hour walk that costs you a dollar :mad:, to find anything is usually a rarity but I agree, finding Streetwise more or less unbroken is a nice change. :D

Blades having intact rotors was actually very surprising for me too, as you mentioned they're also normally busted :D, I'd be interested in your Junker Blades too dude if he is for sale, shoot me a PM if you'd like. :)

Thanks for well wishes too, I wanna give this project a reasonable go because if it's successful, I might start going through and tidying up the rest of my collection as Kup's & Eruntalon's efforts have been quite an inspiration, if not a costly one. :p

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Originally Posted by kup

I just read how you found them - So they were under a public flower pot since the 80s?

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I'm not sure if they were there since the 80's, but they certainly looked like they had been there for quite a while.

They were in a lady's flower pot that still had a little bit of dirt in it at the Dapto Markets which is basically a Trash and Treasure market held every Sunday (problem is 90% of the stalls have been turning up each and every week for the past 5 or 6 years trying to sell the same stuff and don't seem to get the point that maybe their Trash is just another persons Trash?).

Sorry, got a little off track there with a bit of a rant :p, They don't look to of been Transformed much as their heads are in really good nic, First Aid has a very minute amount of paint wear on his face though.

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Originally Posted by Hursticon

They were in a lady's flower pot that still had a little bit of dirt in it at the Dapto Markets which is basically a Trash and Treasure market held every Sunday (problem is 90% of the stalls have been turning up each and every week for the past 5 or 6 years trying to sell the same stuff and don't seem to get the point that maybe their Trash is just another persons Trash?).

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Yea it is crap, but once every so often you chance upon a really good bargain there ;)

Not to get sidetracked too much, but is that toy guy still there? The one who usually has piles of toys.

But on topic, I would do what Gamblor suggested for the stickers and cleaning, then see how they turn out. If parts of First-aid are yellowed a bit, I'd say dunk em :D

Normally when I want to get sticker residue removed, I use baby wipes as its mild on the paint and plastic but dissolves the residue.

However Gamblor's suggestion sounds very good.

PMd:D - pics attached to that pm:)

Hey guys a quick update.

Liege has sold me a junker Blades of his to recycle for parts which also came with both of Blades' Helicopter Guns. :D

The cleaning of both Blades and First Aid has come along nicely, with Streetwise currently being put on the back burner for the moment as I've hit a pain in the ass of a problem.

The screws on the 3 figures are terribly rusted, mainly around the heads of the screws but not the stems. The screws in the Leg areas of Blades and First Aid were easy enough to get off with a little bit of labor (I've not tried Streetwise yet) but the screws that hold their chest assemblies together are rusted so tight I'm running a very real risk of burring the screws.

Has anybody got some tips or advice they could share that would help me in getting these little bastards out?, I really don't want to go to the extreme of having to drill the screws out.

If I can find some batteries that have some charge I'll post some pics later tonight, otherwise it'll probably be tomorrow.

Drill them out :p

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Originally Posted by 1AZRAEL1

Drill them out :p

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Yeah that always works. Just be sure that the drill is strong and thin enough for the screw and screw hole or you could damage the body.

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Originally Posted by 1AZRAEL1

Drill them out :p

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by kup

Yeah that always works. Just be sure that the drill is strong and thin enough for the screw and screw hole or you could damage the body.

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Hence the reason why I want to avoid that method if I can.

Drilling is fine as long as the part you are drilling it from is metal, I found out the hard way even being really careful that the screws heat up so fast the plastic area melts leaving only glue to save your TF:(.

For the screws with chewed out heads use a very strong glue i.e. two part epoxy resin, glue another screw on top and screw it out.

Car mechanics often weld another bolt over old chewed up bolts in order to get a grip and release the original bolt. I'm suggesting you adopt a similar method.