I acquired a Western Electric 233G payphone that was fairly complete from Bob Bartlett (Bob's Antique Payphones).  It is my first experience with a payphone and my first major telephone refurbishing project so I thought I'd share my restoration experiences on my web site. Among those that helped me acquire parts, schematics, and other assistance with this restoration project are Stan Schreier, Bobby Koch, Vern Potter, and others.  This list of names will surely grow as I get deeper into this restoration.

This page contains a lot of graphics and may take a while to download. NOTE: Some images are hyperlinked to the full-size scans   These full-size scans can be viewed by clicking on the images on this page.

For information on building a controller circuit to make your phone operate like a real coin-operated payphone, see Doug Alderdice's website at http://mysite.verizon.net/dalderdi/phones/payphone.htm.

For a hand-drawn wiring diagram of hooking up a 233G, click HERE.  I hope to have the time to make a professional wiring drawing.

October 2000

The missing handset

I didn't have any luck locating an exact replacement for the missing handset. I did the next best thing and modified the cord on an old hard-wired handset from a Western Electric 500 set.  The original cord on the payphone was cut right where it exited the side of the phone.   This gave me the information I needed to know how to modify the 500 handset cord to work with the payphone.  Below is a picture comparing what was left of the original cord and the soon-to-be modified 500 cord:

Notice that three out of the four wires in the original cord extend about 19cm from where the outer jacket was stripped.  The fourth wire (one of the white ones) only extended about 5cm.  The outer jacket on the standard 500 set cord extended about 2cm beyond the original payphone cord (the length between the 17cm mark and 19cm mark).  This had to be stripped back as part of my modification.  All four wires on the standard 500 set cord were the same length which meant than the excess length of one of the white wires just had to be looped and tucked out of the way in the payphone.  The metal strain reliefs (far right in the picture above) were in about the same position in both cords.  I used cellophane adhesive tape (Scotch tape) to hold the wires against the yellow paper for the photo thinking they wouldn't show - but, as you can see, they do!

Here is a photo of the phone with the coin relay controller box (as before, click on this image to view full-size):

Here is a photo of the inside of the controller box:

Click on image above to view full-size

This controller box was the last one available from a club member.  I do not have schematics of this unit but there is another club member that has a website with a schematic of his design with parts list and description.  See Doug Alderdice's website at http://www.pce.net/dalderdi/payphone.htm

May 2001

I finally finished my telephone display in my basement and got the payphone its own spot on the wall.  You can view the above image in two larger sizes than what you see above.  Click HERE for a medium size image or HERE for large size.  The vault door is really a bright and shiny chrome finish but the photo makes it look almost black.

That's it for now on my payphone restoration.  I hope to repair that broken coin-return pull-bucket someday.

If you are considering painting your 233G, here is a tip from one of the club members (June 16, 2003):

"I repainted my 233 this weekend and just taped over the [coin return] sticker. The sticker looks fine and the paint job turned out great. I'm really happy with the Rustoleum Satin Black. It's a perfect match for the WE black. I taped over the "233G" [ink lettering] on the back-plate and when I removed the tape, I couldn't see a difference in color or gloss." - Jim Burnham