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Red'ish 1969 WE "Bell System" 500

Started by Pourme, March 19, 2016, 09:57:12 AM

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Pourme

I didn't have a red 500. I stumbled on to this deep red 500 at one of my regular stops. (it is deep red inside as well) Priced at $36 I got a 10% discount and paid about $33.00. She seemed immune to my usually persuasive powers of talking down the price. Could be too much but no shipping charges either. Everything inside checks out with a '69 date. It still has the Bell 4 prong plug. Hard to see in the photo, is a spider webbing effect on the surface, and some fading. I assume some sanding is in order to get that beautiful shine so many of you achieve?  Overall it's a very clean, no smoker phone. It does add a little color to my black and beige 500's.
Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

Victor Laszlo

Before I would start sanding, I would try a little Armorall. It has a slight melting effect on the surface of ABS, and sometimes the crazing goes away. Can't hurt to try that first.

Pourme

Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

Victor Laszlo


TelePlay

#4
Quote from: Pourme on March 19, 2016, 09:57:12 AM
Hard to see in the photo, is a spider webbing effect on the surface, and some fading. I assume some sanding is in order to get that beautiful shine so many of you achieve?

I can see something similar to this



or this



in the side closeup photo with the reflected light.

Is this what you see on the entire shell or just in that area?

=====================

EDIT: all of the replies from this point forward discussing the crazing on my black and red 500 shells have been split off into a topic of it own - that discussion hijacked the original topic phone, Pourme's Red'ish 500. The the split off discussion can be found at this link:

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=15970.0


Pourme

Yes...I'm not so sure I want to "do" anything about it at this point. In some circles it's called "patina". For now I will be happy with cleaning and preserving this phone. Thoughts?
Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

unbeldi

Have you examined whether the phone is painted?   Crazing is much more common with painted or lacquered surfaces than on plain plastics.
Western Electric routinely refurbished housings by painting.  It can be very hard to distinguish a paint job from pure plastics; I thought I had a red princess until I accidentally touched it with a swab soaked in acetone and saw a shine of light blue on an edge.

Southernphoneman

The red 500 posted here does appear to be painted, you can see at the bottom of on of the photos where the paint has worn off, plus this is classic of a paint job that has simply "seen its better days" for a lack of a better term.

Pourme

The stamped date is " C 69 " using a swab with a solvent doesn't indicate that there is paint present. 
Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

JimH

Quote from: Pourme on March 19, 2016, 11:42:43 PM
The stamped date is " C 69 " using a swab with a solvent doesn't indicate that there is paint present. 
Ok, I'm glad yours is not painted.  You should have no problem bringing back the shine.  The marks may have been from some previous aggressive scrubbing.  It's a very nice set.

Jim
Jim H.

Pourme

Looking very close at this surface....I would have to guess that the crazing I am seeing would probably result from a clear coat....I could be wrong....
Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

Pourme

Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service