Okay, here's a truly compelling question for the group: The top plate engraving on my chrome M4 has faded, i.e. the black paint or enamel inside the engraving grooves has rubbed away. Is there an easy way to restore this? Are there any particular repair shops that might be recommended? It seems like it should be an easy thing to do.

Regards,

-- Jay D (jayd@netvigator.com), October 16, 2001

Answers

Jay, I think there's a laquer or paint stick made for this, so that you can just rub the stick across the engraving, and follow up with a light cleanup with a cloth and maybe a little solvent. You could even use a decorator color to customize your Leica. I'm not sure where to get one--maybe a call to a local paint or industrial supply-- but I'll bet someone on here will know where, within the hour!

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), October 16, 2001.

I once did a "repair" on a Bessa II with black nail polish. I wasn't too careful in the applicaton, but used a cloth on a small block to just wipe away the surface excess, which left the engraving full of black. It was an easy thing to do. I'm still looking for a flat black nail polish for touching up lens hoods. (Any goths out there?)

-- Phil Stiles (Stiles@metrocast.net), October 16, 2001.

Lacquer paint sticks can be purchased at art supply stores. Crayons will do in a pinch.

-- Henry Chu (heninden@yahoo.com), October 16, 2001.

There's a good article with photos on camera restoration in this regard at:

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

-- Lloyd Minaai (minaaila@ilhawaii.net), October 17, 2001.

This place sells camera restoration supplies and tools:

http://www.micro-tools.com/

Cheers,

-- John Collier (jbcollier@powersurfr.com), October 17, 2001.

When I asked the UK Leica servicing dept how to restore the red aperture numbers on a chrome 35mm F2.8 Summaron, they said they always used Arrow crayons. They advised rubbing the wax crayon over the engravings to fill them, then leave the item for a few hours under e.g. a lighted lamp so that the wax would soften slightly and settle down into the engraving. It worked fine.

-- James Harper (drjh@btinternet.com), October 17, 2001.