atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems 1A2 and Comkey Telephones & Systems 1A2 and some old WECO stuff

Another restoration story. This time in 50 shades of yellow.

This phone was for sure the most sun burned in my collection. I have another yellow 564, but that one is of newer housing without a lucite escutcheon above the line buttons, which I really like. I bought this one on eBay with no hope left to ever trace a yellow 564/565 in a better condition. So as I had a spare yellow phone, I could experiment with this one as much as I want without too much sadness if the restoration doesn't work out well or I destroy the set.

I have a feeling that this set was installed for about a decade in a greenhouse in California, as sun faded it all around (even on the back side and under the handset). Fading made yellow a very brownish dark orange color.



Even worse - the housing had 2 very old cracks on the front side, which are well visible on the semi-sanded set.



So removing this deep discoloration took a lot of plastic material to remove. Having ABS chemically welded and repolished on the front surface gave satisfactory results in my view. It is not 100% invisible, but taking into account it was not a hairline crack but a wide dirty inside deformed large crack - the result is not bad at all. You need to know it was there to recognize and find the place.

Besides other things on this set, I have to replace the line key strip as the hold button shaft spring was broken on this set. I have cleaned thoroughly the original Western Electric 9C all metal dial dated 6-65 which was full of dirty black oil (appears someone decided to use a shot of WD-40 on it at some point). After alcohol rinsing, cleaning and drying, and the final lubrication the dial is going nice and smooth again. I will need to change the mounting cord on this set. The existing one is painted satin silver over shiny black cord. Paint is not integral and doesn't look good. I will later may opt to take the cord out, clean out the paint and use it on a real black set. For now it is left as it is.



I still have to work on the handset - the one on the picture is from another set (modular) just for appearance. Original handset is factory painted yellow on yellow. I must admit now, that it is easier to remove heavy UV discoloration by sanding, than to clean out the WE refurbish paint. It is a disaster to sand and not really coming off by mild solvents to remove chemically. I will have to rub it for more.