A Restoration? More Like A Resurrection!

[Craig T]

I stole this one from the Reaper himself. It was bad, it still isn't great.This phone was a goner. Time to test my resurrection skills 

This phone was picked at over the course of a month. The cracks closed, but they are still visible. They opened up some when I put the case back on. There were a couple deep scratches under the handset that would not go away unless I sanded them.

The cord is a lot nicer than it was, but it will get 1 or 2 more sessions yet. This phone is going to end up with a different case on it once I find one. Th

[Jim S.]

A very noticable improvement.
Jim

[Craig T]

Thanks Jim, to be honest with you I kinda lost interest in this one and cut my losses. Some JB Weld and some wet sanding will be my next go at it. This will have to do for now. Heck it looks nice from the desk to the shelf.

Good from far, but far from good 

[AtomicEraTom]

Nice work! It sure cleaned up nice!

[Phonesrfun]

Great job, but gee, I see the line cord needs some spade ends.  I have had great success with the crimper and the correct spade tips I got a while ago from Odis Levrier (Now oldphoneworks)  They sell two sizes of tips; one for fabric and other larger size wires, and a small for the ones like on that flat cord.  I cannot tell you how many cords I have repaired with it.

However, back to your ressurection topic.

Great work.  Many would have just parted it out, and some less knowledgeable would have donated it to the land fill.

It is always nice to see something brought back to life, and also a chance to hone the resotration skills at the same time.

-Bill Geurts

[Dan/Panther]

Thanks Jim, to be honest with you I kinda lost interest in this one and cut my losses. Some JB Weld and some wet sanding will be my next go at it. This will have to do for now. Heck it looks nice from the desk to the shelf.

Good from far, but far from good 

Craig;
Don't JB it, On the inside corners of the case, you will see some high spots molded into the inside of the corners, These are what causes the case to crack, and open up when you put the case back on the base.
What I do is carefully grind these bumps off all four corners. Then Carefully spread the crack and make sure you clean them VERY well. Let it dry, then Carefully spread the crack slightly, and apply super glue along the crack. Then hold the crack together until the glue sets after a few minutes. Take a small very fine file, or emory board and smooth the fill line, then wet sand, finally polish with Brasso or Novus. You will hardly see the crack if at all.
Superglue takes on the color of the surrounding plastic, and is as hard or harder than the original plastic, it is harder than the plastic, and almost as hard as bakelite.  (be careful not to get moisture around the wet superglue, it will turn white)'.I've used this method for a long time on bakelite and plastic radio cases.
D/P

[Craig T]

Thanks Everyone,

D/P, I need to get my hands on a Dremel so I can do it that way. You and Dennis both warned me about that before hand. Well I tried to hurry it along and now I will have to re-do it. My buddy has a Dremel, I will stop at his shop and see if I can find it, he moved recently so he still has tools everywhere. I seen they are reasonably priced too. I need to break down and buy one of those and a Ryobi polisher too. Thanks for the directions, I did not file the cracks last time, so that will help too.

Bill, you got me there!  I already took that line cord out of the mix entirely. That photo came before hand though. I am using a nice black line cord for it. That was one of those aftermarket gray line cords. Thanks for the advice about where to get the tips from too. I am going to order some of those to keep around. I have needed them a couple times already.

[jeremylivin]

I should get a dremmel too.

Was using Novus 2 last night for hours to clean up my 554...  whew!

But I had also made the mistake of cleaning it in the sink with a brillo pad (had paint splatters on it).  Apparently brillo pads will score the plastic just like sandpaper.

The Novus did a great job of taking them out though.  It just took a few applications. 

[Dennis Markham]

Craig, Radio Shack has spade tips too...I don't know if they stand up against Oldphoneworks, but they work pretty good and you don't have to wait for them to be shipped.  I just crimp them on with a pair of needle nosed pliers.

Jeremy I cringed when I read that posting about Brillo on the plastic! It hurt, like chalk o the chalk board.

If you soak the housing (plastic) in warm sudsy water for a while, then while still wet, use your finger nail, most of the paint will scrape off.  After that a good hard rubbing with Novus2 will get the remaining paint off.  Sometimes it (the paint) can be stubborn.  But getting enough friction with the cloth/polish will usually get it off.

[Craig T]

Thanks Dennis, we have a Radio Shack in the mall up town, I will check it out next time.

Nice recovery Jeremy, those are the bumps along the way, stick with it   I do the same thing Dennis is talking about to get paint spatters off. I used to use a cleaner, but soap and water is the cheaper and easier way.

[jeremylivin]

Yeah I learned quicly on that one.

Brillog = bad

Novus = good


Thankfully it came out beautifully.  Only took me hours of hand rubbing it with Novus 2.  haha

[McHeath]

Cleaned up well and is a nice 302, looks like it's dated 1945 which would explain the steel gongs. 

[Craig T]

Thanks Heath, in fact everything but the dial is dated 1945, they got me on the dang dial, it is a 1953 if I remember right. The cord was stretched and about dry rotted, it is still on the road to recovery, but coming along nicely.

I worked my butt off on that phone, but my corner cutting cost me a couple hours. Worst thing was I built up that glue over the course of 3 days, it was a good strong bond  

[Netdewt]

Do you guys use a Dremel for the polishing part too?
http://www.dremel.com/en-us/AttachmentsAndAccessories/Pages/AttachmentsDetail.aspx?pid=429

I will be grinding off the corners of the case and doing the Superglue trick. I have one big crack on the back side. It looks to be moving up into the curved part of the body, but the whole crack is a clean break and it's on the back side at least.

Did the handset polish up nice just like the body, or did you have to use something different?

[JorgeAmely]

I learned the hard way: the Dremel tool spins too fast and melts telephone plastics in zero time.

PS:
The link says: "Ideal for general polishing of most ferrous metals, stones, glass and ceramics."