Where to Find It; Vintage Phones Made New Again
LEAD: THERE, sitting among telephones shaped like petulant pink lips and brook trout and football helmets are the oldies: those heavy, black rotary-dial phones out of 1940's movies. All are for sale at the Phone Boutique in Manhattan. And for people who have just bought an antique phone at a flea market or found one in the attic, the shop specializes in fixing the dinosaurs of the communications age.
THERE, sitting among telephones shaped like petulant pink lips and brook trout and football helmets are the oldies: those heavy, black rotary-dial phones out of 1940's movies. All are for sale at the Phone Boutique in Manhattan. And for people who have just bought an antique phone at a flea market or found one in the attic, the shop specializes in fixing the dinosaurs of the communications age.
'We do complete restorations from scratch,' said Yash Jesrani, the owner of the shop. 'We buff them, clean them, paint them. We even have original parts about 80 percent of the time.'
Mr. Jesrani began collecting antique phones in the early 1970's. He travels around the world to buy them. He even buys them just for the parts.
People who love antique phones are very picky, he said. They insist on just the right clicking sounds when they dial. And, Mr Jesrani said, 'the ring is an important consideration.'
But, for many customers, the weight of the phone is the primary factor. The first thing they do when they walk into the shop is to pick up the handset. 'They want to feel the weight,' Mr. Jesrani said. 'They want the satisfaction.' On a rotary phone, the dial is usually the first part to malfunction, Mr. Jesrani said. 'Because of wear and tear,' he explained, 'it can misdial or dial too fast, and you'll get a number you weren't calling.'
'In most cases, we have to replace the cords,' Mr. Jesrani said, and he uses copies of the old cloth cords.
Cracked phones are the most difficult to repair. They can be bonded together with epoxy and painted, but 'you will see a hairline crack,' Mr. Jesrani said.
Old phones from the 1940's start at $69.95 and repairs at $75. A $10 deposit, applied to the cost of repairs, is required. Work takes one to two weeks if parts are available.
The Old Telephone Company in Sanford, N.C., began 21 years ago when Judy Marsh decided she wanted an antique candlestick telephone.
'You know how it is,' she said. 'One turns into 2. Two turns into 10, 10 into 20.'
Now the company, which is housed in a 1950's movie theater that Mrs. Marsh and her husband and business partner, Richard, recently restored, employs 10 people and takes in about 300 phones for repair each year. It also sells phones, ranging in price from $119 for a desk phone, circa 1937, to $1,800 for an ornate Ericsson Eiffel Tower telephone, dating to 1892 and made of brass, iron and ebony. One recent customer bought a 1950's coin-operated model 'so he could charge his children for using the phone,' Mrs. Marsh said.
The Marshes are purists when it comes to repairing antique telephones. They will fix the innards of phones made before 1900 but will not fiddle with their outward appearance. 'We won't do any cosmetic work on them because they are collectibles, and they need to be in the shape they are,' she said.
'What's nice about old phones is that it's cost-effective to fix them,' Mrs. Marsh said, because they are generally made of very durable materials like Bakelite.
The Chicago Old Telephone Company charges about $65 to restore a desk phone and $200 for restore a wooden wall-mounted phone. The work is guaranteed for one year.
Twenty-two years ago, Betty and Ari Chisim went into business fixing old phones, and they still do today from their storefront, the A & B Professional Hearing Aid Center in Flushing, Queens.
The company will fix phones dating from 1900. Mrs. Chisim said she and her husband can rewire old phones so that they can be used with today's modular jacks and so that they will meet Federal Communications Commission standards.
Repairs range from $15 to $200 and generally take two to four days. The Chisims make house calls ($25 to $50) for phones - the wall-mounted variety, for example - that are difficult to move.  HERE'S WHERE  PHONE BOUTIQUE 828 Lexington Avenue (63d Street), New York, N.Y. 10021; 212-319-9650. Hours: 10 A.M. to 6:30 P.M. Monday through Friday. Phones are accepted by mail, or they can be dropped off for repair at the shop's factory in Flushing, Queens, by appointment. Call 718-445-7222.  CHICAGO OLD TELEPHONE COMPANY 327 Carthage Street, Sanford, N.C. 27330; 800-843-1320. Hours: 8 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. Monday through Friday. Phones are accepted by mail; a free catalogue is available.  A & B PROFESSIONAL HEARING AID CENTER 141-04 Northern Boulevard, Flushing, N.Y. 11354; 718-353-3737. Hours: noon to 6 P.M. Monday through Friday and noon to 5 P.M. Saturday, or by appointment. Phones are accepted by mail.