Rick_van_Nooij Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 Early March 2020 I picked up a tired-looking Voigtländer Superb TLR of Ebay. The leatherette had shrunken and dry-rotted in places. The shutter was tired and sticky, slow speeds were ...not there. But the lenses looked good at least. "Before" Someone had clearly been at it before, as I found it had been repainted very roughly, the little shutter speed reading prism assembly was gone and the holes for it had been sealed up. And every sliding surface was oozing graphite grease. Tear down and tear off stage. It was at this point I discovered the whole frame counter mechanism wasn't in there. No matter, the red window at the back would have to do. I cleaned up the body with a Dremel tool with a wire wheel bit and some fine sandpaper. Smoothing out the thick layers of paint on parts and removing the remains of the adhesive left behind after taking off the leatherette. The shutter spent quite some time in the ultrasonic cleaner with some detergent. Looking in the dirty water I figured out why the slow speeds were not working. A small pin had broken off a part that holds the shutter open while the slow speed escapement runs down. The good news it was now running okay on T, B, and 1/25 and faster. It'll do until I can poach a part from another broken Compur-Rapid shutter. The thick paint was hiding the original chrome, but this was starting to flake so I decided to stick with flat black. Instead of leatherette, I went with faux vulcanite. which was a little tougher to form to the right shapes. But with a little help of rubber cement it ended up looking nice For the various engravings I used white and black crayon. Like on the shutter cover ring, and the shutter speed ring. I decided to remove the worn black paint from the focus scale ring and leave it chrome. Filling in the focus distance numbers with black crayon. I also left holes in the vulcanite where the recessed screws go, for easy access on the next service. A few small touch-ups of black paint and glue and she's ready to go. Not a 100% original, but she looks darn pretty anyway. Ready for the next 80 years. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmac Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 Nice job Rick Crayons ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Bryant Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 Nice job of restoration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard_ Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 good job Rick; thanks for the post... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Seaman Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 In a word, superb. It's fortunate that it has a red window for film advance. I've got a couple of TLR's in nice condition, but with faulty winding mechanisms and no red window. I've considered somehow adding one but it would be a shame to butcher them in that way. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick_van_Nooij Posted April 17, 2020 Author Share Posted April 17, 2020 Thanks all, Crayons ?? Wax Crayons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rick_drawbridge Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 Great job, Rick! Thanks for the post, and I'll look forward to some sample pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDMvW Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 Fantastic! Really nice job, and a good read too.:) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck_foreman1 Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 Very Impressive and quite jealous of your "geschick" with repairs and restorations 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuart_pratt Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 Wow, Superb job! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James G. Dainis Posted April 18, 2020 Share Posted April 18, 2020 That is a really great job. 1 James G. Dainis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orsetto Posted April 18, 2020 Share Posted April 18, 2020 Beautiful job! Thanks also for the reminders on several tips that can be applied to other cameras, esp the crayons to fill in worn engravings: totally forgot that one! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg_nixon2 Posted April 18, 2020 Share Posted April 18, 2020 Good Job. Its very important to keep these out of Landfill. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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