Auburn Rubber Toy Telephone Truck

[Greg G.]

Anita and I spent Saturday hitting a few yard sales and then the flea market/swap meet.  I only came away with this toy phone truck for $5 at one yard sale.  Anita did better with various household and personal accessories she needed.  The same place where I found the toy phone truck, a lady said she had what sounded like a wooden subset, but it wasn't with her and she didn't live nearby, so I gave her my phone and email.

The truck was pretty filthy, but I managed to get it cleaned up.  I have a feeling this was found buried in a trash heap, the gunk on the underside smelled really bad when I tried to use the sink sprayer to get it out.

It needed a front end alignment, but I was hesitant to do that because the front axle was corroded to about half it's original girth near the right side and I was wary that I might break it, but carefully tried it anyway and got it straightened out as much as it could be.

At first, I assumed that Auburn Telephone meant Auburn, WA, a town south of me, but I found out that the rubber truck was made by Auburn Rubber Co. in Auburn, IN.  http://auburntoys.net/auburn-rubber-trucks.html

[Greg G.]

After a soak in Oxiclean overnight and some handwashing in dish soap using an electric toothbrush and Q-tips.  There was gunk in every nook and cranny.  It was fortunate that it was made of rubber, which made made it bendable so I could get in the hard to reach places.