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Started by carly28, February 18, 2012, 06:16:35 PM

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twocvbloke

Quote from: carly28 on February 19, 2012, 02:33:44 PM
On the base it also says 02 -80 along with someother numbers. At the top of the base is a random 75. So the person who sold it obviously thought that was the date it was made. Disappointed now as I thought it was older  :-[

Yeah, sounds like it's a 1980 phone, but it's based on the same basic technology as the originals, and it's a hard-wired model too, which to me looks nicer than the "Modular" versions with the RJ11 socket on the back and the RJ10 socket on the side for the handset... :)

If you could get a photo of the base, that'd help to confirm it's age, some phones can go through a few refurbishments with all kinds of additional dates stamped on them... :)

carly28

Your wish is my command!

jsowers

Carly, all you need to do to remove the dial face is take a flat-blade screwdriver and push the metal ring that holds it down--it's on top of the dial at the center--around the edge of the area where you removed the fingerwheel. Be careful not to push too hard and scratch your dial face.

Push it counter-clockwise, or anti-clockwise as you Brits say, and it will gradually come loose from under three "fingers" where it sits now. Remove the ring and the dial face will come loose. Just rotate it a little and it will clear the dial "spider" which is the metal part that holds the fingerwheel. You don't need to take the screw in the center loose.

You didn't need to take the dial out of the phone to do this, but you did need to remove the fingerstop, which I see you have done. Sometimes it works better to have the dial installed in the phone because it's heavier and won't push across the table when you work on it.

Most later model Bell System and ITT dial faces are attached that way, as are Princess phones. Good luck getting your plastics back to the original color. You can tell the original color by what's inside the handset.
Jonathan

twocvbloke

500 - Model
15 - Colour (White)
qBA - ???
20M - Basic model
2-80 - February 1980

I'm comparing those numbers to the current Cortelco (they still make what were ITT phones) product line, but at least the colour is meant to be white according to the colour code, so peroxide-bleaching it back to white would be the right thing to do... :)

carly28

Ok so we (more like my husband) managed to get the dial face off. Eventually. Decided to try to put it together again until such times as we get enough sunlight to bleach it. About 45 minutes later after lots of swearing he has given up until tomorrow. Hopefully, if we get enough sunlight, I may be able to give it ago, but doubt it. So for now it may end up in a box, still dismantled until the sun comes out for longer than half an hour. On the plus side I already have my eye on another one online  ;D

Oh, glad to hear its meant to be white. Thats what I thought by the colour on the inside of the body. May message the seller and advise her on not only should she have mentioned the fact that it was older than originally thought, but also it was hugely discoloured. Or would that just be mean?

twocvbloke

As a rule of thumb, it's better to reassemble & store than to leave in pieces & store, as bits can go missing, and if you're anything like me, you could end up forgetting how it goes back together (I have many dismantled things in boxes, damned if I can remember how they go together though!!), at least with it being in one piece you can still use it despite the fading... :D

You could send the seller a polite message to say that the phone is 5 years newer than advertised, but it doesn't really matter much, a '75 ITT is basically the same as an '80 ITT, but the older one would have had 5 more years of UV exposure to turn yellow under, so it could be worse... :)

carly28

That is a very good point matey.

Well there isnt much sun today down this way of the country anyway so I would rather put her back together until I can give her s spruce.

My only other conundrum is do I now buy a pink ITT from '69, a black one from '56, or an Aqua/turquoise one from '53. If only I could have all 3!!!

twocvbloke

Yeah, it'll be easier to reassemble it and just to wait for summer, when there's a slightly better chance of a day of sunshine... :)

As for those other three phones, well, You could have all three, just buy them all at once and hide the other two away somewhere, then later say "Ooh, look what I just bought" after a few weeks... :D

Usually works for me... ;D

twocvbloke

I'm still somewhat of a beginner on American phones too, but I keep dismantling and reassembling my poor ol' black 500, just so I don't forget how it's done, and I always find something new that I never noticed...  :D

My 2500 in another thread is my third proper American phone (though technically speaking, it is a canadian phone, cos was made in the land of James Ready & Tim Hortons!!), and that's completely different to my pair of 500s, well, the Network and the dial are, the rest of the parts are basically the same... :D

I think I'd agree with going for a 50's phone, they seem to last forever, probably due to the primordial ooze they fill the network blocks with to preserve the components inside, but either way, they're the ones to go for, especially the true Western Electric ones... :)

Greg G.

#39
Quote from: carly28 on February 19, 2012, 04:29:15 PM
Ok so we (more like my husband) managed to get the dial face off. Eventually. Decided to try to put it together again until such times as we get enough sunlight to bleach it. About 45 minutes later after lots of swearing he has given up until tomorrow. Hopefully, if we get enough sunlight, I may be able to give it ago, but doubt it. So for now it may end up in a box, still dismantled until the sun comes out for longer than half an hour. On the plus side I already have my eye on another one online  ;D

Oh, glad to hear its meant to be white. Thats what I thought by the colour on the inside of the body. May message the seller and advise her on not only should she have mentioned the fact that it was older than originally thought, but also it was hugely discoloured. Or would that just be mean?

To save on the frustration and swearing, I take pics of every stage of the disassembly process so I can refer back to them later, it's saved me a lot of hassle and also serves as a pictorial inventory.  I also carefully place any screws removed in those little brown "coin" envelopes and label what they were for.

You don't need lots of sunlight for the retrobrite bleaching process.  I live in the NW (Seattle) area and used a bulb in lieu of sunlight for the bleaching process.  I guess you've already figured out that it's not really "cream".  Good way to check any original color is to look at the underside of the handset caps.  Here's some pics of my first attempt at using the retrobrite process to restore a badly yellowed white phone.  Keep in mind that it took 4 or 5 treatments to get it like this.  Also check out this thread: http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=1146.0

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