One of the side effects of going back to 35mm film is the desire to obtain those film cameras I drooled over when younger. Car boot sales, friends and eBay are all rich veins for fulfilling this desire. Most of those I have acquired have light leaks and therefore have needed replacement light seals. Yes, you can buy pre-cut kits but where is the fun in that! Being thrifty I wanted an alternative.
Enter fuzzy felt and double sided tape. Here is my story….
The seals that are going to be replaced are where the mirror rests, the two in the door hinge and above the film rail.
◊
The door of the film chamber detaches making life much easier when scraping off the goo. Using the matchstick I simply scraped along the door, this removes most of the mess. To keep the matchstick clean it is wiped with surgical spirits. I followed the same procedure with the body of the camera.
◊
This is the potential ‘heart in the mouth’ moment. Making sure the base of the camera is tilted towards me so if anything does come out it falls out of the camera. I scraped off the degraded foam where the mirror slaps up when exposing the film. I followed up with a cotton bud lightly soaked in surgical spirit.
◊
Finally the two rails had very little goo left in them so I left them alone as they would be helpful in holding the fuzzy felt in place when replacing the seals.
◊
Now for the replacement seals.
I have found it easier to place a length of double sided tape on the fuzzy felt so that I then can cut to size the relevant seals.
◊
First the mirror. The felt was cut to size and carefully placed in position with the aid of a cotton bud.
◊
Repeating the same procedure of measuring the size of the felt for the door and carefully placing them in position.
◊
Lastly the film chamber channels. I have found through trial and error it is best to use just fuzzy felt with no double sided tape. It makes it easier to fit the felt into the narrow channels. The rounded ends of a paper clip allow me to push the felt firmly down. With the top channel I had to make sure I didn’t cover the pin that resets the film counter but at the same time ensure no gap appears .
Was I successful? To be continued…….
arhphotographic 