"Semi-restoration" of my US Army Western Electric 302 EW with AE dial

[shortrackskater]

I bought this on ebay about a week and a half ago and have relentlessly spent time on it each night. I have another thread on identifying what it is, and making it work. This post though, is just to show its transformation.
The seller got the phone (literally) from the trash. It was outside - curbside pickup trash and he plucked it out and put it on eBay, where I bought it for a whopping $5 plus $11 shipping. The phone looked like it had been left outside or exposed for a LONG time.
This was the title and description from the Ebay listing:

1940's/50's vintage dial Telephone Western Electric Company (parts?)
Used, cracks at front corners, rusty bottom, unknown whether or not it works.


I decided just to restore it to a "good" looking old phone since I don't think it has a whole heck of a lot of value anyway.
AND my goal here was to do this with all of the original parts, which I did other than the receiver and transmitter, and the line cord. They were shot.
The case wasn't dirty - it was corroded and that stuff only came off with my series of 400 grit sandpaper, to steel wool and then three levels of plastic cleaners. Here's the results of that portion.

[mentalstampede]

Looks like a great start. I'm glad it's getting rescued. I have a soft spot for the military phones.

[shortrackskater]

Well it's been a few weeks...
The phone is in much better shape. And there's a 5 page thread on the repair of it too! Thanks to the patience of everyone especially member AGB, it's fully functioning now.
Still, I did a lot of cosmetic work before I got it working.
I disassembled most of the phone. The rubber bushing "things" below the ringer were rotted out. I cut out halves of rubber grommets and pressed them into the case and they work great as replacements. After some wiggling I got them to actually seat in better, after I took the photo! The ringer sits in nicely now.
More on the way...

[TelePlay]

Don't know if you figured that out on your own or if you saw my posts on doing that. If you haven't here it is. I recently added photos of original WE grommets which I can't find anywhere - they must have been custom ordered for WE.

     http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=6853.msg78533#msg78533

[shortrackskater]

 No I thought of it on my own, when I removed the ringer and saw the holes, it just seemed that a grommet would work.
I'll have a look at your link.
Thanks🙂

UPDATE:
I didn't think of squishing a washer through the hole. Good idea though.
Mine seems solid. I think I left enough "meat" on the grommet to keep the plate from bottoming out.

[shortrackskater]

Here's the disassembled phone. I lightly brushed and vacuumed out whatever gunk had accumulated in it over the decades. There's some kind of weatherproofing that was around the dial and case. Most of that I removed. If I'm not mistake, it sure looks like cosmoline to me. The inside at the base looked nearly as bad as the outside, but surprisingly the dial looked great.
The plungers were stuck inside the case and the hookswitch was corroded and frozen.

[Alex G. Bell]

Here's the disassembled phone. I lightly brushed and vacuumed out whatever gunk had accumulated in it over the decades. There's some kind of weatherproofing that was around the dial and case. Most of that I removed. If I'm not mistake, it sure looks like cosmoline to me. The inside at the base looked nearly as bad as the outside, but surprisingly the dial looked great.
The plungers were stuck inside the case and the hookswitch was corroded and frozen.

Most military electronic (radio) equipment and phone equipment is "tropicalized" to minimize moisture absorption and mold growth in extreme humid climates.  This equipment is usually stamped "MFP" (moisture & fungus proofed) in vermillion ink.  I believe it's a varnish substance and is the reason the lead colors are especially difficult to discern in your set and the reason the insulation cracks when the leads are flexed, visible in some of the photos.

I can see the corrosion residue from the insides of the zinc alloy housing switchhook plunger passageways on the outsides of the plungers since it would have been impossible to MFP those passageways without preventing the plungers from operating freely, so those surfaces corroded.  I don't know why they did not treat the aluminum switchhook frame plate.

Zinc is a chemically very active substance so zinc alloy housings are pretty vulnerable to corrosion.  This phone may have been stored for a long time in very humid conditions.  I'm not big on refinishing methods so I don't know how to deal with the housing.  Perhaps wire brushing with a 6" wheel on a bench grinder for the outer surfaces, perhaps some kind of chemical treatment.  "Is there a chemist in the house???"

It's a lucky thing for this phone that it found someone to love it!  It will be forever grateful to you!   

[shortrackskater]

So far the phone seems appreciative! 

For the case I used 400 grit wet sandpaper, followed with 0000 steel wool, then Novus #3, Novus #2, and finally Mequiar's cleaner/wax.
For the plungers I used the steel wool then the polishes. They put off a distinct odor when I cleaned them.. almost like bad mildew or mold.
Here's the case. I'll add more pictures as I build this thread. I'll add pictures of the nasty cracks and the repair I've done.

[unbeldi]

I can see the corrosion residue from the insides of the zinc alloy housing switchhook plunger passageways on the outsides of the plungers since it would have been impossible to MFP those passageways without preventing the plungers from operating freely, so those surfaces corroded.

The housing looks like a plastic housing to me.

[shortrackskater]

The case is dated 1952. It's  flexible (and warped too, sadly) - I'm assuming it's "tenite" from what I read.

[Alex G. Bell]

The housing looks like a plastic housing to me.

He said somewhere that it is metal, at least in the thread about getting it working.

[shortrackskater]

Nope ... wasn't me that said that. That may have been one of the linked posts earlier, in my thread on the repair. ?

[Alex G. Bell]

Nope ... wasn't me that said that. That may have been one of the linked posts earlier, in my thread on the repair. ?

Must have been the 304 thread that was going on at the same time then.  Never mind.

[shortrackskater]

My last comment made no sense! I deleted it. Yes it may have been that 304. I recall it was NICE looking.

My next step was just take apart the dial. It already dialed smoothly so I just cleaned the face, dial, center and the fingerstop.
I removed the ringer and "semi" polished the bells for my semi-restoration. The look like nice old bells now and not rotted bells! 

[shortrackskater]

Here's my steel wool hookswitch cleaning job. It had a considerable amount of corrosion.
Better now.
And I used some outdoor weed cloth as a replacement for the piece that goes on the bottom vent holes. The original cloth was actually there when I got the phone, but it just disintegrated when I opened the case.
Here's shots of the cleaned hookswitch and vent hole cover.