History By the late 50s almost every telephone maker was either out of business or stayed alive by producing almost identical copies of the WE 500. Automatic Electric were the exception, they were the last independent telephone maker to stick with their original designs. Although the AE 80 was completely designed in house, AE still had to take out a licensing agreement with Western Electric since their design shared many of the principles of the 500 design that were covered under various patents. This particular 80 has been restored to its original appearance. The Restoration Process Dial – The dial has been fully disassembled, cleaned, lubed and timed to ensure years of trouble free service. We have also added a brand new finger wheel, die cut dial sticker. Cords – The phone has been outfitted with brand new vinyl cords and the line cord has a modular connection to facilitate a modern connection to your wall jack. Shell – The plastic shell has been painstakingly put through a multi-step restoration process which includes sanding with 400, 800, 1000, 2000 grit. This ensures that there are no scratches, dents or dings. The shell is them carefully buffed on our two step buffing wheels. This takes out the fine abrasions left by sanding and leaves the plastic with a smooth factory fresh finish. Finally we apply a three step plastic restoration compound. This leaves the plastic with a beautiful high gloss finish. Handset – The handset has been ultrasonically cleaned to get all embedded debris. It is then sanded with the same process as the shell and buffed back to its beautiful original shine. Do you currently have any rotary phones? If the answer is no, it is always a good idea to call your local phone company and check if they still support “pulse” dialing. If they do, you are all set to go. If they do not, your phone will not be able to place calls without a converter. We have external pulse to tone converters as an add-on option when you place your order. As an alternative, we provide an option to use this phone as an extension of your cell phone. The XLink Bluetooth gateway will allow you to make and receive calls using a vintage rotary dial through a Bluetooth connection to your cell phone.
