Unknown off shore phone cobbled together.

[.....]

My wife came home yesterday with a phone that one of her co-workers gave her. Her co-worker knew that I collected phones and had come across this one and gave it to her for me. I have no idea what it is. I don't collect this type. I took the base apart and came across 1940 dates on the network (11-3-48) and the ringer (6-16-41) when I took apart the handset the dates where from the 1980's. The ear piece is 0284 and the mouth piece is 83-10. This phone looks to be cobbled together, the line cord has a 4 prong plug with a module plug added. The handset cord has a knot tied at the end where it comes out of the body to hold it into the body. There is a clamp and hook attached to the end of the cord that is not used. It was fairly clean under the body, but the handset is full of crud. Things on this phone just don't add up. Any ideas of what it is?

[AL_as_needed]

I am no expert by any means, but it does look like someone took the ringer and coil block out of a 302, which would explain your 1940s dates.

I actually came across two similar phones that were made up in the same odd fashion, they had a mix of WE parts/cords and some much newer korean made elements in the handset. I never really looked into them as I was scrapping them for parts to fix other WE proper sets.

Could be an off brand phone housing supplied by a third party that was fitted with whatever WE components they could find to make it work, not a home-made phone, but something close to it.

[Jim Stettler]

Bob Prosser of Turtle Lake Telephone imported 1,000's  of those in the 1950's.  They ended up all over the US thru various telephone providers. As the supply  of complete phones dwindled they started creating new parts. Many of these phones turn up as "frankenphones" by this forum's definition.
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this phone has an old base. Many old phones like these have the "meter" under the cover, they may or may not have a "window".
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Just some thoughts,
Jim S.

BTW:
of the 1,000's of old  telephone they sold in the 1950's, most are still around today.

[Babybearjs]

OMG.... so that's how they made those back then.  To see the 302 parts in the phone is funny.... what did they do.... send all the old parts to china for reuse? or did they buy the frames and piece the things together.... I've seen these before, but I always thought they had newer parts..... like a 425 network, instead of a 101A..... boy, talk about a frankenphone.....

[Jim Stettler]

OMG.... so that's how they made those back then.  To see the 302 parts in the phone is funny.... what did they do.... send all the old parts to china for reuse? or did they buy the frames and piece the things together.... I've seen these before, but I always thought they had newer parts..... like a 425 network, instead of a 101A..... boy, talk about a frankenphone.....

There was  a huge amount of these phones brought in. As original parts ran out copies were made. By the 1970's  there were complete copies  being made.
There is a  BSP handbook (mid 80's?) that  has a procedure to convert these phones with 500 era "guts". This set up was probably done by a rebuilding company.
JMO,
Jim S.

[AL_as_needed]

Serves as a testament to how well the original WE parts were designed and build considering they could more or less be slapped together into a working phone, even if those parts were some 50 years old when they did it....30 years ago. And they STILL work 

[andre_janew]

Has anyone noticed that this phone uses a modern capacitor instead of the condenser found in most 302 phones?

[Jim Stettler]

It is cheaper and easier  to install a new capacitor vs testing and repairing condensers.These phones were rebuilt with old parts that were newer than the phone. Like some of the stuff you can find @ phoneco , They work as telephones but they  are "TRUE" Frankenphones. You can find them as rebuilds with anyone's guts and an asst. of pieces parts.  The nice ones to find are the unmolested original sets.

JMO,
JimS.

[.....]

I took apart the handset and dial last night. The handset was just full of crud. The mouth piece had a piece of speaker wire soldered on to it and the other end it was wrapped around the spades, then masking tape was used to cover it. Hack job for sure. The dial is dated 11-71.

So this phone is dated as follows:

Body unknown
Ringer 6-16-41
Network 11-3-48
Dial 11-71
Mouth piece 10-83
Ear piece 02-84

[andre_janew]

Now you can clean it up and hopefully do a better job of putting it back together!  Also, I think I may have seen a Design Line phone that has a similar outward appearance to this one.  Am I right about that?

[markosjal]

I have 2 phones here that a lady broght me very much like that. In fact I used to have one years ago like that as well.

Does it say "Made in Japan" on it?

The first one I bought in the early 1990s at a flea Market in Mexico

The second two that they lady brought me also came from Mexico.

I think WE sold parts to Asian Markets and recently someone told me that those parts were not allowed to be resold (in the USA?)

I think WE parts were sold to Asia then assembled in phones and later sold outside of the USA. This phone may have come from mexico

[19and41]

The plumber did a nice job of sweating that microphone onto the wire.  That acid flux doesn't leave a pretty result.

[andre_janew]

What is the situation with this phone?  Has it been cleaned up and put back together or has it been scrapped for parts?

[Dan/Panther]

That crud looks like insulating Jelly.
Or someone had areal bad cold.
D/P