Just listed by an ATCA member. Very nice 1954 WE Mahogany Brown 500. Straight cords too.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/183724491137
Wow, that escalated quickly... $343.40 at the moment... People must be eager to spend their tax refunds. ::) Looks to me like it's going to take quite a bit to get the scratches out of that plastic. :-\
Wondering how far this one will go, seeing as how a WAAAAY nicer one, posted in the Auction Contests section, went for $510 last year (amazingly enough, the eBay link on that thread is still working, as of this post time): http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=19776.0
The straight cord (in brown for brown phones) is very hard to find and boosts the value probably 30-40% over a curly cord version. The scratches are no problem with denatured alcohol and Novus polish.
Quote from: RotarDad on March 14, 2019, 11:18:55 PM
The straight cord (in brown for brown phones) is very hard to find and boosts the value probably 30-40% over a curly cord version. The scratches are no problem with denatured alcohol and Novus polish.
I have some familiarity with Novus polish--it's mentioned here on the forum enough--but is the denatured alcohol for cleaning it? I figured just washing the plastic parts in warm water/mild dish soap would be good enough (that's the way I've cleaned my AE 80s), but that just shows you what little I know... :P
Tom, while you were out, so to speak, Christian and Teleplay and others experimented with using denatured alcohol on Tenite and there are lots of posts on that subject you can search and read at your leisure. It scares me to think about spending what this particular phone costs and then doing that to it, but then I haven't tried it yet. Better to start with a junky cheap one and work your way up.
I assume it works with the AE80 plastics from the 50s too, but I'm not 100% sold on it. It does remove a layer of plastic and the logos aren't as distinct, kind of like that red 80 you got recently. And I wouldn't want to be the one who finds out that it doesn't work as well on brown or dark gray or some rare color, which may not ever be the case. It's still a bit experimental.
And that housing date stamp on this phone--did you see it? It's from 1953! You can't get any earlier than that.
The reflections on this phone, from the stairway where it was perched precariously, make it look worse than it is. Better pictures would help.
Tom - I'm a careful, conservative guy :) , and I used the denatured alcohol method with great success on a Tenite Mediterranean Blue 500 here:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=20430.0
I would experiment with a junker first and never touch the logos, but the denatured alcohol works well on Tenite plastic to remove scratches, and is pretty easy to control.....
Jonathan - After studying the pics on this brown phone, I agree that the condition is probably better than first appearances, and I would likely just disassemble, clean and Novus polish this one. This is an early one, for sure. Needs a new finger wheel, but otherwise very nice.
Some very good points raised above. I have learnt through error to go in gently when it comes to restoration.
On an early phone such as this I would first clean then polish and see what the results are from that. Hard to say for sure without having it in the hand but from the pics, on this phone that may well be enough.