How do I refurbish/clean the faded color on a western electric phone? Please help? Is there something that I can use at home or buy at the store? Anything you can suggest I'd much appreciate.
Thanks, Sherry in Alabama????
Welcome to the forum, Sherry. There have been some discussions here about using hair peroxide, otherwise known as "creme developer" along with UV light (or sunlight) to reverse discoloration in plastic which was caused by the reactions of the chemicals in the plastics over the years from exposure to sunlight. You should be able to find these discussions with a quick search.
This method will not help if your plastic has faded (become lighter). To remove the fading, you may need to sand off the layers of plastic which have faded, if that is possible. If you can post pictures of your phones, some of us may be able to assess the situation better and offer advice.
Larry
Hi Sherry! Welcome to the forum. At the bottom of the main page there are a few topics on restoration including a couple on discoloration and sanding. A search will probably find a few more! How many phones do you have? Just a warning, "phoneitis" is an incurable obsessive disease. Keep the phones seperated, they will multiply quickly ;D
Hmmm, how many phones total do I have really???? I couldn't really count all of them to be honest? There's too many to count. My Father in Law traveled near and far year and years to collect these things. I never knew of a way to get the light fading off. Just like I sold one today and am kicking myself all the way here now because it was "pristeem" minus the fading on it. I would attach a pic of it, but I don't see a place for me to. I hate being the new girl on the block, I really do. :(
Sorry guys, but Can someone tell me how to post one of my faded phones I need help with?
I sure would appreciate it. I promise I will try to hurry up being new & learn this site.
Thanks Bama girl (Sherry)
Sherry,
You can either add your images as attachments to your posts by clicking on the "Additional Options" at the bottom of the window, or you can insert links to images which are hosted on another site, like photobucket.com, flickr.com, etc, by clicking on the picture icon above the message.
Larry
Hi Larry, thanks for your help. Here's just one of them. I would say as far as how many do I have.....close to 1000 if not more of: Western Electric's desktop, wall phones, trimlines Stromberg's in the same thing and ITT's same. Here is one that I just sold that was in MINT condition except for the color. Here it is.
Welcome to the Classic rotary Phone Forum!
Is it possible that the phone is a different color than the handset cord? Normally we would assume that the phone plastics are badly discolored as compared to the cord but the phone and number plate are so evenly colored that maybe the phone is turquoise and the cord is light blue.
We now have two seperate threads going about your discolored phones. Moderator needs to merge them back into one as this thread was about how to post pictures!
Terry
That phone looks like what typically happens to blue after years of exposure to sunlight. Bleaching with peroxide can help alot, but achieving a uniform color is quite tricky, and overbleaching is possible with a color like that.
Larry
If you remove a handset cap the true color should be aparent on the inside.
Sherry to post a picture see the below...addtional options....attach.....browse...up to six per post.....Welcome to the Forum....Doug
Ok, the phone that you are looking at is the phone that I had to let go so cheap. It made me to upset at my stomach! It was so perfect-besides the fading. Anyway please see below:
I've tried to respond 3 times, so I'll keep it short. I sell phones-1 of my customers on my best baby blue western electric phone waited until after the auction closed & offered me 10 bucks on it, so because of the bad fading & it's the picture above-not this picture that I just uploaded-but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to sell it-even though it was flawless-not 1 scratch or crack on it. Even with the fading it was still beautiful, but guess everyone didn't see it my way. But he told me he was in a "elite" group and that's what they did was refurbish faded phones & bring them back to life & wanted to know if maybe we could make a deal & maybe later on we could talk later about it. But I know there's got to be a way that I can do it. So kind of solution out there by now. I have bought the Novus Products 1,2 & 3. I know there's some type of paint that will stick to the housing on these types of phones. The ITT's/Strombergs's/ & Western Electric's. Can someone tell me if there is such a creature as in some type of liquid to get the stain/coloring off & do any of ya'll know the name of the paint that use to be used to paint on these phones to restore them?
Any help would be muchly appreciated. Thanks, Sherry Bamatown.
Sherry,
As mentioned earlier, some people have had success bleaching discolored plastic with hair peroxide and UV light or sunlight. About the only other method is sanding. If the discoloration is superficial, such as from tobacco smoke, a good cleaning and possibly polishing might work. You do not want to paint the plastic. The phone companies and refurbishers used Polane paint on plastic phones. It is extremely expensive, and I expect that the proper equipment and expertise would be needed for the paint job to come out properly.
Larry
Hi Sherry, sounds like someone took advantage of you on that sale, you should have been able to get more than $10.00 for a blue 500 in great shape. As far as restoring color if you check the main page of the forum there a 2 topics under the repair techniques heading, 1 for improving faded color chemically and 1 for sanding plastic. These are the 2 methods for restoring color. The Novus products are great for removing surface scratches and for polishing but not for color restoration. There have been good results on light blue phones with the peroxide or retrobright treatment as described in the chemical post. Sanding is a lot of work but will definetly give you good results. With either method you will need Novus to finish the job.
Hi Harry,
I agree, it broke my heart to see it go for only $10.00. It was in near to perfect condition except for it was faded & the thing was it was all faded to a beautiful turq. bluish/green color. :)
I will try to find the post on the hydrogen peroxide & I have the Novus 1, 2 & 3 that I use already. Soft Scrub works great also & I'll share something that I've found with ya'll, but if you go & buy one of the Nail Block 4 in 1 nail file when it has the even out/smoother/buffer. This will shine your phone like it never has been shined before. It will even get out your little scuffs, just make sure you use the #2,#3 and then #4 to bring back the original shine. Hope that helps ya'll.
Sherry
Oh, my new phone that I am working on now. This is why I need to figure out how to get this faded off because I don't want to post this until it's off. Any help will be appreciated.
Sherry
Good Morning to all,
Is anyone on this Friday Morning? Just wondering if anyone saw my picture of my phone I posted & wanted to see what ya'll thought was the best method to use?
Hi Sherry,
That is not a WE (Western Electric) phone, that is an AE (Automatic Electric). It looks like a good candidate for Peroxide or Retobrite. Some info here: http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?board=23.0
Do you have the ability to disassemble the phone?
I think that the bottom line is there is no quick and easy way to remove discoloration from plastic phones. I always love the ebay listings showing a faded discolored phone and the description states that it "just needs a good cleaning" as if to imply that it will look like new if you invest 10 or minutes to scrub it down.
The only way used to be sanding and it still is likely the only way in a lot of cases. Sanding probably is a 20 hour or more investment in the phone so you aren't going to do that to try to sell if for $50 on ebaY.
The only phones that are worth this sort of investment of time are rare colors and otherwise very collectible phones, not the run of the mill colored phones.
There have been some successes with retrobright and other bleaching processes but they work best with the lighter colors and you still invest quite a few hours in disassembly, bleaching and reassembly.
There is enough info on the forum on these subjects to keep you reading for hours but I don't think anyone can give you a guaranteed best method to try and unlike some of the ebaY listings suggest, it won't be ready to go in 15 minutes.
Just my opinion on the topic.
Terry
Quote from: AE_collector on February 10, 2012, 08:32:51 PM
I think that the bottom line is there is no quick and easy way to remove discoloration from plastic phones.........
Well said, Terry.
A good outline of the alternatives and considerations in restoring colored plastic phones.
Chuck