This camera seems to have spent some time under water. The aluminium of the shutter is very rotten and some chunks are missing. By the amount of sand found inside the camera, this camera has fallen in the sea water on a beach day.
There is an explanatory plate on the back to set the speed of the shutter. The speed is based on the day on the year and the hour when you take the picture.
I started dismantling the film winding case and found lots of sand inside. Some oil and lots of movement eased the gears.
I removed the shutter with a home made tool and soaked the shutter in oil for a couple of days.
The front lens was not seized and was easy to remove.
The shutter blades are slightly rusted and the diaphragm blades are seized. There was a lot of sand inside.
The front rings are aluminium and so rusted that they are stuck together. I removed the back lens with the home made tool and the help of a hammer whack. The front rings are beyond repair. Big chunks have disappeared of the front bezel.
The speed regulator is seized. The gears are made out of bronze and the axels are made out of iron. The axels are very rusted and the axel gears are gone. I’m reshaping the teeth of the gears with a small screwdriver shaped to mach the teeth. I scrap the rust with the screwdriver soaked in oil.
After cleaning all the gears, I’ve put the speed regulator back together and I’m actuating the lever many times to free the mechanism.
The lever on the middle of the picture was seized. Some oil and a very small grain sand paper eased it.
The shutter ring was seized. I derusted it and refinished the track with smooth sand paper.
One of the springs, the one that holds the shutter sproket, was so rusted that half of it had dissapeard. I recreated it using iron wire.
The finished shutter. It looks a bit "post-atomic" but works as it should. There aro some chunks of the casing missing but it all adds to the charm of this camera!
I found some living creatures inside the viewer!!!
The piece on the bottom of the picture is the lever that you should pull to rewind the film when all the film has been exposed. The piece was broken in two and only half of the shaft, the inner part of it, was still in the camera. I did a new piece with the remainings of an old gas meter (don't ask!)
The piece on the middle is the new piece. I still have to cut the left part. I do not have a lathe, but I use my battery drill and some files.
Cutting the end of the piece. I use the casing of the gas meter as a container for the metal dust.
The finished piece.
I used the axix of a gear of the same gas meter to do the external knob. This piece of metal has a hole on the middle and a screw on one side that will hold the knob onj the shaft. The srew is barely visible on the top of the piece.
The whole piece in place. I've added some grooves to the knob.
The finished camera! I added a telephoto/macro lens that I had.
In this picture you can see the part that has been under water: All the shutter and the part of the camera that has no paint left has spent a lot of time under water.
The finished camera. I like the run down aspect of the camera and the fact that it works. If I repaint the body of the camera and redo the front aluminum rings of the shutter, the story of the camera would be somehow lost. I've spent a couple of weeks reapiring his camera and it has been till now the most time consuming project I've done. Nor the quality or the price of the camera justify the time spent on it but it was a nice challenge.