Filthy Princess

[compubit]

I picked up the following pink princess on eBay. With the hardwired cord, it was begging to be refinished. It looks like one of those phones that ended up in a mechanic's garage, and it just totally filthy...

The pictures don't show how filthy this one is...

Jim

[compubit]

So far this afternoon (yes several hours have taken place between when the original note was entered and this one...

The handset cord received its Oxyclean bath and came out very nice.

The handset and base had a Palmolive bath and are now in an Oxyclean bath.  Still lots of gunk on the plastics - this will require some elbow grease...

A couple of notes/comments/questions.

It appears that the handset caps were painted.  The handset and base plastics aren't painted. After soaking in Oxyclean for a bit, paint on the handset caps seems be starting to come off. Is this just non-Polane paint, or could a good Oxyclean bath be the "starter" to being able to strip the paint off?

Jim

[TelePlay]

Cord turned out very nice.

You got it for a good price but the seller needed to add a few more "very"s to the description or maybe should have gone with "really extremely very, very, very dirty."

Seller description: "VINTAGE PRINCESS PHONE - WESTERN ELECTRIC - BELL - PUSH BUTTON - THIS IS VERY, VERY USED, VERY VERY DIRTY, UNTESTED. - THIS IS BEING SOLD AS IS FOR PARTS OR REPAIR"

The bottom looks pretty bad and it looks like it's missing the lamp.

[jsowers]

Try some denatured alcohol on the caps and the plastics and the cords, with some paper towels. You can get some of the surface dirt off with window cleaner or some other gentle cleaner and then go in with denatured alcohol and it will get off all the grime and paint spots and leave the plastics shiny. You don't need to spend time soaking anything. As you have discovered, soaking won't get off all the imbedded dirt. You do need to use elbow grease to really get a phone clean. A Princess is small and doesn't take very long to clean by hand, but that long handset cord might take a while. The cord looks OK in your last pic, but if it has any paint spots on it, don't hesitate to use denatured alcohol to get them off.

Denatured alcohol is only for hard plastic phones--1960 or later. Don't use it on soft plastic.

In the 1970s they did use a thin type of paint that comes off with denatured alcohol and oftentimes the plastics beneath are brand new and not faded. I don't know why they painted perfectly good plastics the same color, but they did. You'll need lots of paper towels, but that paint should come off those caps with denatured alcohol. Get it at your local mom and pop hardware store. It saves a lot of time.

[compubit]

Thanks for the hint on denatured alcohol.  The cord looks great - not paint marks at all - just filthy!

I know it's going to take some elbow grease, but I've gotten a good chunk of the surface grime off the plastics.  The handset caps will just take a little more - everything under the paint which has been scraped away is in good shape (save for some yellowing on the transmitter cap around the holes - guess the person who used the phone was a smoker, but the rest of the phone isn't yellowed...).

I'm a sucker for a "clean-up" job...  It may be a present for my niece...

Jim

[jsowers]

I'm a sucker for a "clean-up" job...  It may be a present for my niece...

Jim

I gave one of the first 500s I ever got, a pink one, to my niece. She's had it for about 15 years and still uses it. They're great in a power outage if you still have POTS.

[RotarDad]

Jim - This sounds like a true "Cinderella" story.  It should turn out great.  I agree that there is something very satisfying about restoring a phone like that one.  Just watch the clock so you don't work on it past midnight, or you may lose a clear plunger......

On the painted caps, I know you've gotten input already.  However, you may also want to try a household degreaser like Krud Kutter which is non-toxic.  This stuff has worked very well for me to remove dirt, grime and paint by simply soaking, and then rinsing with water.  A little gentle elbow grease may be needed, but I'd soak the caps over night.  The Krud Kutter will turn pink if it's working.....

[Jim Stettler]

i

In the 1970s they did use a thin type of paint that comes off with denatured alcohol and oftentimes the plastics beneath are brand new and not faded. I don't know why they painted perfectly good plastics the same color, but they did. You'll need lots of paper towels, but that paint should come off those caps with denatured alcohol. Get it at your local mom and pop hardware store. It saves a lot of time.

I think these plastics typically have a "C" molded in them. They were made with recycled phone plastics. I think they painted them to keep the color consistent.  I think the earliest "C" plastics weren't painted.

[compubit]

Jim - This sounds like a true "Cinderella" story.  It should turn out great.  I agree that there is something very satisfying about restoring a phone like that one.  Just watch the clock so you don't work on it past midnight, or you may lose a clear plunger......

On the painted caps, I know you've gotten input already.  However, you may also want to try a household degreaser like Krud Kutter which is non-toxic.  This stuff has worked very well for me to remove dirt, grime and paint by simply soaking, and then rinsing with water.  A little gentle elbow grease may be needed, but I'd soak the caps over night.  The Krud Kutter will turn pink if it's working.....

Thanks for the tip.  Of course, if the solution turns pink, how will I find the caps? ;-)