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302 with F1-W

Started by Dan/Panther, November 22, 2008, 10:47:25 PM

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Dan/Panther

My 302 that I recently cleaned up has an F1-W handset. I was able to find an F1 handset in 99.9% condition except for one very tiny tiny chip where the earpiece cover screws on. Should I leave the F1-W, or put in the slightly flawed F1 ?

D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

bingster

It's a matter of personal preference.  I never cared about the numbers on the underside of the handset.  I have a Western 302 that somewhere along the line picked up a Northern F1.  Makes no difference to me.  Same quality, same look.
= DARRIN =



Dan/Panther

If I read you right, it's better to have a perfect F1-W, then a flawed F1.
In a round about way that is.
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

bingster

In my mind, yes.  In fact the Northern F1 I'm talking about is my best F1, so it's been switched around to whatever 302 I was using at the time.
= DARRIN =



Dan/Panther

I want to have the best looking examples yet trying to maintain as much originality as is possible.
I don't want to end up, with a bunch of nice looking junk, because nothing is original.

My W.E 500 had dull bells, and I had polished to a bright shine others from another 500, when I went to change them, what I thought was a part number actually turns out to be dated bells, so I would have put bastard bells, into an otherwise consistant numbered 1954 WE-500. I don't want to make that kind of an error due to oignorance.
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

bingster

The way I see it, as long as you keep all the phones you switch parts to and from in your possession, then there's no problem.  You may want to make a note of the changes somewhere, so that you know what went where, thereby making it easy to put them back as you got them.

I think you're overthinking originality, though.  The Bell System didn't care about matching dates and originality, so they put into a phone whatever parts were necessary to keep the phone in service.  For that reason, most phones have something that's dated later, and some phones have many things that are dated later.  If it didn't matter to mighty Bell, it doesn't matter to me.

But as I said, it's a personal thing, and just because I'm comfortable doing this sort of thing, that doesn't mean other people wouldn't (or shouldn't) be uncomfortable doing it.
= DARRIN =



HobieSport

#6
Quote
I want to have the best looking examples yet trying to maintain as much originality as is possible. D/P

Is that a remarkably complex yet simple decision? ;)

My preference is to keep things original.  I don't mind a frankenphone at all if the parts were swapped by Ma Bells elves.  That's just part of the history.

I have a near perfect 1947 302 all matching dates with one small chip at the base.  Am I going to swap housings, even try to find another 1947 housing with no chip?  Not.  In fact, small chips don't really bother me.  There I said it.  I also probably won't repaint any zinc housings or worn dials.  Just clean them well and polish them up and let the years of human wear and patina show.  To me that looks more "friendly" and interesting than a phone made to look like it just came out of the factory.  I would repaint a rusty base.  But that's just me.  As Bingster says, it's personal preference. :)

Dan/Panther

Quote from: HobieSport on November 23, 2008, 12:47:07 AM
Quote
I want to have the best looking examples yet trying to maintain as much originality as is possible. D/P

Is that a remarkably complex yet simple decision? ;)

That rings a bell, I just can't quite put my finger on it.

D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson