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My latest shameless eBay splurge! Turquoise 1500

Started by WEBellSystemChristian, August 28, 2015, 01:06:00 AM

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andre_janew

The face plate looks Aqua.  The rest of the phone looks more like Turquoise.

jsowers

Quote from: WEBellSystemChristian on September 01, 2015, 07:11:00 PM
UPDATE:
The handset and caps are definitely Turquoise! I compared them to a perfect Aqua receiver cap, and the difference in undeniable. The cord is a maybe for Aqua, but compared to the handset cap, even inside the handset, it seems a little closer to Turquoise.

It looks all turquoise to me, especially next to the aqua blue cap. The second set of pics doesn't have very good light, so it's hard to tell about that cord. I always get the best results taking pictures outdoors using sunlight. And yes, the inside part of the handset cord seems to match more than the outside. Hopefully bleach or peroxide will get all the parts to match better.
Jonathan

compubit

Congrats! You snagged a nice one.  I got lucky also on a "blue" 1500 that ended up being turquoise - I just need to refinish it now.

Jim
A phone phanatic since I was less than 2 (thanks to Fisher Price); collector since a teenager; now able to afford to play!
Favorite Phone: Western Electric Trimline - it just feels right holding it up to my face!

WEBellSystemChristian

Thanks everyone! The handset, caps and lift are in the peroxide now, I still need to clean the cord and address the housing's cracks.

The handset cord is definitely Turquoise! (bottom cord in the picture) I compared it to an Aqua cord I have, and it's absolutely not Aqua. That makes this phone 100% Turquoise! I just need a line cord for it...
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

McHeath

#19
QuoteI'm glad someone found out about the peroxide method awhile ago, I would have to suffer the same torture McHeath went through on his Aqua 1500. When he tried restoring the color back on his, the peroxide method hadn't been brought into the phone community yet (or at least they didn't think Aqua would work like White does), and he had to sand the fading out! In the end, the plastics had slightly softened edges, and he ended up replacing everything eventually. I bet his fingertips still aren't the same...

Still no fingerprints all these years later! ;)

Don't sand it, you have better things to do I'm sure, like eat dinner and bathe and sleep, and if it's like mine was the discoloration goes so deep that there is little left of the original shape of the plastics when you sand the yellow out.  You can sand your life away and it won't help much,

Try the bleach method.

I've got an absurd amount in my aqua 1500, someplace over $200 I think by now.  All the plastics except the faceplate and dial buttons are NOS, and I even bought another dial to consider putting on it.  But it remains my favorite phone and does more time on my desk than any other.  Yours is a couple years older than mine, best of luck with it, they are worth it in my opinion. :)

podor

Does the bleach effect the tone or brightness of the color or soften the plastic?

WEBellSystemChristian

Quote from: podor on September 05, 2015, 06:53:28 AM
Does the bleach effect the tone or brightness of the color or soften the plastic?
I don't know about bleach, but Peroxide does absolutely nothing to harm phone plastics. If you don't move the gel around inside the Ziploc bag every hour or so, it can create 'swirled' stains or burns in the plastic, which are very hard to remove.
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

unbeldi

#22
Quote from: podor on September 05, 2015, 06:53:28 AM
Does the bleach effect the tone or brightness of the color or soften the plastic?

Well, since the procedure is meant to remove discoloration, it does effect the 'tone'. It can also effect the brightness if the plastic is overbleached.  The light pastel colors are quite susceptible to that.
The trick is to find the proper concentration of bleach and time of exposure to reverse only the discoloration, but not destroy the pigments excessively that you want to bring back.  In principle it is likely unavoidable to destroy color pigments, but when doing this on darker colors the effect may not be noticeable, while it is noticeable on the pastel colors.

Discoloration results from the flame retarding compounds added to plastic during manufacture. Most of them contain bromides. Over time, the bromides decompose from the effect of sunlight, and quite possibly just from time and temperature. This causes elemental bromine to accumulate in the plastic which has an intense deep red-brown color when pure and concentrated. Even in the minute concentrations in the top plastic layer it adds yellow to brown to the plastic color.  The bleaching, whether using household bleaches or peroxides, oxidizes the bromine which looses its color in the process, thus exposing native plastic color.  If too much bleaching agent is used, it may destroy pigmentation too.  If progressed to that stage the plastic has to be sanded.

There are many posts on the forum that describe the methods and results in detail.

podor

Thanks guys! I'm looking forward to seeing this gem come together.

WEBellSystemChristian

Quote from: podor on September 06, 2015, 09:07:31 AM
Thanks guys! I'm looking forward to seeing this gem come together.
It already almost is! Everything is done except for the housing, which I put in the UV box about an hour ago. It should hopefully be done by tonight or early tomorrow morning. Pictures to follow when done.

McHeath, out of curiosity, did you ever find a WE housing to replace the off-brand one you had/have on it? What manufacturer made the off-brand one?
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

McHeath

QuoteMcHeath, out of curiosity, did you ever find a WE housing to replace the off-brand one you had/have on it? What manufacturer made the off-brand one?

Nope, I never found a NOS WE housing for the phone, so it's had the off brand one for these last 6 years.  I don't know who made it as there is nothing stamped on it anyplace.  The NOS handset was WE and has all the usual marks, it was even in the original box. 

WEBellSystemChristian

#26
I got pictures this morning!

The peroxide method worked beautifully, this is probably my best peroxide treatment I've ever done!

The treatment took about a day and a half for the handset, caps, lift, cords, etc; and about a day for the housing. I used WD40 to lubricate the buttons to stop squeaking, and to even out the staining on the surface. I also removed the modular line cord, I would rather remove an incorrect cord than leave it on while I wait for the right cord to come along.

Although the cracks on the front don't look any different, believe me, they're fixed! I superglued them while being held as closed as they could be, and then added a top layer which was wetsanded and polished. Both cracks are flush with the rest of the housing. The faceplate was also wetsanded. It looks better glossy than textured (like it would be from the factory) because you can see the horizontal lines better.

I took some poolside pictures, the colors go great with eachother!

I wish this camera could better represent the color; this looks more Aqua in these pictures than it does in person. It has a really beautiful sea foam green 'glow' to it, it looks more like the cord's color does in the pictures in person. The cooler colored faceplate makes the color stand out even more!

I hope you guys like the results!

Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

WesternElectricBen

Fantastic transformation, really looks good.

Just a word of advice "WD" stands for water displacement and should not be used as a lubricant. WD-40 has been known to gum up small parts, like on a dial.

Ben

WEBellSystemChristian

#28
Quote from: WesternElectricBen on September 07, 2015, 02:55:32 PM
Fantastic transformation, really looks good.

Just a word of advice "WD" stands for water displacement and should not be used as a lubricant. WD-40 has been known to gum up small parts, like on a dial.

Ben
I used it more to help with the discoloring on the surface of the buttons, the lubrication was more of a side effect. Besides,  I don't really see any reason why the buttons would stick very easily like a regular dial would.
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

HarrySmith

Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

"There is no try,
there is only
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