my new ivory 304 needs whitening??

[oldguy]

My new ivory 304 has darkened in many areas. I have read about: bleaching, peroxide & sanding. Some of the articles are old, so I would like to know if anybody has any new or perfected ideas? I am going to try any ideas on newer less valuable discolored phones or phone parts 1st. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[LarryInMichigan]

I have had some very good results soaking things in a chlorine bleach and water solution outside in the warm sunlight.  This method has an advantage over hair peroxide in that it gives a much more even bleaching without the splotches and swirls that can result from the peroxide method.  When I do bleaching, I check on the items and change their orientation relative to the sun every 30 minutes to and hour or so.  You want to make sure to avoid bleaching for too long also.

Larry

[Phonesrfun]

Personally, for that old type plastic, other than a good cleaning, with soap, I would not try to bleach it. Nothing will restore it to its original color, so why mess with it?  I have screwed up too many things trying to "make them better".

[LarryInMichigan]

I have ruined a few things, but I have also brought back some badly discolored phones as well.  The chlorine bleach has removed some serious tobacco stains also.

Larry

[Phonesrfun]

I am still seething over the blotchy job I did trying to bleach a turquoise Princess.  Absolutely ruined it.  That was a couple years ago, and I am still ticked at myself.  You don't suppose that fact came out in my post. 

[Doug Rose]

Ivory thermoplastic will definitely lose the yellow in a 50/50 bleach and water mix. Leave it in as long as it takes. Remove parts when they are ready. Vaseline the vermillion to keep the dates. I would NEVER use the bleach on anything but ivory. I ruined a green thermoplastic 302 and learned my lesson....Doug

[unbeldi]

If the set has yellow stains, I would start with a good cleaner, such as Fantastic and scrub the set well with a soft brush. This also removes any fatty deposits on the surface.   Fantastic has bleaching agent in it too, and this may just be enough in some cases.  It really depends how far you want to go back in time and restore the original color.  Many times these sets have a very nice warm tone that some may simply prefer over the much 'colder' looking original ivory.  If more bleaching is desired, I would definitely recommend chlorine bleach appropriately diluted.  This makes it easy to control the amount of bleaching. It is not a fast method.  I would not use the peroxide treatments on this plastic. They are expensive and gain nothing, IMHO. Frequent stirring should prevent the concentration gradients that invariably develop in the solution during bleaching.  They are easily spotted by the streaks in the liquid.

Never just walk away for hours without frequent inspection.  There is no safe way to predict how long the process will take. I have even rinsed the set off in between and dried it to see how I like the process.  You should adopt a protocol that makes it easy to prevent over-bleaching.

The vermillion ink stamps (date, housing type) and the brass inserts for screws must be protected with Vaseline/petroleum jelly. Make sure that ONLY those spots receive the jelly and NOTHING else.  Even in very thin application it prevents bleaching and when contaminated you must start over with scrubbing.


Here is one example for the results:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=11814.msg126729#msg126729


Below is a before and after where I don't did NOT go very far with bleaching, because the color was a very nice warm and even dark ivory.
I think I may have posted this before here somewhere.

[unbeldi]

In this example I went a little further with bleaching.
The pure light ivory is also very attractive, this almost looks mint.

[AL_as_needed]

Only two cents i can add to this is to really really clean AND degrease all visable surfaces before soaking in bleach. Learned this the hard way on a pink set that got spotty where my fingerprints were and had to wet sand most of the phone.

That being said, some light sanding and a good buffer are always a solid alternative option if your careful. My new mehod of choice after the poka-dot pink phone incident.

[oldguy]

Thanks everyone. In my research the subject of heat & light came up. Any input on that??

[TelePlay]

Thanks everyone. In my research the subject of heat & light came up. Any input on that??

IIRC, light is needed for both.

Certainly with a peroxide in that the UV part of the light plays a big part in the chemical reaction on the plastics surface to bleach the color. I tried hair salon type peroxide on a few handset caps in a dark area and nothing happened. Put the clear bag in sunlight and within an hour or so, the plastic was much lighter.

Light when using liquid bleach in water would have the same effect, but I did not try that both ways.

As for heat, heat is always better than cold in a chemical reaction, it makes it happen faster.

Others may have more to add.

[oldguy]

I think I will wait until winter is over to undertake this project. When I say undertake, I hope I don't kill the phone