Hi,

I came across a nasty pink 500 at an estate sale. They wanted 10 and I offered 3. Paid 4.

Phone was a 1960's vintage, and had been (ugh, not again) painted. The good news is that it was pink on pink. Thats the good news.

I have been sanding it now for two days (not continuously :-) ) with 800 grit, and have finally gotten all of the old nasty pink paint off of it. What was a grosly discolored pink with a purple tinge is now a finely sanded pink with a very slight orange tinge.

Now it is time to go through the grits to 2000.

What I want to know is just what type of paint did WECO use when they refurbished phones? This stuff was NASTY. It clogged the sandpaper worse than anything I have ever experienced, it formed these really gross 'dust bubbles' in the water, and it irritated my skin something horrible. I used almost an entire sheet of 800 on it (and my sandpaper comes from Japan, I am worried about supply now). My hands have finally quit itching after repeated washing and application of benadryl topical to them. The whole thing was quite obnoxious (oh the trials of a phone collector after his first pink phone. I am sure Arthur knows from which I speak!)

Anyway, I will post pictures when I am finished with this one. Now that the paint is off, I am sure that it will be much easier.

Joe

Joe, after digging through 300+ paint related posts on another forum, I still don't have an answer for you. I have also always wanted to know what kind of paint they used, and would also like to add a related question: Later WECo phones were made of ABS [an almost indestructible plastic], but there are many references on the forums to earlier "soft" plastic WECo phones. What was the "soft" plastic, and how does one tell the difference? Also, what is the best paint to use to re-paint a phone [of either type]?

Sorry, you came for answers and all I have is questions...

Jim
**************************************************
Speaking from a secure undisclosed location.

The paint is called POLANE

To determine if a phone is made of soft plastic, there are several methods to use.

If you scratch soft plastic, it will emit a foul odor, like horse poop mixed with vomit.

The plastic itself will resound will a dull thud, rather than a sharp click, when tapped with a fingernail.

The housing will have a date and shift mark, stamped inside, along the edge.

The handset caps will not have a center hole in the. The receiver cap, as an example, will have 6 holes, not seven, like the later caps.

The cords will be fat. Very early 500 sets had really fat cords that did not match the color of the housings.

click

Here are some pink phones that were never painted.

Arthur, as usual, you are the "go-to" guy for all facts WECo...

Thanks for the answers!!

Jim
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Hoarding plain black 500 sets in a secure undisclosed location.

Hi Arthur,

Where did you find those pink keysets???

Joe

A little more searching took me to the Sherwin-Williams web-site. Polane is NOT a do-it-yourself proposition! It's a 2-part system. (I guessing it's not something you'd want to apply in a small non-ventilated room, if you know what I mean. ) Too bad, seems like a VERY tough finish!

Arthur, a pink 302! I meant to comment once before on your collection, but what a beauty! Perhaps the only rarer phones were those gold plated commemorative editions? - of which, I have only ever personally seen one and that one was a multi-button 564.

It takes a while to collect anything that is a bit odd. It also helps if the collector himself is a bit odd.

I have a rotary 6-button in every color ever made, except clear.

The pink TT one came out of an office I serviced as a NYTelCo repairman. The rotary pink one was bought at an ATCA show in Connecticut, from a guy who walked in with it in a shopping bag. It was so dirty I didn't even realize at first that it was pink.

Dave, there is a pink 302 in the picture, (top left) and a pink 305, at the top right, which is a bit more rare. A 305 is a 302 with a bell cut-off key at the lower left corner.

soft plastic

This is a soft plastic 500 set in a rare early color. Notice the fat cord that doesn't quite match, and the absence of center holes in the handset caps.

I finally finished my pink phone. This morning, I assembled the handset, reconnected the pink plug and wiped it down one last time.



So now my small collection of finished phones (not including keysets) consists of a Pink 500, a yellow 500 and a green (-51) speaker.

Working on a red 500 now, and my kitten is helping me with that as well as making this post. (He just told me that any old cat can use a touch-tone phone, it takes a real feline genius (like himself) to use a rotary phone!)

Joe

That number card is about one click from the proper position to land it in proper alignment. You need to reverse-twist that handset cord to make it 'prettier'. I admire your diligence in refurbishing.

I've always thought that BT's phones from the 60's were pretty ugly, but a pink 500 might take the prize!

I think it's pretty cool! Maybe I should find one on ebay for my Mom...lol

https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300547564700&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP%3Awatchlink%3Atop%3Aen
Anyone wanna go halves on it? JK

$1,100??? I must be on the wrong side of the dial!

free "economy " shipping though .....

Great! another idiot who will throw a valuable antique into a shoddy old box with minimal padding (Hey, what do you want for FREE) and ship it Parcel post, and all I'll get is a box of shards.

That's a 500 P/U, called the "mushroom" phone. It should not be confused with a run-of-the-mill 500 C/D, which is worth around $50.

