Wallace Koopmans Artlog

What do you do when you have a rangefinder with broken glass and another of the same model with other damage?  Survival of the fittest.

This is not a post about how to disassemble or re-assemble your camera but may be of interest if you intend to replace the glass .  Once you have the top plate removed you need to remove the old glass.  On the Minolta Himatic-F’s that I was working on the glue required xylene to dissolve it.   I used Goof Off which contains xylene (Xylene is terrible unhealthy stuff and I use a mask with carbon filters, follow all the warnings that come with it).  One side effect of using this solvent is that it destroyed the paint mask on the glass.  You might just want to measure the window and it’s borders before you begin.

So in order to re-create the black paint, I laid a mask for the clear area’s with drafting applique and then sprayed enamel paint (hobby stores would be a good source for this type of paint)

To attach the glass back to the top plate I used Elmers Fix All which is a clear flexible yet strong glue.

Of course be certain to place the glass carefully and ensure that the paint faces towards the inside of the camera.