An Ivory 332L I bought locally for £25 (So Pleased)
 

Got this off my local facebook Market place earlier this morning for £25. It’ll look like a new phone when I’m finished.

One thing I am going to try that I’ve never done before is clean the cotton handset cord as much as possible and then try and bleach it white again. Even if this doesn’t work, I can easily get a replacement braded one, but I’m just curious to see if this will actually work.

Still got a bit more cleaning and polishing to go yet, but so far so good its cleaned up pretty well.

Re: An Ivory 332L I bought locally for £25 (So Pleased)
 

Are you sure it would have originally been white?

Re: An Ivory 332L I bought locally for £25 (So Pleased)
 

They are an off white, I’m not too fussed what happens to this cable its dirty and manky anyway. Given the colour it already is, you’ll never get it a pure white colour just by using Bleach. I might have to use some Hydrogen Peroxide if Bleach doesn’t work.

If it makes no difference then a replacement modern replica can be bought for £16.00 so no real loss. Normally I just through them away, but thought I’d give this a try.

Re: An Ivory 332L I bought locally for £25 (So Pleased)
 

My parents had one of them - fitted when they had the house built in the late-50s and surviving until the late-60s/very-early-70s. "2097" was our phone number.

The 'knitted' handset-cord and the similar lead to the incomer junction-box by the front door were never white, rather more like a 'yellow labrador' colour.

Re: An Ivory 332L I bought locally for £25 (So Pleased)
 

A bargain at that price! I would guess that > £100 is what you'd have to pay generally.

Does it have a modern (rocking armature) receiver fitted?

Re: An Ivory 332L I bought locally for £25 (So Pleased)
 

I’ve only noticed that the old original ones become a gold colour with age, being in a damp environments, general grime and also the fact lots of people smoked back then.

They are normally a light ivory on all the reproduction ones ive seen and used myself. Ericsson might have used Gold? I’m sure ive seen that but it wasn’t braided cotton on those models, more like the braiding you see on an iron cable.

When using Bleach, Hydrogen Peroxide and fabric dyes it won’t ever produce a 100 percent pure white, thats not what I’m trying to achieve either. I Just want to try and lighten it up as its so manky at the moment.

I’m going to handwash it best i can and then soak in Bleach or Hydrogen Peroxide overnight and see what it looks like in the morning.

These are the colour options of brand new ones.

Re: An Ivory 332L I bought locally for £25 (So Pleased)
 

Ecky thump tha must be reet chuffed wi tha

Re: An Ivory 332L I bought locally for £25 (So Pleased)
 

I gave the cable a cleaning and a 15 hour bleach. I’m quite pleased with the results not bad as it’s more than likely the original 1956 cable that came with the phone

Re: An Ivory 332L I bought locally for £25 (So Pleased)
 

Ahoy hoy, that is a wonderful telephone, almost worth talking to the spammers just to use it (free to you).

Re: An Ivory 332L I bought locally for £25 (So Pleased)
 

Looks loads better now just a few final touches to be made to it