I put this post here because I don't remember where Greg (Brinybay) put his posting on the Oxy Clean results of his AE80. I have a candidate for the "treatment" Here are some before pictures. Into the sink it went about 10 minutes ago. We will see what it looks like tomorrow morning. Notice I am going to do the bells too. Ha ha.
I think this may be a real winner of a project, it looks like a good solid phone and a good cleaning will makes that color impressive. Looking forward to seeing the results.
I think I put it in the Repair forum, but whatever. Don't forget the handset cord. I'll be curious to see what it does with the cork ring on the receiver cap. My AE 80 didn't have one, but my AE 183 did, but that went through the dishwasher. Even though the drying cycle was turned off, the water was hot enough to loosen the glue.
Greg:
I did throw the handset cord in too. And interestingly enough, the receiver cap that has the cork gasket actually floated due to the cork. Everything else stayed at the bottom of the sink. The phone case itself wanted to float until I turned it upside down. The cork gasket stayed glued inside the receiver cap.
All: This morning as I was racing out the door I suddenly remembered the phone soaking in the kitchen sink. I did not have time to take pictures but I did fish it out and dried it off real quick. There is a remarkable inprovement, although a hint of a little pastey-white film here and there. I will hit it with a little Novus #2 to loosen all that and take pictures this evening when I get home from work.
-Bill Geurts
Bill, I am anxious to see these results, since the "peroxide method" only seemed to work with whites and ivorys.
This oxyclean method would be interesting to convert a few yellowed light blue phones which appear green or turquoise back into their original light blue. That rose beige AE80 you have will hopefully lighten up and appear more "rosey" and less brown. I always wanted a rose beige phone, but the WE's are a little pricey, while the Automatic electrics seem much more affordable.
Here is a quick photo of the case after the cleaning, but before any Novus. I am going to do some research for GPO, then come back to this.
I'm going to need to sand out the dial bezel. It appears to be made of a softer plastic that clouded up a bit from the soaking.
Picture:
Ugh, sanding. I'm doing that now with a Trimline, my least favorite thing to do with an old phone. I think you got good results with the chemical bath, too bad the dial bezel clouded.
I sanded the bezel, then buffed it out with the buffer. Still slightly off color, and the handset is overall darker than the rest of the phone. Notice the caps are a shade lighter.
Overall, it was not exactly the results I was looking for, but I don't think I hurt it any either. I started out thinking it was pretty much a discolored and dirty phone to begin with.
I think there is something to be said for the different parts either being made of different consistencies of plastics or the fact that they could have been made at different times out of different mixes from different suppliers and in the case of the Bell System, even at different factories. There is no question that the bezel is a softer plastic than the cover, and I would not be surprised if the handset handle were different from the cover and different from the caps.
But, it did turn out ok in my opinion. Pic #2 is the receiver cord "cooking" in front of a space heater on low heat, and wrapped around a long 3/8" drill bit.
Quote from: Phonesrfun on October 16, 2009, 11:40:31 PM
I sanded the bezel, then buffed it out with the buffer. Still slightly off color, and the handset is overall darker than the rest of the phone. Notice the caps are a shade lighter.
That was quick, now I feel guilty. I let sanding projects "age" for a month while I think about it. In fact, all my phone projects receive similar ageing processes.
QuoteI think there is something to be said for the different parts either being made of different consistencies of plastics
Somewhere on this forum I mentioned that I'd read this very thing in a late 60's edition of Bell Magazine. There were even some interesting pics of them testing various types of plastics, including a weather exposure rack. The Bell Labs dude that was interviewed discussed the different plastics being used, and talked about how they are not all the same on a single phone though most people would assume they are. Handsets are a laminate mix of a rubberish inner plastic and two other kinds of plastics bonded to that he said, gives it strength. The shell was a different kind of plastic as well. I don't remember the names of these materials but he did name them. Perhaps this is why we often get such odd discoloration on our old phones.
Bill, the best way is doing all your plastics seperately at different levels of exposure, then try find a decent match through trial and error, GPO plastics are the same, I'd do the body firts till happy then everything else one at a time till they match.
My Oxy grey one too came out slightly bleached and with white patches, the ivory came out almost white after a couple of days.
Quote from: McHeath on October 18, 2009, 12:23:43 PM
Somewhere on this forum I mentioned that I'd read this very thing in a late 60's edition of Bell Magazine. There were even some interesting pics of them testing various types of plastics, including a weather exposure rack.
Sounds like the telephone equivalent of the "body farm".
Greg:
No need to feel guilty. Remember that Kellogg 900 with the cracked handset? I still have not gone back to that project. I also did not "go to the max" as to what I could have done on the beige AE80. I seem to have a short attention span. I must admit that the wiring and electronics part of telephones interests me more than cleaning and polishing.
-Bill
Bill;
I start with the polishing first.
D/P
Just a wee note:
I find oxy-clean (or a generic equivalent) excellent for cleaning cords removing mildew, etc. I got a load of badly soiled and mildewed but new cords a while back, and restored them to their original splendor by soaking them in a strong oxy-clean solution in a tub, then wiping them with a cloth. Finally, I hung them vertically from a clothes hanger. There were close to 100 cords in the batch, and all turned out like new.
The only caveat, is a few had to be re-coiled as the act of wiping them inverted some of the coils.
This was over a year ago, and there doesn't seem to be any return of the mildew. I re-packed them in fresh plastic bags to avoid transfer of existing mold in the bags back to the cords.
Dave