Auction 69 - AE40 in Orchid/Gold (painted/faded)

[Dan]

1969.69

[JorgeAmely]

1969.69

1969 - that was a good year.

[AE_Collector]

Terry....I disagree, Bakelite does fade. Check out my green North Galion. ...Doug

But like the Orchid AE, your North Glaion isn't bakelite either. It is thermoplastic isn't it?

My point was that Bakelite doesn't fade but most of these faded discolred sets are thermoplastic ...(or are they tenite)...not bakelite in any event.

Terry

[rdelius]

That North is not a Tenite type plastic. It is hard like bakelite.I have seen them in green, blue and maroon. The ivory one I saw might have been Tenite.
Robby
These are tough to get the color back on , at least the molding is not as complex as the AE.

[bingster]

There were dozens of plastics in the 1930s, and many of them (the phenolic plastics, anyway) share the basic properties of bakelite.  It's really hard to know what plastic one is looking at, without actually seeing the plastic named in documentation.

[stub]

My guess is - 3600.00     stub

[Doug Rose]

Terry....I disagree, Bakelite does fade. Check out my green North Galion. ...Doug

But like the Orchid AE, your North Glaion isn't bakelite either. It is thermoplastic isn't it?

My point was that Bakelite doesn't fade but most of these faded discolred sets are thermoplastic ...(or are they tenite)...not bakelite in any event.

Terry

Terry...I guess we just disagree,  my North is bakelite. I have a brown as well. I vigorously used fine steel wool on it to remove the fade for many many hours. Try steel wool on tenite. You will see the difference between tenite/thermoplastic and bakelite as you will destroy the tenite with one pass of steel wool...Doug

[Dan]

Holy crap Batman it's $2,950.00  with 7 days to go! If any of you guys were to find this one out in the wild, would you try to get it back to orchid or leave it alone? I would be a little scared to try it.

Sanding  or easy off oven cleaner or what methods would you use?? Just curious...

[Doug Rose]

If it was me, which it won't be,  I would leave as is. Looks like it faded to a WE 302 thermoplastic blue. Amazing!!...Doug

[JorgeAmely]

I once asked Gary Goff about the type of plastics used in the colored AE40s. This is part of his reply and it points to the fact that colored AE40s are not made of bakelite or Tenite.

"Jorge, the colored "bakelite" sets that I have are the earlier type 1A and not the 34 or 40's.  The latter are definitely a type of "plastic" that is made with Butyric Acid, the substance that makes them smell like vomit as they age. "

[NorthernMan]

 This is great, now when i look for old phones i have to smell it to see if it smells like vomit. Kinda takes me back to my L.S.I.R. days in the bad part of town.

[rdelius]

Tenite smells bad when sniffed. It also gets moldy. I have seen ads in Modern Plastics Magazine that were placed by Tennessee Eastman Co that showed AE type 40 sets.My grandfather wworked for Tennessee Eastman in Kingsport TN.
Robby

[AE_Collector]

Too bad your grandfather didn't have a basement full of colored AE 40 and 50 phone cases and handsets from work!

Terry

[AE_Collector]

Doug:

Maybe your North is some form of colored bakelite rather than thermoplastic. They probably were coming up with new formulations of plastic every other week back then.    Terry

[Kenny C]

Doug,
Your north looks like it darkened instead of faded. If it faded the color would have gotten lighter it defiantly didn't look lighter in the eBay pictures. I think it darkened instead of faded. A pink 500 from the Tenite-ABS transitional period of 1959 would better show the difference. Just my 2¢