Weird gray goop

As another way to break up the painting, I have been working on a few "extreme" restorations. One of these pieces is, of all things, a Hutton custom. He was sent to me because he had some VERY serious epoxy lifting issues. Its taken me a while to muster the courage to start on him. My very first rule of restoration is similar to a doctor's: First, do no harm. I didn't want to start on him until I was absolutely positive I possessed the knowledge to repair him completely.

The first thing I did was drill a breathing hole behind his boy-parts. The popping sound that resulted was incredible-- like opening a soda can. And the smell was that of plasticky vinager... not good. Toxic smelling.

From there I got out my carbide scraper to start on the lifting on his flanks. The moment I put my tool to it, I knew I had to get out my camera. It just didn't seem like other repairs I've done like this; and boy, was I right. I left the images big so you can click on them to get the full experience. :-)

When I repair a lift of this nature, I first "trace" the outline of the lift with my scraper. This cuts through the paint and gets at the source of the problem: the epoxy is no longer attached to the plastic. To repair it, I pull off the detached piece and re-attach with Zap-A-Gap (or, more recently, an *incredible* glue called Last Glue. I need to write about it... I will do that soon).

Normally, there is nothing unusual about this process. Pull off detached piece, sand both surfaces, put piece back on. But on this horse, when I cut through the paint and pulled up the edge of the piece, I got that same toxic smell. I put on a mask just in case. It was then that I noticed that the veins on him were also soft. And gooey. When I lifted the rest of the piece off, there was a mystery gray goop. It was gooey and pastey, and I have never seen anything like it. E=Mc2 was known for using 'non conventional' media on their horses, so I can only assume that this goop was originally some sort of adhesive? I have no idea. If anyone has any idea, I would definitely LOVE to hear!!

In any case, I removed all the gray goop with my scraper and Bestine.

Once both pieces where clean, I sanded them lightly and then re-attached it as I would have any other repair.

The catch: I have no idea how to deal with the veins. My thought is that some of them are not veins at all, but drips of goop that has leaked, and traveled beneath the paint. They are soft, and in my handing I opened one them-- to find a clear sticky goop. All this makes me very nervous, as my WORST fear is that there is some sort of chemical decomposition happening on the inside of the horse that I cannot fix.

I started on his other side, and found the same gray goop. Time to remove it, and piece by piece, get this guy put back together. I will continue to document this repair for all of you to see!



I am leaving each piece off for a day or so to let the plastic breathe and be exposed to the air. I am going to start at his rear and move onto his belly and then his chest. All the lifts look very similar, so I expect to find the same in each lift. I just wish I knew what it was! I also will show how I match the paint and media used. This I am still mulling over. I love these types of repairs-- they really make me THINK!!