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Phone created from Excess Parts!

Started by WEBellSystemChristian, February 23, 2015, 05:15:50 PM

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WEBellSystemChristian

I've been thinking of new ways to use up excess parts in storage, and this is a new creation from extra parts! It's an aqua WE 500, and it consists of parts from 1967 and 1958.

The 1967 parts came from a 1957 500 I bought on ebay a long time ago; it had to have been one of the first disappointments I've ever had with this hobby. I thought I was buying a badly discolored aqua 500 from '57, but what it turned out to be was a '57 base (with a dial that indicated it was Med Blue at some point >:( ) with 1967 plastics. I tried sanding the fading away with 400 grit sandpaper (before I knew about the peroxide treatment) and just gave up a day or so later. The plastics had been sitting in my basement since then.

The '58 parts came from my med blue two-tone 500. Even though the dial was a 1969 and the housing and caps were painted aqua, the cords and handle were from 4-58. Those parts were in really good shape, and I have always wanted to do something with them. I also used the receiver cap from that phone (yes, med blue underneath the aqua paint) on this project. It will make a good placeholder until I can find a better cap, or at least until I can find the cap from the '67.

I sanded the housing down from 400 grit to 2000 and polished it. I used peroxide on the dial bezel, lift and transmitter cap. After a few hours, they looked great! The cords and handle were a few shades off from perfect, so I just wetsanded and polished the handle, and cleaned the cords in the washing machine. I added the fingerwheel from a 500 that shouldn't have had it in the first place; it was from 1966 and had a mix of parts on it.

So now I have a 500 with 1958 cords and handle, and 1967 bezel, housing, and transmitter cap. The base will be from 1957 (the same one that the '67 plastics came from), but it's somehow bent and I'm going to find a way to straighten it. The base is currently from 1962.

Anyone know of a good printable dial card I can install, I want to use one with a cool exchange!
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

HarrySmith

Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

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

WesternElectricBen

#2
Christian, it looks mighty fine.

Ben

unbeldi

A 1967 bezel requires a #9 dial and doesn't fit onto a 7C or 7D dial, that you reportedly have.

WEBellSystemChristian

Quote from: unbeldi on February 23, 2015, 05:23:35 PM
A 1967 bezel requires a #9 dial and doesn't fit onto a 7C or 7D dial, that you reportedly have.

Well, it came from a phone that had all '67 plastics, so I figured it was from '67. So it's basically an unknown dated piece.
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

unbeldi

Quote from: WEBellSystemChristian on February 23, 2015, 05:28:01 PM
Quote from: unbeldi on February 23, 2015, 05:23:35 PM
A 1967 bezel requires a #9 dial and doesn't fit onto a 7C or 7D dial, that you reportedly have.

Well, it came from a phone that had all '67 plastics, so I figured it was from '67. So it's basically an unknown dated piece.

Well, when I look at your picture I see a dial bezel that indeed is for a #7 dial. So the bezel couldn't have come from a 1967 phone. It is a #7 dial bezel.

WEBellSystemChristian

Quote from: unbeldi on February 23, 2015, 05:33:25 PM
Quote from: WEBellSystemChristian on February 23, 2015, 05:28:01 PM
Quote from: unbeldi on February 23, 2015, 05:23:35 PM
A 1967 bezel requires a #9 dial and doesn't fit onto a 7C or 7D dial, that you reportedly have.

Well, it came from a phone that had all '67 plastics, so I figured it was from '67. So it's basically an unknown dated piece.

Well, when I look at your picture I see a dial bezel that indeed is for a #7 dial. So the bezel couldn't have come from a 1967 phone. It is a #7 dial bezel.
Yeah, I know that it's definitely a #7 bezel, and it's definitely not soft plastic, so that puts it between late '59 and around 1965 or 1966.
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

.....

Looks good, Can see there's pride in ownership with that one

Greg G.

The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e

poplar1

#9
BSP Section 501-162-100 Issue 8, Dec. 1968 (TCI Library) shows that P80A4xx number plates were still available for 7-type dials. So your aqua number plate (bezel) with the large fingerstop slot for a 7-type dial could definitely have been made in 1967 or later.

7C dials and open center (P-19B524) finger wheels were manufacture discontinued by the time of this issue*. (I haven't seen any 7C dials made later than 5-65.) However, dial number plates were still being made for both 7- and 9-types for many years afterward. Many 500s were remanufactured with 7-type dials until at least the mid-1970s--often with new number plates in colors that didn't match the original color code stamped on the back. They were equipped with the newer style finger wheels found on 9-type dials.

*Edit: The P-19B524 finger wheels were still listed in the March, 1968 Issue 7 of this BSP.





"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

WEBellSystemChristian

#10
Quote from: Brinybay on February 23, 2015, 11:48:37 PM
Reminds me of this old song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWHniL8MyMM
I got it one piece at a time
And it didn't cost me a dime
...I'm gonna drive everybody wild
Because I'll have the only one there is around!

Yeah, that pretty much sums up this project! ;D

(Except I hope my 500 doesn't look like a mangled Caddy that everyone laughs at... :o)
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

andre_janew

If I remember right, that song was about a Cadillac made from parts stolen from a factory between 1949 and 1973.  I suppose it would be possible to do a WE 500 phone that way.  However, your phone only uses parts from 1958 and 1967, so it won't be quite the mess that Cadillac was!