Can I/Should I clean my brownies?

I've recently come to own 6 brownies (no 2 model E card body, no 2

model F metal body, no 2 cartridge hawkeye mocel c, no 2a model c, no

2c model a, and a poular brownie), some of them are a bit dirty and

also there is some slight rust on the film winders and clasps. i've

cleaned the lenses and view finders and it's done wonders, but i am

wondering if i can clean the bodies as well, or if this is bad for

them, (i'm mostly concenred about what it would do to the card bodied

ones). if i can clean them, what would be the best thing to use?

thanks

I fall somewhere between the two points of view, one being complete restoration, the other being not to touch it at all. I feel that "battle scars" are well won and shouldn't be hidden, but that if a camera has simply got dusty/dirty through lack of use or bad storage, there's no harm in putting it into a condition that it may have been in when it was last in use ... "well loved" is a description that may well apply :-)

 

The problem with (most of) these cameras is that the "leather-look" covering is little more than textured painted paper. This means that any water-based cleaning, more than just a damp cloth, may cause irreversable damage. I use "old-fashioned" wax shoe polish (of an appropriate colour) on a rag or soft brush and this seems to do as good a job as anything without causing any damage.

 

One thing to bear in mind is that the adhesive that holds the covering onto the camera may now be very "tired" and the very effort of cleaning/polishing it may cause it to loosen. I would consider re-glueing to be valid "running maintenance", it's the sort of thing that may have happened if the camera had been in regular use anyway, but if a camera was in real need of recovering I'd probably look for a better example.

 

My opinions only ... feel free to differ ;-)

Thank's....

it hadn't even crossed my mind to use shoe polish, i had been thinking along the lines alcohol, but black shoe polish seems to make some sense.

they're acutally in pretty good condition, apart from a few a slightly peeling edges as you said.

That works really well - a little bit of shoe wax has really rejuvenated my very tired-looking Portrait Hawkeye. That covering may not be leather, but it certainly seems to appreciate being treated as though it were :-)