OLD Wanted -- WE candlestick Shaft Needed

[ESalter]

Hi Everyone-

This is somewhat of a long story, so bear with me.

Over the weekend I attended a large hamfest in Dayton, OH.  I picked up several neat items, one of which was a WE dial stick.  I saw it sitting on the guy's table and almost didn't even walk over to look at it.  It had a bulldog transmitter and had a headset type receiver.  Here's the good part - it was painted gold.  I mean, EVERYTHING was painted gold except for the cords(which were barely even still there).  I figured I'd take a look and I'm glad I did.  Like I said, everything on it was spraypainted gold, even the number ring on the dial!  The back of the perch was marked something that was struck-out(couldn't read it for all the paint), the front side of the parch was stamped 151AL.  What really got my attention was the 2AB dial.  The plate is notched, sadly, but who cares!  I asked him how much and he said $60.  I offered $50 and he took it.

That night at the hotel I took it apart, the base is dated 31, dial is dated 32, refurbished in 42, and the transmitter and receiver are dated 42 and 43.  The dial had an aluminum finger wheel and nickel plated number card holder.  The first surprise was an old exchange name card under the gold painted acetate disc.  I have a 151 stick that didn't have the perch struck out, so it still says 51AL.  My plan was to strip and repainted the base, shaft, cup, and dial case from the new stick and the perch from the one I already had. 

I took it apart yesterday and cleaned up the dial.  Under the gold paint the number ring was trashed(it was dated 53), looked like someone had been dialing with a screwdriver for the past 50 years.  Amazingly, the nickel on the fingerstop was in excellent condition under the paint.  I scrubbed the gold paint off of the dial case with 91% rubbing alcohol.  The original black paint on it looked absolutely amazing underneath!  I polished it up and put it back together.  I found a nicer number ring that was slightly older and also gave it a brass fingerwheel and black painted brass number card holder.  Completed it looks very nice. 

Today I thought I'd scrub some of the paint off of the base and shaft since I planned on repainting the whole works.  I started scrubbing on the shaft with a lacquer thinner on a rag.  The gold came off, of course.  Under that were two layers of black on top of the original black.  The thinner removed those top 3 layers but didn't touch the original black.  The original black is maybe 50% intact, it's very worn.  I then went on to the base and transmitter cup using the same method.  The paint on those looks astoundingly nice.  They aren't perfect, they have what I'd consider a normal amount of wear for a phone that age.  After seeing those two, I decided not to repaint them, but try to find a slightly less worn shaft that matches.  If anyone has an extra shaft with the original WE paint, I have a phone that needs it.  It doesn't need to be perfect, just not dented.  The big thing is I want to find one with the original paint.  A few small chips and some wear marks are perfectly fine.  I meant to take a picture of the phone when I was at the shop earlier, but completely forgot.  I'll be sure to take one and post it either tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks!
---Eric

[Doug Rose]

Eric...I have a perfectly stripped brass shaft if you are interested....Doug

[ESalter]

Thanks Doug, but I'm hoping for one with nice original paint.  If need be, I suppose I can strip and repaint the one I have, but I'd prefer not have to do that.