Refurbing an Aqua or Touquoise 500, 3-'60 and a 2-'59

[HobieSport]

Here's my next phone project. It's an aqua or turquoise 500, March 1960. It's for my wonderful sister's 50th birthday this March. I also have a similar, but maybe not the very same color phone in a 2-'59, that I'm thinking of using the better cords from.

First of all, I would like to know the true names of the color(s). Are they aqua or turquoise?

And does the molded-in case number on the 2-59 that reads "74" mean that the case is a 1974?

Since the handset cord on the 3-60 is shot, and the line cord is the thin type, I'm thinking of using both cords from the 2-59. My sister won't care if all the parts don't match her birthday, just that it looks good.

Any suggestions for this little project are welcome. I don't think that I'll try to sand out the fading, but I could, if it didn't take days of work to do so. I think that I'll just try Novus 1 and 2 first, with the Ryobi buffer. Oh Ryobi buffer, how I do love thee...

In all the photos containing both phones together, the 3-60 is on the left and the 2-59 is on the right. Thanks for looking!

-Matt

[Craig T]

Hi Matt, nice phones and a great project. I say yes on the years, although someone will have to say what the letters mean. They both look excellent for restoration!


I have not done a whole phone in Novus, but I have seen some near perfect results with it. Sounds like you are on the right track, keep us posted please!

[Dan/Panther]

B3 most like designates the number 3 cavity of mold B.
C could be a shift or month code, and the date is obvious.
Just form my experience at GM, as Plastic Injections Mold Mechanic.
D/P

[Dennis Markham]

Matt, the 1959 model (on the right) appears to have been refurbished.  I can see that the dial is a later #9 series dial.  The narrow opening on that phone for the finger stop is an indication that it is a replacement.  I take it the bottom, perhaps the network and ringer are dated from 2/59?  The handset cord is a replacement also as is evidenced by the tapered end coming out of the handset.  I'd bet the strain relief date matches the date on the plastic and perhaps the dial.  Are the foot pads on the base of the '59 phone the larger rubber pads or were they replaced with the smaller, round ones?

The 1960 set has the earlier open center finger wheel and the earlier #7 series dial.  If you look on the back side of that dial you will see a date and color suffix.  If it is Aqua it will be -62.  That dial could have been changed somewhere along the line and may have a different color code.  The dial bezel looks aqua with some discoloration of the housing.

Turquoise was released in 1964.  The later dials didn't all have a color code on the back but yours MIGHT.  Since the housing is dated 1973 it could be Turquoise but it's difficult to tell from the photos.  Both colors look the same on my monitor.

Looking at those molded dates, I never really paid attention to the letter designation but looking at them tonight I see those little lines, or tick marks above them.  Perhaps each line relates to the month.  The year as, as Dan said is obvious.

I think color-wise you'll get better results with the later housing (1974) as it looks less faded.  Novus will but a good shine on the plastic, but I don't think it will reduce the discoloration.  Unfortunately.

We did a posting a while back where we compared the colors:

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=530.0

[HobieSport]

Thanks Dan/P and Dennis. The dial on the 3-60 500 appears to be original, 3-60, and does indeed have the color code C-62, for aqua. And yes, the 2-59 does have a #9 dial (from 5-69), and the phone has parts of many dates, so it's a refurb job as you said. The footpads on the '59 look like the originals, with the larger, triangular rubber. And just as you said also, the network, ringer (and base) are all '59. The handset cord is a '74, just as you guessed, the same year as the shell.

I did think of switching the shells; replacing the '60 shell with the much newer '74, as it is indeed a little less faded, but the difference between the two is not that much, so I'll just keep the original shell on the '60 and Novus it up.

So the 3-60 "birthday phone" for my sister will be all original and matching dates when I get done, except for the cords from the other phone, the handset cord from '74 and the nice thick line cord from '73. Cool.

