I Like Having the Blues

[Jester]

I've had a few of you ask for pictures and details-- mainly PICTURES -- of the Dark Blue 302 I recently won on ebay.  I should have some progress shots of the case & dial later this afternoon, but right now I have duties related to Father's Day that come first.  For you who like pictures, I'll post a before & after set of my Mediterranean Blue 500, and promise I'll get the 302 on here later today.

[JorgeAmely]

Nice Father's Day present!

[Dennis Markham]

I get nervous when I see a blue phone so close to the edge of the table!

[benhutcherson]

Very nice-I was bidding on that one(I think), but it far surpassed what I could afford to pay.

You've done a beautiful job, as always.

[McHeath]

Wow, it's even got a curled grey cord.  Nice job. 

[Jester]

Some of you were watching this auction when it was up.  What caught my eye about it was it was mostly complete.  What made me think I might end up with it was the two cracks evident in the pics., the missing ringer and the missing cover under the finger hole.  I learned once it got here, though, that this phone wasn't all that original. I believe someone found a blue cover & handset and installed them on the nearest available 304.  It still has alot of potential though, & I thought I'd show some of the areas needing attention in this restoration.  The following pics. are detail shots of the cover. 

[Jester]

More shots after the clean & polish & some closeups of the repaired cracks.  Notice the chassis grommets used to replace the shot 59A dial mount.  The last shot compares the shiny cover with the yet to be touched handset.

[bingster]

Chassis grommets! That's brilliant!  I'm surprised nobody's come up with that before.

Beautiful job on the clean and polish, btw.  The blue is really beautiful now.

[Dennis Markham]

Great phone Stephen!  Will you do any work on the inside perimeter to avoid future cracking due to shrinkage over the base?  I have used a Dremmel grinder to grind out the inside corners until there is clearance between the base and the case.  It will help prevent future cracking and re-opening of the corners that have been repaired.

Great job on the blue 302!

[Jester]

Dennis,
I did remove some material from each of the 4 bolstersmolded into the corners.  I felt this was a good idea, especially since two corners were split and the overall strength was compromised.  But I still have the opinion that most of the case splits I've seen are caused by "Blunt-Force Trauma"-- the phone suddenly meeting the floor at a bad angle, for example-- and not a pure example of "case shrinkage.  On that note, I assure you that I don't make a habit of placing phones too close to the edge of tables.  The blue 500 was placed there to show how a healthy spring cord "hangs", and was moved to safety right after the shot was taken. 

The next area I'll cover is the dial.  As I mentioned on another thread, this dial is a 5H and should be a 5J if it were original to this application.  The basic difference between the two is the 5H housing is painted black  and uses a metal fingerwheel with a snap on number holder & the 5J is painted off white & has a special retainer to mount a clear Lucite fingerwheel with an integrated number ring.  While this dial had a plastic fingerwheel on it, I discovered something that made me further suspect that this phone was a product of spare parts & someone's ingenuity instead of a true color 302-- the F/W retainer mounted on this dial was the type used on the 6 or 7 series dials-- not the 5J!  To further confuse the issue, the nut used to bolt the retainer to the mainshaft DID come off a 5J.  The 5J used a special retainer & fingerwheel and, while it looks similar from the front to the 500 plastic fingerwheel, its attach points are different and neither fingerwheel will interchange directly with the other.  As it turned out, though, I found an auction for two FJ dials, minus fingerwheels, unfortunately, for the Buy-It-Now price of $45.  After that nice discovery, I found a WE 464 business phone that had a 5H dial wearing yet another F/W retainer style with a 500 style fingerwheel attached to it.  The following pictures show:
1) The 5H from the Blue phone & the 2 5J dials I won.  The 1st 5J has the early F/W retainer attached, while the far right dial is sporting the later retainer I took off the 464.

2) Obverse shot of the 2 fingerwheels--early design on the left.

3) Reverse of fingerwheels--an attempt to show the differences in the notched cutouts and also the locking ramp used on the later version at right.

4) Detail shot of the different retainer parts(excluding the late #5 retainer).  Note that the 2 sets of 5J parts are meant to show reverse & obverse detail.  The retainer on the far left is, of course, a typical #6 or 7 retainer used with color sets, and was the type retainer mounted to the 5H dial on my blue phone.  This part is incompatible with the #5 and does not lock to the smaller key on the top of the mainshaft.  This allows the fingerwheel to twist on the shaft after the shaft has hit the stop.

[Dennis Markham]

Stephen, I was only kidding about the Mediterranean Blue phone being too close to the edge of the table.  But it was the first thought that came to mind when I saw the photo.  That is a beautiful phone and you did a great job on that cord as well.

I have a couple 5J dials that I bought a while back.  I bought them for "future use".  I paid $100 plus shipping for the two----that was in a better market.   Both have the old style finger wheel retainer clips.  Both dials need to be given the once over as they are a little slow.  The first thing I did when I got them was to break that clip trying to remove it.  I knew where the little latch thing was and read the procedure and still broke it.  It took a while but I finally found a replacement in a lot of parts that I bought off eBay.  I spotted the clip in a pile of parts.  I had already asked club members for a spare and none were coughed up.

I agree that many of these phones were damaged on the corners by being pulled from the desk during use.  I have done that myself.  However I have also had some plastic 302's where I had to pry the base away from the cover.  Recently I picked up this Ivory 302 with the typical corner crack.  Otherwise a very nice phone.  I got it at a very reasonable price but of course there is damage.  I hope to repair that damage eventually but this is one that I will have to open up the inside corners to fit over the base properly.

[Jester]

That ivory will be a great project, Dennis.  I see it has a complete 5J, right down to the original fingerwheel!   That's an excellent find.  I had a similar learning experience with removing the fingerwheel from my first 5J.  I just knew I was going to pop the F/W before I figured out how that silly retainer worked, but I accidentally managed to slide that lock the right direction without really knowing what I was doing.  I say that because, when I was ready to reattach the fingerwheel, I tried reversing what I thought I did to get it off & I couldn't make that thing lock to save my life.  It took some head scratching, but I know how they work now!

[Dennis Markham]

Those clips are frustrating at best.  Perhaps why they improved how they attach.  I got this Ivory for about $60 which included shipping.  It has all parts dated from November & December of 1949 except the dial which I believe is '52.  The cords are even dated III 49.  It is very clean.  I haven't touched it other than to take some photos.  So that's how I got it.  It was a Buy It Now for $43 and another $15-20 to ship from Texas.  I jumped on it for that price.  It's actually a Model 306.  It has the gas tube inside for selective ringing and also a gong baffle.

I know this topic was intended for your Blue 302 but since I mentioned this phone I'll post a link here to some more photos of this 306 (H5) in case anyone is interested.

http://tinyurl.com/ljqxz6

[Jester]

That's a great find for $60.00-- good thing I didn't see it first!   Funny how often I see a 306 with the packing sleeve left on the tube.  Did you notice which # tube you have, Dennis?

[Dennis Markham]

Stephen, it's a 372A tube.