302 Arrived today. Step by Step Cleanup. With photos.

[Dan/Panther]

F1 handsets that were manufactured by Western Electric for non-Bell System phone companies were labeled F1W.  So if you have a handset marked that way it was sold to a small phone company and not released on a Bell System phone.

Dennis;
If the phone is installed by other than Bell System, what bearing would that have on it's collector value, unless of course they were W.E.'s seconds.

D/P

[Dan/Panther]

McHeath;
thanks for the kind words.
I have more time than money, so consequently I concentrate on the fixer uppers.

Well I took the plung.
I tried Lacquer Thinner on the body of the phone, hoping it wouldn't damage the Thermal plastic. Well it didn't, and after about 15 minutes of rubbing the side of the case, I then polished it up with Brasso, and here is the resulting partially finished phone. I think I might have a keeper when I'm finished. For my $14.73  investment I think I did O.K. I will post more photos as I progress.
And try to convey how I did what I show.
Here is the photo.

D/P

[Dan/Panther]

Before I go any farther, I would like to qualify about Lacquer thinner on plastic. While it did not appear to effect the Thermo plastic, I applied it by hand with a rag. I did not use a pan to soak  or brush to apply the thinner. Any plastic will be effected by as strong a solvent as Lacquer thinner, if you apply too much.

That said;
Here is a photo of the case about 95% stripped of the Silver, Gold, and Green paint.
Now I will finish polishing it with Brasso ONLY................
BTW, I was shocked that the case had no flaws no scratches at all. Why did they paint it, not once but 3 times ?

D/P

[BDM]

WOW, that's actually turning out nice. I admit, I haden't expected these results. Nice job!

[Bill Cahill]

Sure, Dan.

[Dan/Panther]

Here is a photo of the case after polishing with rags, and BRASSO ONLY. Absoluely no mechanical buffing. It is entirely done by hand and took about 1 hour.

D/P

[Dennis Markham]

Dan, that looks very nice.  Nice job!  I have a couple of 500 cases that were factory painted black over more rare colors.  For instance I have one that is Pastel Yellow underneath (inside) the phone but was repainted black.  Another is Rose Beige.  I wonder if your method would remove that exterior paint?  I'll have to give it a try. 

[Dan/Panther]

Dan, that looks very nice.  Nice job!  I have a couple of 500 cases that were factory painted black over more rare colors.  For instance I have one that is Pastel Yellow underneath (inside) the phone but was repainted black.  Another is Rose Beige.  I wonder if your method would remove that exterior paint?  I'll have to give it a try. 

They actually did factory paint overs. I would imagine they used other than Rustoleum, like mine was done in. It may take more work if it was done in an epoxy finish.
D/p

[McHeath]

Holy restoration Batman!  You gonna make us all look bad by bringing these phones back from the brink!  Okay so I guess I can't just use a can of Pledge on my "new" 500, we got standards to live up to now.

[Dan/Panther]

This is getting more rewarding than Radios. I can see more progress much faster. And the results seem more rewarding ??
With phones, you can jump right in, and not need to replace too many things. Most of the parts in phones seem to be able to be salvaged.
Also the quality of phones seems higher.
Of course highend radios excluded.

D/P

[Dennis Markham]

Matt, be careful when opening those phones.  You never know what's going to be inside..............when you get a minute, check out this posting I made a couple of years ago on my web site. 

http://www.vintagerotaryphones.com/?p=19

Dennis

[Dan/Panther]

Dennis;
Spiders of all things.
That would have been it for me.



Next I'm going to work on the dial assembly.
I'm not going to get into tearing apart a dial and fixing or rebuilding one. I'm assuming the dial is a good one, and let someone else much more qualified than I am, to show us all how to restore a dial.
This ones works well, but is painted silver.

D/P

[Dan/Panther]

Here is the dial torn down about as far as I need to, so as to be able to clean the finger stop.
Parts are laid out in order of removal.
This will allow me to clean the dial face, dial wheel, Finger stop, yet not get myself into too much trouble putting it all back together.
Maybe next time I'll get farther into the inner works, but for now I'll settle for a good cleaninmg and lubrication.
I hope it goes back together as easy as it came apart 

D/P

[HobieSport]

Will be curious where to find a good dial plate.  Both of my #1s are worn completely off.
I'm assuming ours is an H5 dial?  -Matt

[bingster]

This is such a common problem, that it's difficult to find perfect plates.  People who have them generally don't want to get rid of them, and they tend to be pricey for that reason.  But there's a solution that's cheap and looks good.  Have a look at these:

http://www.oldphoneworks.com/antique-phone-parts/parts-and-pieces/dial-overlays/