WE 233G restoration, i need advice

[claudioggs]

Hi all,

I bought a WE 233G, it's my first payphone.
It's working, but in bad shape.
It's already modified for home line connection.
Unfortunately the coin relay is missing, probably was taken off to leave space for a 425 network (installed bahind the coin mechanism).
The upper connection strip, original door, locks and keys are missing too, and some bolts.
The switchhook is whole and faded.

The model numbers were painted over, as if trying to hide it (still visible), and the nameplate behind the coin return was eliminated.
The upper part are model 223G and the back part are 233G, mixed part?

When I started to disassemble the phone (for cleaning, sanding and priming), I found in the vault area 2 loose ring bells (1 disconnected) a couple of keys and a quarter :-)

What paint is good for this phone, Rustoleum Satin Black spray?
Any advice how to use it? dry in oven?

The vault area has a couple of holes, what product may I use to cover it?
J-B Weld 2 oz. J-B SteelStik Epoxy Putty Stick ?
(I'm lost with the Home Depot spackling options)

Who can rework the chrome parts? (coin reject ring, reject button, sign frame and switchhook).

Any other advice?

Here some pics

Thanks
Claudio

[ESalter]

I've never used it to fill holes on metal phones, but I've used JB Weld to fill holes in other metal surfaces and it works amazingly.  I'd definitely recommend giving it a try.

Someone else here probably has a better analysis of paint, but here are a couple things I've found from painting guitar bodies.  Enamel dries slower and pretty soft, somewhat gummy if that makes sense.  Lacquer on the other hand dries fast and much harder.  If I was going to repaint that phone with a rattle can, I'd definitely use Lacquer, probably semi-gloss.  Afterwards you can use Novus or something similar to shine it up(or even wet sand it first if you really want it to shine), just make sure you leave it for several weeks to completely dry.  That's the biggest thing I learned, if you're going to sand or polish a coat of paint, it works 100 times better if you leave it to dry(room temperature) for at least 3 weeks.  The stuff I've always used is Rustoleum, I've been very happy with it thus far.

Hope that helps!

---Eric

[AE_Collector]

And Dennis Halworth can quite likely take care of your re-chroming for a very reasonable price. See this link from he CRPF Classifieds.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=4743.0

Terry