To paint or not to paint, that is the question

[Phonesrfun]

I picked up a Kellogg 900 the other day at an antique store.  The body has no cracks, and is real solid.  Someone had painted it once before, but most of the paint has worn off, as can be seen in the photos attached.  These photos show it as removed from the dishwasher, and the bakelite is in pretty rough shape.

Due to the complexity involved of trying the tung oil treatment and all the nooks and crannys on this phone, I am thinking that would be an excercise I would not want to undertake.

This level of pitting of the bakelite simply will never polish out.  So, I am seemingly left with only one choice, and that is to paint it.  Even if I paint it, I can always strip the paint off, but I thought I would get some opinions here first.

Here is a link to a beautiful 900 in the Telephone Archive, which is a real beauty.

http://www.telephonearchive.com/phones/assets/kg/kg900/fullimages/900503b_f.jpg

And here are some pictures of what I currently have:

[bingster]

My personal feeling is that if bakelite has degraded to such a point that it can't possibly be put right again, then painting is actually restoring the original look, and shouldn't be looked down upon.

[Dennis Markham]

I agree with Bingster on this one.  That phone on the Telephone Archive is beautiful.  The question is how to get those type of results.  Is that a McMurdosilver paint job?  I would not know where to begin to paint something like that.   For me, I'd probably find a metal 302 to paint as a learning tool.  But how does one get such professional results at home?

[JorgeAmely]

Dennis:

I thought Frank never painted his bakelite.

[Dennis Markham]

Jorge,  I don't know if Frank paints Bakelite or not.  I have no idea how he makes them look so good.  I wish I did.......

[McHeath]

His phones are amazing, the shine on that black is almost unreal. 

[HobieSport]

Bill I'm just curious; can you tell if the old paint on your K 900 was factory original or a home job?

[Phonesrfun]

Matt:

It was definitely a home job.  First of all, the phone companies did not paint their bakelite phones.  Secondly, whoever did the paint job on it did a terrible job of masking and did not take the hookswitch assembly out before painting.  There was significant overspray.