6 button Designation Holder Experiment: Success

[Adam]

One of my fave phones in my collection currently is my red Western Electric 565HKM.  However, the only one I've been able to afford so far, it has the newer designation strip holder, and I prefer the older style, like it was in the sixties and seventies.

With the help of a spare older style designation strip holder courtesy of Eric (ESalter) I can now verify that the older style designation strip holder fits very nicely over the newer style set, with absolutely no indication the newer style is below.  You have to modify the old designation strip holder, however, and snip off the little metal tabs that descend into the shell of the phone designed to hold it in place.  Even without those tabs, it still holds on nicely due to the tight fit between the designation strip holder and the button flanges.

Below are the before and after.  Thanks Eric, for your help in testing my theory that a new key set can become old again!

[Dan/Panther]

Clean job, looks good.
D/P

[AE_Collector]

So that designation strip is being held on just by friction around the base of the buttons? If so that is a nice and easy modification, and completely reversible (other than saving the old designation strips snipped off pins).

I was thinking that you could probably drill the newer type strip and/or phone case to take the older type pins but why ruin those parts?

Terry

[Adam]

Yes, it's being held on by the friction.

That was my plan, to see if it could be done without modifying the modern shell at all.  I would have tried creating the tab holes in the shell as the next step, but it's not necessary.

I also wasn't 100% sure the older cover would totally cover the space where the newer designation strip is recessed into the shell.  Happily, it does.

[ESalter]

Looks spectacular!  I agree with you, the older style looks drastically better than the new ones.  Glad you could get some use out of those old covers

---Eric

[Greg G.]

FRANKENPHONE!!   

[Adam]

Well... Halloween is this weekend...