1955 Ivory 500:What a difference a day makes... along with some chemistry

[poplar1]

Yes, that's it. Thanks.

[jsowers]

You are correct about the ivory phone being the one in the recent auction. I now have an "after" picture and my friend in California got the cord back to new-looking with peroxide and Oxiclean. Here is what he did, in his own words...

I half filled a quart and a half Pyrex loaf pan with very warm water.  Then I
added what was left in a container of 40 volume clear Salon Care™ hydrogen
peroxide, which was about half a cup.  I added 20 volume creme Salon Care™
hydrogen peroxide, another half cup or more.  Finally, I mixed in 3 heaping
tablespoons of Oxi-Clean.  I put the cord in the mixture and had to weigh it
down with a small clear dish.  Parts of it wanted to float up.  It stayed in the
sun about 3-4 hours.  I checked back regularly to push the rising suds off the
pan.  The suds seemed to never end.

I had previously put the cord in two bleach baths.  The cord improved very
little, so that's when I went for the peroxide/Oxi-Clean treatment. 

[unbeldi]

I had previously put the cord in two bleach baths.  The cord improved very
little, so that's when I went for the peroxide/Oxi-Clean treatment.  

That's beautiful.
But the tint of the photo seems misadjusted. The phone looks almost white, not ivory. The WE-500 series ivory is much darker, or saturated, than this.

The peroxide is definitely a stronger oxidizing agent. I will apply the treatment sometime too, while gathering some other cords in addition to make the process more efficient.
Thanks for sharing.

[unbeldi]

Since the 500 set turned out so pretty, I was motivated to improve on its companion wall set, a 2-57 554 this weekend.  The 554 didn't need much bleaching as it just had some slight discoloration which was visible because it had had some stickers on the front at one time--whence no before-pictures, just the final result in companionship with its desktop friend for which it had been waiting for some time.