ABS can be collectible, too.

[Dennis Markham]

Stephen, that really is a huge improvement.  Nice pink color.  I like the older (wider, thicker) chrome hook.  I'll have to try Dan's cord dying method.  I have a couple of pink cords that have turned kind of white.  Is that what you did with this one? 

Very nice job on that phone.  Which six colors do you have now?  I'm thinking you're probably wishing you had hung on to the Light Beige one. 

[Jester]

Yes, Dennis, I treated it with DyKem the way D/P suggested to do it.  So far, I have black, ivory, green, dark beige, yellow & light gray in soft plastic.

[Dennis Markham]

You have a good start, especially having Dark Beige already.  Oxford Gray and Mahogany are the tough ones, as you know.  I'm still looking for that dark gray. It's around the next corner...........

[jsowers]

Stephen, the pink 554 is beautiful and a great example of what I call a "combo phone." That's my term for those 1959 phones made of two different plastics that faded differently, but matched when they were new.

I only see one odd thing. The ringer adjust is the bent kind instead of the straight kind. That's odd because I thought they changed that somewhere around 12-59 or 1-60. Maybe it was replaced sometime in its life? We'll never know.

The housing being hard plastic is news to me too. I guess they started in late May instead of early June. Was there a date on the housing from late May?

Your other phones in this thread are great-looking too, especially the white 500U. I have a 500U that someone refurbished with black modular ABS plastics, though I think the mushroom cap was an old one, as was the base (11-59). My thinking is it was a retirement present for someone at the phone company, or it got reskinned for someone who wouldn't part with it. Or maybe someone with a drill just replaced a broken housing on a black 500U? It does have the metal mount for the mushroom cap, but there are lots of burrs still on the holes under the housing. I attached a shot of it below, as it arrived to me. It looks like it was never used, at least in this incarnation.

[Jester]

I only see one odd thing. The ringer adjust is the bent kind instead of the straight kind. That's odd because I thought they changed that somewhere around 12-59 or 1-60. Maybe it was replaced sometime in its life? We'll never know.

The housing being hard plastic is news to me too. I guess they started in late May instead of early June. Was there a date on the housing from late May?

I used to think the bent adjuster came later, too, but I now have four sets from mid '59 that have this style lever.  This pink one is the oldest, followed by my soft ivory from 6/59, then comes my red & white 554's, both from 8/59.

The housing is clearly stamped 5 18 59 2.  I kept looking at that 5, thinking I'd discover it was really a poorly stamped 6.  Nope--it's a 5.  The receiver cap is also hard plastic, but I can't confirm the month it was made.  The date stamp is small & in an awkward area.  I'll have to find my magnifier to read it.

[bingster]

What are the bent vs. straight adjusters you guys are talking about?

[Jester]

Darrin,
The 554 has a lever riveted to the lower base that attaches to the adjustable gong on th C4A ringer.  All the early WE 554's had a flat lever, but this was later changed to a "z" shaped end on the part that sticks outside the cover.  What Jonathan & I are discussing is when this change took place. Below are examples of bases with the different adjusters.

[baldopeacock]

I've upgraded since then

817 area code -- that's here,  Ft. Worth and surrounding region.  The PL2 prefix would have been northwest of Ft Worth, small town called Azle.   Did you find that around here?

[bingster]

Oh, I see now.  Thanks for the explanation, Stephen.  I don't have any wallphones, but I'm familiar with that lever from the 685/6/7 subsets.

[jsowers]

I used to think the bent adjuster came later, too, but I now have four sets from mid '59 that have this style lever.  This pink one is the oldest, followed by my soft ivory from 6/59, then comes my red & white 554's, both from 8/59.

The housing is clearly stamped 5 18 59 2.  I kept looking at that 5, thinking I'd discover it was really a poorly stamped 6.  Nope--it's a 5.  The receiver cap is also hard plastic, but I can't confirm the month it was made.  The date stamp is small & in an awkward area.  I'll have to find my magnifier to read it.

That's nice information to know. And thanks for illustrating the difference. I should have thought of that. Only with a lot of examples can we figure out all these little details, and that's what's so good about the Forum--to be able to see what other people have. There just aren't that many of those 554s left to go by.

[Dennis Markham]

This pink 554 is dated early June, 1959.  It has the bent lever.  Also notice the "brown spot" from the ringer out-gassing discussed in another topic.

[Doug Rose]

This pink 554 is dated early June, 1959.  It has the bent lever.  Also notice the "brown spot" from the ringer out-gassing discussed in another topic.

Dennis.... I have that same problem, but I never realized ringers did!

[baldopeacock]

This pink 554 is dated early June, 1959.  It has the bent lever.  Also notice the "brown spot" from the ringer out-gassing discussed in another topic.

Dennis.... I have that same problem, but I never realized ringers did!

I really was waiting for someone to crack that joke.

[Kenny C]

LOL

[bingster]

I wonder if a piece of clear packing tape applied to the inside of the case would be a good idea to prevent further staining.  Sort of like the way an asbestos sheet shields the case of a radio against browning by the power tube.