White Rotary Wall Phone....Soft Plastic.....

[John S]

Here is a new find (rotary white wall phone)....I found it at a estate sale for 3 bucks.  It will need some TLC....its really dirty.....I think it will come out nice once its clean up.  I am guessing its soft plastic. It does not seem to be any yellowing....again its just really dirty.... Its dated under the case 1959.....all the dates match.  The cord is really thick, and the chrome receiver is an older version.  It was hanging in a garage....it was not even hook up...just hanging there for many years.  It has the original dial card.....Are white soft plastic hard to come by?  This will be my 1st white soft plastic.....Here are some pics....Once I clean it up...I will post new pics of it......That's the fun part...bringing it back to life........

John

[JorgeAmely]

That is a true diamond in the rough.  Congratulations !!!  

You have started your collection with a big bang.

[McHeath]

Wow, that's a great find!  Hope it cleans up well for you, looking forward to seeing the progress on this one. 

[Dan]

Nice!! Whites in tenite (soft plastic) were only available from 1957-1959 1/2. So it is rarer than the early ones like rose beige, oxford grey which were around from 1953-1957.

You are very fortunate, this would sell on Ebay for over  $100 if you cleaned it a little and listed it correctly (look @ finlovers auctions for THEE WAY to show a phone).

It is nice to know these gems are still out there. I turned down an AE 40 today for $12  because it had no handset.

Beautiful!

[gpo706]

Gosh thats manky!

Can't wait to see what you do with it after some elbow grease...

[Dennis Markham]

John, what a great find!  I am GREEN with envy!  There are two colors that elude me for my soft plastic 554 collection (as I have mentioned before), one is Oxford Gray and the other is White.  What a great way to start your 554 collection.  We've said it before, you are in a hot-bed there----telephone collectors heaven!

Looking at the TenProject Data base, FUlton 8 does appear and shows it to be from Chicago, IL.

Nice find, John.  You know, Christmas IS just around the corner.............

By the way, that T1 Transmitter date of 4-21-59 was the day before my 4th birthday.

[Greg G.]

Put all the plastic parts including the fingerwheel and handset cord in a small tub with some Oxyclean.  Be sure to diagram or take good pics of where the wires go.  Here's how my filthy white 500 turned out:

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=1638.0

[AET]

Very nice! I have a white 554 I am working on right now, it is a 10-58, very close in birthdays!

[LarryInMichigan]

How could anyone manage to make a phone so dirty?  I can only imagine how the other items at the estate sale must have looked.

Larry

[bingster]

It looks almost like it was a phone in a gas station or something.  I think it will clean up nice, though.

[finlover]

This is going to be a stunner when it's all cleaned up!  The hydrogen peroxide gel treatment will get rid of all that nastiness, and try automotive crome polish on the handset hook.  Congratulations!