Need help on seal replacement on RB67

[kymtman]

Never owned one of these Mamiya RB67 boat anchors before and I need help replacing the body seals, properly. I

understand that you can remove the mirror and replace the damper foam, but how? Where can I find help for this

procedure?

Thanks in advance,

Ron Tincher

[martin_dake]

Try this link to Jon Goodman's excellent articles on sela replacements.

 

 

http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/sealreplacement.html

 

Scroll down and the RB67 is listed.

[alexander_ghaffari]

Jon Goodman's kits are top notch, but I would not want to mess with the RB67 mirror bumper foam, and I consider myself fairly handy. Even the slightest accidental brush with the mirror takes off the silver coating. I would personally send my camera off to someone who has done body seal replacements so many times that they have the procedure ingrained in their mind; however, redoing the foam seals of Mamiya film backs is very easy to do with Jon's kit and instructions. I have also used his kit and instructions to reseal and rebumperizer several film SLRs. Best of luck!

[craig_supplee]

I don't know about the mirror in Alexander's RB, but I replaced the mirror foam in my RB67 ProS, and had no problems. I have cleaned the mirror with a micro cloth and lens cleaner, and it is spotless with no flake off. Using proper tweezers, the foam can be replaced. Hardest part is getting the correct angle cut on the foam.

[craig_supplee]

I also will second using Jon Goodman's kits and instructions.

[kymtman]

The film backs I can do without any trouble. I cut small strips from the seals of 35mm film canisters. If good enough for film, it's good enough for film backs. Also its free from any walmart store (film processing dept). They will give you tons of empty canisters at the end of their shift. I open them up and peel the velvet like material from the film opening ends and about a dozen strips will do the back. I use contact cement that never dries. Stays pliable if you ever need to re-do.

 

Guess i'tt send the body for re seals to an expert. Know of anyone?

[paul ron]

Mirror seals n bumpers can be tricky but doing em carefully n methodically, you can do it without taking the mirror out.

 

Removing the mirror is quite easy n will make removing the old gunk that much easier. There are 2 scres at the top of the mirror that holds the clip on. Once the clip is out the mirror tips out without any trouble.

 

The bumpers at teh top of the mirror box are a bit tricky. I do it with th emirror in so I can see under the edge. I guess a dental mirror will make that job easy if you don't want to do it with th emirror in.

 

The seals of the viewing screen box require some surgery n shouldn't be done by most DIYers. There are some mechanics involved with teh red bars n will need someone with experiance.

 

The internal seals n mirror transport seals are never replaced unless the body is in for a preofessional CLA. Many people have no idea there are any to be done. Most times they don't leak unless you hit the light just so... n then the external seals get blamed or development techniques are suspect because it's not easily reproduceable unless you know what to look for.

 

Jon Goodman of Interslice, is the man to contact for foam kits.

[dean_waters]

I replaced the foam around the mirror on my RB67 - I used one of the kits from Interslice and it took me about an hour. You don't need to remove the mirror, I just used tweezers to pick the old foam away from the sides of the mirror. Don't put any solvents near the mirror though, just pick and scrape it away. Don't forget the bumpers at the top of the mirror box, they're tricky, but as Paul Ron says, you can use the mirror to see where to put them. Also, there is a bumper under the mirror. Half-cock the shutter to raise the mirror and you'll see it. It stops the black baffle behind the mirror from slamming into the back of the mirror. The foam around the top of the mirror box on the sides is pretty inaccessible unless you start to dismantle the whole top, so I just left it. You'd have to be pretty unlucky to geta light leak there.

One odd thing is that when you put the foam back in, I noticed that the mirror rises slightly twisted so is not flat against the focussing screen. I have two RB's and it's like that in both of them. Initially I thought that I had not put the top foam bumpers back in properly, but it's like that in my newish untampered-with RB, so I guess it's supposed to be like that.

If you're wary of doing the mirror, try replacing the foam in the RB back first, it's easy and gives you experience in working with the foam. Make sure you lick the foam before setting it as the glue is VERY strong, and licking it gives you a few minutes of movement before it sticks. I'm very pleased with the way my old RB worked out, it's good as new now.