Refurbed White Mushroom from Ebay

[WEBellSystemChristian]

I found my 2nd genuine Mushroom on Ebay the other day: a white 1958 U. I saw the handset caps and thinner cords in the auction, figuring they were earlier '60s replacements. At $250 BiN, it seemed pretty pricey...but I REALLY wanted another Mushroom!

I ended up buying it, and it arrived today.

Bad News:

It looks like all plastics were replaced in 1966, with 1965 cords, elements, caps, and housing, with a 1966 handset. Everything looks pretty faded, and white cords aren't very fun to bring back to 100% white. There's also the missing light hood which will have to be replaced...

Good News:

All of the parts were replaced just before WE started making major visual changes to their parts, so the rectangular housing badge, #7 style bezel, and older handset badge are all still there, and don't look like obvious refurbed parts on a '50s 500.
Everything is still electrically there , including the 4-conductor line cord (except for the very end of it that was cut), so turning it back into a working U should be pretty easy.
One great aspect of ABS is that Nicotine doesn't affect it very badly. Most of the staining you see here is just sitting on the surface, and about 80% of it was able to be polished off on one side of the housing. The rest will come out easily with Peroxide treatments. In fact, I doubt the housing will need much Peroxide exposure at all!

Even though it was obviously not a great deal, I'm not at all regretting it. Refurb or not, you don't see many Mushroom colors outside of Pink, so White is pretty refreshing for me. This one was Pink before 1966, indicated by the -59 on the dial.

Sorry for not getting any internal date shots, I forgot to get my screwdriver for the picture session!

Pretty excited to get this one restored!

www.ebay.com/itm/162553788104

[HarrySmith]

Cool, congrats on a great catch.

[RotarDad]

Nice project, Christian.  It would be nice to remove the feet and clean up the base.  I spent some time in the past  looking for rivets for the neoprene feet on these later 500s.  The best idea so far is this:

http://www.oldphoneworks.com/feet-500-2500-brand-new-set-of-4-with-hardware.html

I believe they will sell the rivets separately if you ask them.  I have not ordered any myself to see how close to the originals these are, but they look pretty close.   You would need the tool to correctly install them.  I can find the link to the one I have if needed....

==========================
EDIT:  Rivet and rivet tool information split out and posted here:

     http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=18373.0

[Alex G. Bell]

Nice phone!  Worth the effort IMO.

In case you're interested in the provenance, there was at least one CLoverdale exchange in East New York neighborhood of S. Brooklyn: CLoverdale 7.  Cloverdale was not a Bell System "recommended name" so there may be few instances of it around the US.  CLoverdale 7 was served out of the Rockaway Ave. CO.  No other 25X code was assigned to that CO building as of 1971.

252, 253 and 258 were served out of the Kenmore Pl. CO in the not far away Midwood section of Brooklyn.  A bunch of the other 25X codes were served out of other CO districts in S. Brooklyn so any of them may or may not also have been named "CLoverdale".  It was not uncommon to scatter a given exchange name around a number of adjacent CO districts in the same NYC Borough.  Google also shows businesses with that name so perhaps it was a locale name at one point.  Many NYC exchange names originated in the name of the locale.

The TENP (The Exchange Name Project) Yahoo Group has an archive of directory "front pages" sections which might enable you to determine with certainty whether 253 was indeed CLoverdale 3 i.e. whether CLoverdale 3 existed there. 

[Dan/Panther]

Are the feet on the base the originals for 1958 ?

D/P

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Thanks guys!!!

The base isn't actually that bad. Other than the one right rear foot that's twisted a bit, the base is solid, straight, and only has minor spots of rust. Believe me, I've had my share of rustier base plates! And, yes, it looks like the feet are original.

The CLoverdale exchange sounds very familiar to me. I'm pretty sure I have a phone around here somewhere with a CLoverdale dial card on it. I'll have to check around.

I have a bit of a problem. I was figuring that this would be a fairly simple peroxide-and-display restoration, but it looks like the refurb center took a few more liberties than I'd like. When I disassembled the handset tonight to give it a Peroxide bath, it hit me: The handset isn't White, it's Ivory!!! I checked around the phone, and so is that special 4-conductor line cord!

So now I have several options...Either replace the handle, handle and line cord, or replace all plastics except the housing and dial bezel. I was a little uncomfortable with 1966 dates everywhere on a Mushroom. Early to mid '60s dates sound a little more comfortable to me; it fits in with some of the characteristics this phone should have, and anything later would make it too much of a frankenphone. I have several 1962/63 parts I can use as replacements for the caps and handset cord, but the line cord is definitely going to be tricky to replace.

What do you guys think I should do? It's already a frankenphone, might as well make it a little closer to a genuine Mushroom!

I already have a black repro light hood on order (the white ones are so frustratingly transparent), as well as a white 2-part epoxy paint I'm pretty excited to try out on the hood!

[RotarDad]

D/P - The base is dated 11-58, just after the Sept-Oct transition from leather to the triangular neoprene feet.  My thought was to reinstall the factory feet with new rivets after cleaning up the base.  I believe Christian is thinking the base doesn't need that level of restoration.

Christian - Given that the shell is your mushroom-specific refurb part, I would probably try to find parts close to that date.  But if I found a nice white late '58 handset, I'd be happy with that as well.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Here's a small update so far...

I bought a couple repro Mushroom hoods last week, a better one for my Pink P/U and one for my new white U. I bought two black, since the white ones are too translucent to use, even after being painted; they look fine on static display, but turn the night light on, and it looks horrible!


I didin't realize that the repro hoods have been updated since the last discussion we had about them. One of the ones I bought has a more rounded top like the originals. The notches in the brass fixture are also larger, although I can't tell exactly how it's improved over the older style. Since my Pink Mushroom is more original than my white, I decided to use the less original-looking hood for my white one.

I decided to try a white two-part epoxy by a company called Klass Kote. I figured that epoxy would stick to nylon far better than paint, not to mention the improved durability over paint.

I used a paint brush to apply the first coat. Even though I was initially disappointed that you could still see brush parts in the paint, it looked beautiful after everything flowed out. The surface looks like glass and feels like rock! You can still see some black peeking through, but that will be taken care of with the second coat.

I was also worried that pure white would look bad against the faded white housing. I polished some of the housing, only to find that the Nicotine didn't stick to the plastic, and came right off!

Here's how the hood looks on the phone. Now it's time to give it a second coat!

[Dan/Panther]

If that finish on that paint is that normal, I need to look into that paint. What Brand are you using. Maybe some photos.
I'm thinking spray it on a guitar5 project, the epoxy should be much more durable than is Lacquer spray paint.
D/P

[WEBellSystemChristian]

I used the 2-part epoxy from Klass Kote:

www.klasskote.com/paint_store

They don't have it in spray cans (obviously and unfortunately) but they say you can use the mixture in an automotive-type spray gun, along with some reducer they sell. They sell this epoxy and urethane in clear, which is what I assume you need.

Remember, I brushed this on. I have never had results this good with paint. I don't know if you have access to an HVLP gun, but I would bet using a roller will give you great results!

Also, check out some of the testimonials on their website. It sounds like I'm using this stuff more in the future!