What is the proper paint sheen?

[john snapp]

Hello All!  I am new to this forum and new to phone restoration. 

I recently restored a Western Electric 233G Payphone and painted it using an automotive black enamel with a flattening agent that made it semigloss.  It looks great.  I now have my second phone.  It is a WE D1 base with a F1 handset that needs to be repainted.  I see a lot of phones people here have repainted and they seem to all be high gloss.  The paint looks like it may have been close to semigloss.

I was wondering what sheen the phones had when they came from Western Electric?

Thanks - John

[Phonesrfun]

Dang, I really don't know, but I think the B1/D1 mounts were a gloss laquer, but I can't say for a certainty.  Perhaps Larry Wolff's book on Western Electric desk sets has the answer.  I can check and see what it might say.

Welcome to the forum!

How 'bout some pictures of that 233G payphone.  I would love to see the results, and I am sure others would too.


So, welcome, John!

[Kenny C]

i like a high gloss shine my on my 202.  i had a run wet sanded it out and polished the paint with novus looks good now.

[bingster]

When I see a really glossy one on ebay, even though it's beautiful, it looks wildly incorrect.  The originals I see tend to be glossy, but not high gloss.  It's hard to describe--sort of midway between semigloss and gloss.  Glossy but not glassy.

Welcome to the forum!

[cihensley@aol.com]

Western Electric used black japan on B and D mounts, not lacquer.

Chuck

[KeithB]

Hello All!  I am new to this forum and new to phone restoration. 

I recently restored a Western Electric 233G Payphone and painted it using an automotive black enamel with a flattening agent that made it semigloss.  It looks great. 

John, welcome to the forum!! (I'm a recently new member, myself.)

Please visit my WE233G payphone thread again, and I'd love to get some advice/direction/tips on restoring my phone from you.

Good luck duplicating the original black japan finish.  <Wikipedia> describes it as "mostly of an asphaltic base dissolved in naphtha or turpentine, sometimes with other varnish ingredients, such as linseed oil. It is applied directly to metal parts, and then baked at about 200°C (400°F) for up to an hour."  Its durability as an automotive finish was well-known, particularly from the old saying "You can have it in any color, so long as it's black."

[Dan/Panther]

Henry ford painted his cars with it also.
D/P

[KeithB]

That black japan wasn't particularly easy stripping off my WE233G, either.  Where the original finish had been protected by the dialing instruction card frame, two different paint strippers would not loosen it until after it was wire brushed to rough up the surface.