How to Restore Antique Phones

All that it takes to restore an antique phone is a little time and patience. Phones that are older can be extremely valuable to the people that collect them. If you restore an antique phone, you may be decreasing the value of the phone.

Materials needed:

• Paper and pencil


• Large work table


• Sandpaper


• Four large plastic containers


• Computer with Internet access


• Electrical contact cleaner


• Phillips and flat head screwdriver


• Canned air cleaner 


• Metal cleaner or all-purpose cleaner 


• Vinegar


• Cotton swabs


• Permanent marker and small adhesive labels


• Clean rags


• Gentle dish soap


• Toothpicks

1. 
   

   Take off the shell that is on the outside of the phone. Check out how the phone was made and carefully take the outside of the phone off. Put the receiver and the outside shell somewhere away from the inside of the phone. Do not get these two mixed up.

   
   


2. 
   

   Look on the tags to find out the manufacturer of your phone. Sometimes the tags have the date on them too. Look up the date and manufacturer of the phone to check out how the inside of the phone functions and what the inside looks like.

   
   


3. 
   

   Place the parts of the phone that are on the inside in three separate containers. Fill up one container with water and dish soap and soak about four parts at a time. Let the pieces dry thoroughly.

   
   


4. 
   

   Using a metal cleaner, clean all of the metal parts. Clean all of the brass parts with a good brass cleaner. For all of the inner parts, clean with an all purpose cleaner. To clean the dial gears, use canned air. 

   
   


5. 
   

   Clean the shell that is on the outside of the phone. You can use dish soap, cotton swabs, and dish soap to do this. 

   
   


6. 
   

   Polish the antique phone. Using your hand and a clean rag, buff the phone.