And the coolest thing? The transmitter on the '60 is a 3-24-60, and the receiver is a 3-23-60, the exact date of my dear sister's birthday, fifty years ago. I still remember when my sister came home from the hospital, three days old, and I first got to meet her, and Mom saying "meet your new sister!", and me staring in awe, at the mature age of three whole years, and thinking "Wow! How cool is that?" And soon I will be able to say to my sister "Meet your new phone!"

And just so my fine brother-in-law doesn't get birthday phone envy, I also found him a nice 12-'68 in perfect condition in "manly black".

[HobieSport]

Now I'm wondering if the faded aqua 500 3-60 for my sister may be a candidate for the bleach/sun method. I've never done the bleach method, so am wary.

Am I correct that the recipe calls for 1/3rd bleach and 2/3rds water, immerse the shell, handset and caps in a tub and expose the faded parts to direct sunlight through the liquid, turning it with the sun? I'm also wondering how long to leave it in the soak and sun, and if anyone has had success (or problems, such as clouding, etc.) with the bleach method for aqua in hard plastic.

Any advice/tips heartily welcome...

-Matt/Hobie

[McHeath]

I think that the color of the 3/60 could certainly be brought back with a sanding.  Of course that's a lot of work, but looking closely at your pics it seems a good contender for The Treatment.

If it was mine, I'd hit it with 800 grit, wet, then follow up with 1000 and then 2000.  The buffer you have would make short work of the final polish work, compared to doing it by hand as I do.  While you may not get all the blue back it would probably be a surprising amount.

You could paint it.

It's pretty neat that you found a phone with a part dated to her birthday, a very nice time period gift.

[HobieSport]

Thanks Heath, and I am thinking of sanding it, but wondered about the bleach method first. I do remember well your experience with sanding your aqua 1500 (was that it? The one on your desk? I could be thinking of another phone that you sanded.) And how long it took. If I could do it all in say, four hours, then I wouldn't mind, but as much as I love my sister, I prefer to keep some of the skin on my fingers intact...

[McHeath]

That phone looks to be a 3 to 4 hour project doing the sanding route.  Especially with the buffer.  Well, I must confess that's after doing several phones, the aqua 1500 was my first and took the longest.  Since then I've done several more, and the last one, a moss green 500, went pretty fast and almost, almost, easy.

[HobieSport]

Thanks again Heath. Well, what the heck, I'll try the sanding. More foolproof and effective than the bleach I imagine.  So...800 grit to 1000 to 2000. There's a lot of posts about sanding here, but I'll just ask you now:  Regular sandpaper or something special? Wet or dry? Did you sand in little circular motions or in two straight directions? Any other tips besides don't get carried away and take off too much material and "deform" the shapes?

[McHeath]

I went over to the local auto parts store and bought the sandpaper, got stuff for working on car paint jobs.  Wet sanding works well, I just work them over in the kitchen sink. 

I probably should sand in only one direction, but I confess to being lazy and I just sorta sand it.  I then polish the phone several times with a car paint polish, usually three coats, and then a final Turtle Wax coat. 

Should get a buffer, that would make the polishing a lot easier, I end up spending as much or even more time with the polish than on the sanding. 

[Steve]

I don't know if I would sand it myself.

I have only sanded 1 phone, and only bleached one phone. both were done on the same turquoise 554.

first, I sanded this phone in spots to see if it would help. the sanding may/may not have done much. I also hit it with a scotch brite pad and kitchen cleanser for hours. no REAL improvement.

then I did the bleach treatment. 1/3bleach 2/3water. I put it in the sun moving it around each day. the first 3 days seemed to do nothing, then on day 4 I went out and saw it and freaked out. it looked worse! i pulled it out and brought it in the kitchen thinking I ruined it. what made it look worse was that the discoloration had come up to the surface! a little cleanser and a scotchbrite pad took it off pretty easy.

it was still somewhat discolored so it put it back in the pan. 2-3 days later it did the same thing ( discoloring moved to the surface. )

it looks really good now, but it still has a very slight discoloring, but WAY better than it was. I am going to put it out one more time come summer. the only problem is some sanding scratches I still need to get out.