Cleaning old odor out of old F body

I just purchased a very nice old Nikon F body. This body has that

kindof old musty smell to it. Is it possible to clean that out of

the leather? I noticed that when I raise the camera to my eye the

smell is strong. With the back off it is almost gone. I am

wondering if something like Lexol cleaner and then conditioner would

help or might it react with the glue and ruin everything? Any help

would be great. Thanks

Are you talking about the leather ever-ready case? If so, Lexol will do a fine job. I use it on mine every couple of years. The cloth lining on the inside of the case may be harder to clean out. Try carpet/upholstery spray foam cleaner. Let it air out real good and dry it in the sunlight.

 

Good luck.

To clerify, I am talking about the leather covering on the camera itself. I do not have the ER case. The body is in near mint shape. This condition makes me believe that the camera sat in a ER case for a long time and I know that those cases can sometimes embed an odor in the body leather.

Try saddle soap on it (having removed the back first so you don't get any residue from the lather inside the camera itself).

Wad newspaper into balls. Put the camera into a box with lots of these and close it up. Change the paper balls every other day or two. Newsprint absorbs this terrible dank oder.

 

Conni

I thought Nikon switched to leatherette back in the rangefinder era.

If that's the case you can rub anything you like on without affecting

the glue; but what you are smelling may be some chemical

deterioration, which surface treatments won't help. Recovering

materials in various textures are available from Microtools but their

website is currently down for reconstruction. Many repair shops will

cheerfully take your dough to do it, usually using material designed

to match that on the FM2n......................

The covering on the camera body itself is plastic, not leather. Go at it with a soft toothbrush and a vinyl cleaner that is not petroleum or silicone based. Good car vinyl cleaners should work, and the better ones have "vinyl food" to remoisturize the material. Some have a nice scent to them. Rinse it off with cotton balls and water. Be sure to give it a good moisture restorer after you clean it. Again, from a good automobile cleaning supply house.