Cleaning the Show Stable

This part of prep-work for the future Sweet Apple Acres Cat House was done a while ago, but it's important none-the-less!  Besides, these tips can be used for any pony playset with the intent to restore or customize.

When I got the stable, it was covered in a weird white powder. You could tell it had been stored in someones garage.  Now, the stickrs on this were very odd.  Normally, when I get a playset, the stickers are falling off, but not on this one! The stickers seem to have fused with the plastic.

As with any restoration/cleaning process, I start with the least chemical-laden method possible. These stickers are just paper, right?  Soak them in water! I filled the tub and let the whole playset soak.  Later, I realized I forgot the door, so it got to chill out in the sink while I scrubbed the playset with Spic'n'Span and a Magic Eraser.

Soaking only removed the top layer, which turned into a papery mess.  But, at least that was off! Time to scrub.

Scrubbing started out with Mr. Clean Magic Eraser...

Didn't work. Neither did the scrub brush. A search online suggested WD40 for removing the adhesive.  After nearly passing out from the fumes and letting it set in the garage overnight, I discovered that WD40 does nothing for dried adhesive other than turn the playset into a slimy mess that needed to be washed yet again. By the way, it takes some serious grease cutting power to get WD40 off, so use at your own risk.

Now, it was time to get serious on removing that adhesive residue!

Sand paper!  I used a sand paper block that was 650 grit.  This did the trick on smoothing out the walls.  The whole playset had to sit in the tub again to get all of the sandpaper dust and adhesive powder off. 

I think the adhesive discolored the plastic under it. In fact, if you look in the corners, you can see yellowed glue from where the walls were put together. Hey, it's smooth and it'll be painted over anyway.


Finally, I have a clean base, ready for priming!