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Hideous Telephones

Started by Stephen Furley, August 04, 2009, 05:42:30 PM

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19and41

The same length is shown here.  I always think of that commercial when I see those crusty communicators. ;D
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
— Arthur C. Clarke

TelePlay

     Regular Member Post

Just listed are five 500 style phones, 1 repro stick and one 554 housing, all of which seem to be (looking at the bottoms and the inside of the 554 housing) wrapped well. Phones are priced from $72 to $95 BIN plus shipping, the stick and housing less. All of the 500 phones are fully modular.

The seller has expanded his/her expertise to lamp shades as well, or from lamp shades to phones. The wrap is nice if you like that sort of thing but still falls into the hideous category when it comes to phones.

The composite shows all of the seller's current listings including one lamp shade. The link is to one eBay listing, as is the screen capture.

     https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vtg-ITT-Desktop-BROWN-SUGAR-Fully-Functional-Rotary-Phone/202575547232

Key2871

Brown sugar... Well at least the first work comes close to what it looks like. Sugar doesn't seem to be there, except for maybe the person who did that to all those things had wayy too much in their morning cups of Coffee.
Septic shock would come a little closer.. key word being septic.
KEN

19and41

Now the biggest question:  Is it reversible?
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
— Arthur C. Clarke

Key2871

John, those creations give a whole new meaning to the word hideous. I would hope those are just paint spaters and nothing else. But the amount of work needed to bring those back would be tremendous.
KEN

HarrySmith

It appears to be a wrapping. Looks like it may be wallpaper? I would imagine it can be undone but who knows what is under it?
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

"There is no try,
there is only
do or do not"

Jim Stettler

Those phones were offered on etsy for several months.
I think they are wrapped with  vinyl contact paper aka shelf liner. I think it would come off easy if you tried.
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

Key2871

Oh, now that I zoomed in, it does look like contact paper..
So a heat gun, and some goo gone.... But yea what's the condition under..
KEN

TelePlay

     Regular Member Post

Quote from: Key2871 on January 25, 2019, 10:04:03 AM
Oh, now that I zoomed in, it does look like contact paper..
So a heat gun, and some goo gone.... But yea what's the condition under..

The phone covering reminds me of the adhesive advertising shrink wrap they put on my van, covered the complete vehicle making it into a rolling billboard. It would shrink around bends and corners. It was stuck on and then a heat gun and squeegees were used to make it conform to the bends and curves of the vehicle. It was stuck fast and the edges were rolled around the corners (the doors) to keep the edges from showing or peeling. Inside the door frames looked just like the inside of the 554 housing. I found two car wraps attached to show how the stuff conforms to curvatures.

Got hit in the side one time and they had to take the wrap off to fix the panels. They used a heat gun to remove it. Metal takes heat. I'm not sure how much heat would be needed to remove this adhesive from plastic, what the adhesive may have done to the plastic or if the heat would warp the plastic.

Regular contact paper will not conform to the shape of a 500 but a shrink wrap will. It seems this person found large sheets in that I can't find a seam anywhere on the phone housing, sheets large enough to cover the housing in one piece. I can see where it was cut away around the cradle ears but no overlaps as you would see, for example, on installed wallpaper. They sell that shrink wrap stuff plain and ready for printing. This seller may have a pre-printed source.

Finally, looking at these phones closely, I see it might not be worth removing the wrap since they are all newer ITT phones, not collectible WE phones. No Med Blues under the floral prints.

Key2871

#699
You bring up a good point, but after several years in the hardware store I learned a few things, one of which is contact paper comes in such wild patterns such as found on that phone. And if the phone was cleaned right, and the contact done correctly, it would hold pretty well for a few year's. It is possible for that stuff to be car wrap, I don't see it being used to cover phones. Seems like that would be kind of pricey for such a job as a phone. I have seen instances where someone using contact paper doing a very nice job.
But such things like the handset can be done just so much before you need to stop and trim. Such looks like the case on that phone. And that pattern is popular in some things even today. I don't see car wrap being that busy on a car or van, I would think the pattern would be much different.
But you are correct body wrap is very sticky and can't be applied in very tight places.
Plus contact is much cheaper, than wrap would be I think.
And after doing a little research, I found several of the patterns still available for sale today.
KEN

.....

Santa's phone. Found this on Facebook's Marketplace.

Key2871

I wouldn't be too Jolly about that under the Tree...
Geese give me a break..
KEN

FABphones

A collector of  'Monochrome Phones with Sepia Tones'   ...and a Duck!
***********
Vintage Phones - 10% man made, 90% Tribble
*************

Butch Harlow

Oh goodness gracious. Someone buy it and put it out of its misery.
Butch Harlow

Jim Stettler

I don't care for that phone, but I do Leich my Santa phone.
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=372.msg25561#msg25561

Jim
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.