That particular phone has been around for a while. I saw it in Enfield, CT, a few years ago at a collectors' show. It was sold by one ATCA member to another, and the buyer then put it up for sale at the current price. It is worth around $250 to $300 at today's market prices for a pink mushroom in that condition. That's why it will stay on Ebay for a long time.

While pink is one of the rarest colors for WE equipment, there are more pink mushrooms out there than any other color, because they were used in bedrooms, and lots of bedrooms were decorated in a pink motif. I have three pink ones, but only one black and one green one.

Note that the dial face is faded more than the rest of the housing. That is typical of all early soft plastic pink 500 phones. The fat faded cord also indicates a very early set. This one is from 1959. If you see a pink P/U phone that does not have faded parts, it has been sanded and buffed, or later parts have been substituted, lowering its value to a purist.

Yes, there are some "special" folk on e-pay. One dear soul had an old pink mushroom phone sans the mushroom light (though the hole was in the phone shell where the mushroom light went). It also had a crack in the shell, and was listed for a small amount. I had it on my watch list, then an hour later, it was ended, though no one bought it.

Next day, the same phone was listed for some grossly inflated price (I think around 800 or so) and the same "seller" (I use the term nicely) did not bother to change one word of the description or use a different photo.

I don't think it ever sold.

Joe

Yeah, and then argue with you about a refund. Been there, done that.

Joe

There are reproduction mushroom caps available, (only in black, though) for $35.00. I have a pink 500 P/U missing a cap. I intend to convert it to black, and put a repro cap on it.

There is a company that will spray paint telephone parts any color you want, but their minimum charge is quite high. Most collectors will join forces, and get a group of parts together, then have them painted all at once.

Here is another from the same seller. It's worth about $300.00

I will be joining the ATCA next week, and hope to expand my telephone friend contact list considerably.

My wife has made arrangments with a contractor to start on the foundation for my 'phone home', and I am getting quite anxious to get that built.

@ Arthur,

Just curious, why not get the repro mushroom cap, and have it painted pink to match your capless pink PU phone?

Best,

Joe

Yes, I could do that, but I have three pink ones already, and no matter how well the repaint job is, it will still not be a perfect match. I'd rather have another black one. One for display, and one in use in the switchroom.

Arthur, are the 'mushroom' phone housings just 'drilled' standard housings, or are they specially cast with the hole in place and possibly some sort of cast-in reinforcement?

I am shocked at the price for this:
https://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Wester..._DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cb691002c
I think I paid 5 bucks for one at a garage sale.
Also looks like the wrong kind of faceplate

that doesn't mean that 10 button 2500 sets are out there at every garage sale for 5 Jeff ...I once bought the Autobiography of Richard M Nixon ...Signed by the author for 1.75 at a sale ...go find me another I'll double your money for you

you can ask anything you want on eBay ...getting it is a another matter .

I item is "worth " what someone will pay for it...most folks wouldn't give 5 for a 10 button 2500 set

Jeff, that is the correct face plate that was used when 1500 sets were refurbished at the factory. Rather than maintaining separate housings and face plates, they devised a little spacer that filled in the holes where the * and # keys would be. They didn't stay around very long, just in the late 70's, since there was a growing need to have these keys. Eventually, they just started converting all 1500's into 2500's by replacing the dials.

I guess mine is vintage then...I was pretty happy when I found it.
Skip, I guess you are right. If someone is willing to pay 150 bucks, then that's fine by me.

Lightning,

They are just standard housings. If you look inside a 500 set housing, the area where the lamp socket goes is not marked, but there is a small interruption in the molded ring that surrounds the dial number plate area. That is how the machine that punched the lamp hole was placed into its location when the hole was punched.

Additionally, on the inside of the lower left of the housing, there is a boss where the hole is drilled to locate the lamp on/off/dim turn key on 500 P/U sets, and for the headset on/off key on 514 sets, and the two-line turn key on 510 and 511 sets.

That boss is necessary for the drill alignment, because the location of the turn key is fixed on the telephone's base, (there is little slop built in) while the lamp, on the other hand, was mounted on the housing, so its location was not as critical.

Look inside any 302 or 500 WE set, and the boss will be there.

All this inflated pricing reminds me of the joke where someone was selling some normally cheap item for a million dollars. The tag line was that they only needed to sell one!

Then there was the guy selling "genuine bronze plated dog poop", each one gaurenteed to be a "one of a kind original". And yes, you too could have this luxury item for a mere 1000 USD.

The sad thing is, there are people who will buy anything on e-pay, and I am sure that there were more than one soul with more dollars than sense who bought a "genuine bronze plated" piece of dog dropping.

At least I only buy old phones and sacks of purple buttons (keys) for 12 bucks.

Joe

You mean, for example the 'solar powered clothes dryer'? "Why, it's nothing more than a clothesline!"