Hair Product with Peroxide, Worked Great on Turquoise Phone

[Charles]

Has anyone tried this on dark colors? I have a black phone with badly yellowed numbers on the dial bezel. I would like to whiten up the numbers but I don't want to mess up the black surround.

Any thoughts?

[LarryInMichigan]

Charles,

I doubt that the peroxide would bleach the black plastic, but you can test it on the underside of the bezel first.

Larry

[alison]

would this work on a soft plastic phone??
thanks

[LarryInMichigan]

would this work on a soft plastic phone??
thanks

Yes, it does work on soft plastic, but be careful not to overbleach.

Larry

[Brinybay]

I had some White Magic on hand that my wife got when she went to visit relatives in Canada last year (I can only find it in Canada).  I didn't specify which grade to get, so she got me a bottle each of 40, 30, and 20.  I was saving it for a colored phone, but thought I'd try it on a white phone.

I tried it on the receiver cap of my white AE 80 that I was preparing to treat with the home-brewed retrobrite.  I coated it with the 40, put it in a dish in a cake pan and left my work lamp on it overnight.  It seems to have worked pretty well, although I think I'll give it another dose.  I don't have enough to do the entire phone, so I'm just going to use it on the receiver cap so I can compare with the home-brewed retrobrite on the rest of the phone.

[HarrySmith]

I just completed my third peroxide test. I did the Retrobrite, following instuctions, it worked well on the light phones but mixing it was a pain. I tried the 30 volume peroxide hair stuff in liquid which worked well but it was a pain to weight all the stuff down to keep it from floating and it took a lot to cover a phone case. I just picked up the creme one and it works great. I used a disposable paintbrush to dab the product on trying to keep it even, then put it out in the South Florida sun for about 5 hours. Pictures below. I was really surprised with the pink AE handset, neither piece is perfect but I may try another application.

[AE_Collector]

WoW! Is that the 55 gallon size you have there Harry or just one gallon!

I like your oven (roof of the car)! Maybe for winter applications you should get a black car   Make sure you don't get any of that stuff on the car or it may not "restore color" like it does on phones!

Is that an ABS Pink AE handset? I thought it was usually the soft plastic Pink handsets that usually turned white like the before picture.

Terry

[HarrySmith]

Only a gallon

I think it is soft plastic, came off an old Starlite I got with my clear 2500, pics here:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=5579.0

By the way Terry, what is "Winter". It is always sunny here unless it is raining and even then there is sometimes sun.

[johnnyjt]

Hi

Will Peroxide mixture work it a white bakelite?
I have a white 302 which has yellow areas.

Thank

JohnnyJT

[HarrySmith]

The 302 is not bakelite, it is tenite. I don't think anybody has tried one yet. Maybe dab a little on the inside to try it. Also the 302 is not "White" they are "Ivory" which is off white.

[LarryInMichigan]

I have had some success removing discoloration with peroxide on ivory thermoplastic on a 354.  Use great care though.  It would be a shame to ruin one of those.

Larry

[Jim Stettler]

Some people have had luck bleaching the white 302's and 354's. This was before "retrobrite" was developed.
I have never tried either.
Jim

[gands-antiques]

I've been removing the fading from a turquoise 554 wall phone casing and handset for a couple of days. I've been coating both parts with 40 volume cream and letting them sit in the sun for several hours. I didn't know about enclosing the parts in a container until I read this thread.

Anyway, the fading was finally removed from the casing and handset and when I brought them inside tonight I found a couple of places where the turquoise has lighter or white areas on both casing and handset.

Have I taken the 40 volume too far trying to remove all of the fading?  If so, is there anything that can be done to get the color back?

Thanks,
Gary

[unbeldi]

You mean the discoloration has been removed.
Fading happens when the plastic becomes white or grey or transparent when you bleach too much, after discoloration is gone.  The pastel colors are very susceptible to that.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

I have done that sometimes on heavily faded ABS.

Does it look like the plastic sort of became more pale, or are there 'wisps' of white in the plastic?

Usually, the wisps are created by peroxide staying in one place for too long on the plastic. The workaround for that would be to swish the peroxide around every 5 or 10 minutes. A more effective (but more expensive) way to avoid it would be to rinse the peroxide off every 5 or 10 minutes, and re-apply peroxide. I sometimes only apply peroxide to the areas that are still faded near the end of the peroxide treatment, to avoid going 'too far' on areas already fade-free.

Either way, you should be able to remove it by polishing with Novus or automotive compound. It won't be night and day difference immediately, but a few minutes of hand polishing should do the trick.