Kit for converting a 1317 wall phone to dial

[poplar1]

Customers who owned an antique phone were able to have it sent to the Western Electric service center. For about $25 labor, WE would install modern components which remained the property of the Bell company. The  customer would pay Bell the usual monthly extension rate  as rent on the components.

A collector in Toronto told me that Bell Canada also converted 1317s this way.   They used a kit with a black faceplate with a hole for a 7D dial (type used on 500 sets). The faceplate and other parts fit in the former battery compartment in the bottom of the phone. He said he often moved the kit from one phone to another.

Does anyone have one of these Northern Electric kits in their collection, or recall seeing one?

Attached is a photo of a Western Electric 1317 wall phone that was apparently converted by WE. Behind the black plastic faceplate is an 8A dal (as used on Princess sets) and a 685A subset. The hookswitch has been changed for a new WE 143-type hookswitch with extra contacts which short out the receiver when the phone is on hook.

I am trying to determine whether WE had a kit like those used by Bell Canada, and, if so, this is an example of such a kit. All of the other WE conversions I have seen had a masonite faceplate inside or no faceplate; i.e., they were custom made on an individual basis.