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Introduction
You’ve all seen it, the bits of black crud that are somehow
both crumbly and gummy at the same time, sticking to your
camera door, the film rails, maybe even your mirror bumper.
Nasty stuff that when it gets on your fingers you find it’s
about as sticky as roof patch material… (Tip one: try not to
get it on your fingers, it will get EVERYWHERE.) The bad
news is that you’ll need to replace this stuff if you want your
pictures to be free of giant washed out flare spots. The good
news is that it’s not so hard. Read this through once, then
put on the radio or a movie you’ve seen a hundred times and
follow along!
Getting Started
Gather your materials: a well-lighted area; paper towels; jeweler’s screwdrivers; toothpicks;
tweezers; cotton swabs; Windex and/or some other grease-cutting solvent; also, a dental pick is
good for getting off tough tape or tiny bits in tricky corners. And that’s just for the removal part!
Of course that’s 75% of the job. For the new seals, you can use a variety of materials, from craft-
store closed-cell foam to prefab kits from some eBay sellers* or Micro-Tools. I’ve used a variety
of things, including film canister felt (great stuff, but small), strips of neoprene from cut-up
mousepads, “Foamies” (closed-cell foam you can get at the craft store). All good, but I’ve settled
on two easy, long lasting materials: self-stick felt, and cotton yarn like they used to use in good
old German cameras. Plus Pliobond as an adhesive.
* I do highly recommend Jon Goodman’s (not the actor!) light seal kits, they are well put
together with excellent easy to follow instructions. He goes by the ebay handle ‘interslice’.
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to touch the fresnel screen. And be very careful cleaning the residue off the mirror as well, I use
Windex on a Qtip, it hasn’t failed me yet, but I’ve heard some bad stories.
First Steps
The first thing you have to do is dip a cotton swab
in Windex and clean that back door. If it’s still
sticky it’s not clean. Then wash your hands.
Scraping – especially if you’re careful not to take off all the paint – isn’t always entirely
effective. You might need to moisten the residue with Windex or Goo Gone, or enlist a dental
pick to get that tape off (the adhesive that affixed the foam). And don’t worry too much if you
scratch the paint, that part’s going to be under the felt anyway.
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Next
After the scraping comes the cleaning, go over those spots with Windex and make sure there’s
nothing left. Take your time. Residue will keep the felt from sticking properly. And make double
sure the pressure plate is *spotless*.
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the hangers-on. NOTE that I don’t try to clean the stickiness out of the grooves, I leave that to
help keep the string in place.
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Remember I said I don’t try to sanitize the film door mating grooves, I leave it a little dirty so
that the stickiness will help the string stay in place. Between that and compression, I find I only
need to glue the ends, which I do with Pliobond. Then I stick it deep in the groove with my
hobby tweezers, and hold it there while I run the string down the groove, then tamp it in place. I
then cut it to fit and glue the far end. Pliobond is useful but nasty, note I use a toothpick to apply
it, I stick the toothpick in the tube so I don’t have to squeeze it. When you do it’s like model
glue, it just keeps coming out.
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Once that’s done I close the door back to compress the string and make sure I can still
comfortably close and open the door. (Once I did take a strand out of the string to make it fit
better in a smaller camera. Worked OK.) The two-piece section where the film counter reset
button lives is slightly trickier. Take your time, you have plenty of string…
What’s left?
Make sure the door opens and closes properly, then let the camera air out overnight with the door
open so no fumes remain inside to cloud up the glass or affect painted surfaces. Should be ready
to shoot the next day, take it for a spin and enjoy!
Related Links
For more info on general repair and cleaning see my repair tips page.
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