My St. Patrick's Day Phone!

[WEBellSystemChristian]

I found this recently on eBay for $15: a Green 1957 500 with a gray handset cord!

This phone is in great shape; the cord is kink-free, break free, and looks original, the plastics are in great shape, and the base looks new! The only problem is the dial was replaced with a #9, and I will need to add a soft Green dial bezel to my very long want list!

Very happy with this purchase! I think I will add a Black dial for now, although I doubt it will take long to find a correct bezel to match!

[andre_janew]

The handset cord alone may be worth more than what you paid for the entire phone.  I say that because I recently saw a fat gray handset cord sell on eBay for well over $100!

[WEBellSystemChristian]

The handset cord alone may be worth more than what you paid for the entire phone.  I say that because I recently saw a fat gray handset cord sell on eBay for well over $100!

Yeah, they're really in demand!

[Dennis Markham]

Christian, that is a nice phone despite the dial being wrong.  That dial card looks to be in great shape.  The 313 Area Code was once a large area of southeast Michigan.  Now is just covers the City of Detroit.  I thought NOrmandy was a Detroit area exchange but checking my 1952 Detroit phone book, there is no NOrmandy exchange listed.  I do see on the Tenproject data base that there was a NOrmandy 2 in the Ann Arbor area.

I will check through my box of #7 dials and see if I might have one marked -51.  I may also have the appropriate dial bezel as well.

Nice find!

~Dennis

[LarryInMichigan]

That phone is certainly a prime FOTM candidate!

Larry

[WEBellSystemChristian]

With the help of Dennis M providing a dial, I got this thing back to normal!

The bezel is ABS, but it matches the phone very well and looks great!

The dial card is original. Whoever installed the new dial used the dial card AND original window on the closed-center wheel. Fortunately, both were in terrific shape and was able to use both with th new dial. There are permanent stains on the front and sides of the housing that I would need 400 grit sandpaper to remove. I didn't get too many pictures, but here it is restored!

Thanks Dennis!

[Dennis Markham]

Looks great, Christian.  Thanks for the updated photos.

~Dennis

[19and41]

A thing 'o beauty!

[Pourme]

I just ran across this post......very nice phone, Christian!