Scratched negatives, back door?

I’ve shot 10-20 rolls on my AE-1 Program and a lots of shots across most of these rolls have horizontal scratches on them. The attached example has very obvious scratches as it is mostly blue sky.

 

I have looked into what could be causing this and the only thing I found was at the end of the back door of the camera, beside the pressure plate, there’s a piece that puts pressure on the film as it comes out of the roll.

 

Somehow this piece has gotten visible scratches, I don’t know what the previous owner did to achieve this. I’ve attached an image.

 

So, this is likely the cause right?

Now I’m trying to figure out what the best way to fix this is.

 

Buying a new back door? Putting nail polish over it? Some kind of paint?

 

Thanks for any advice!

I would try getting a new back for the camera. That seems the most likely cause.

 

Just a thought... did you develop your film in a home darkroom? If so, did you use a film squeegee on the film? That can cause scratches on film too.

 

Good luck.

Thanks, I was hoping I could solve it somehow without having to change the back door as I’ve already spent more than I should have on the camera. ;-/

 

The rolls were developed by two different labs in New York and Stockholm.

I found this back on ebay:

 

CANON AE-1, AE-1 Program 35mm Film camera Back Cover Replacement | eBay

 

Check it out.

You're not fitting the film cassette up side down are you ? It's possible to do that if the rewind spindle will pull up far enough against it's spring. That steel bar in your photo is not supposed to touch the film, it's there to steady the cassette. If the cassette is up side down in the camera, the film will still pull through but will scrape on the bodywork just before the film plane rails.

 

Can you post a photo of how you fit the cassette in the camera ?

Oh I see, yeah I can see that now how it’s just supposed to touch the cassette. I am loading it correctly, with the AE-1P you can’t load it upside down. :)

 

So that means I’m likely back to square one. What else could it be, everything else seems nice and clean.

Are the scratches on the emulsion side, or the actual film ? Is it possible there is either some kind of roughness on the pressure plate, or else grit trapped in the felt jaws of the cassette ?

Right . . . That bar only hits the canister, not the film. Check which side of the film the scratches are on and match them to the components that actually touch that side of the film. If it's anything in the back, you can get a replacement pretty easily.