Restoring Leica III-G

[elmer3.5]

Hi, almost a month ago i found an incredibly cheap functioning Leica 3-g, it was pretty worn,lots of brassing and a few dents on it, in the past it was dismantled using a knife i guess.
Since it´s poor look i decided to revitalize it with a resitant laqcuer and griptac
So after stripping the chrome finish...today i painted it and made the numbers and letters on it in white.

I know this has nothing to do with taking photos, but i think many of you will be interested in this diy job🙂

Bye!

 

[dogberryjr]

Looks sharp! Do you think the paint will last on the knobs?

 

[Steve B.]

Now, that will be a handsome camera! Post a photo when it's finished?
Cheers--
Steve Busch

 

[jarski]

looks promising. pls post photo how black IIIg looked like ?

 

[easyrider]

Hi, almost a month ago i found an incredibly cheap functioning Leica 3-g, it was pretty worn,lots of brassing and a few dents on it, in the past it was dismantled using a knife i guess.
Since it´s poor look i decided to revitalize it with a resitant laqcuer and griptac
So after stripping the chrome finish...today i painted it and made the numbers and letters on it in white.

I know this has nothing to do with taking photos, but i think many of you will be interested in this diy job🙂

Bye!

Could that be called "pimping your camera?" 🙂

 

[Sonnar Brian]

It looks really nice, please post pictures when finished.

This is more like "Extreme Make-Over" for a camera!

 

[elmer3.5]

Waiting!

Waiting!

Hi, i just reassembled it, but i´m wating for the hot shoe and speed dials from dagcamera, the original ones are kaputt.

The paint itself is very resistant since it´s heat cured.

Thanks for the imput hope to finish it soon!

Bye!

 

[jarski]

pix pix pix ?? 😀

 

[johannielscom]

...

The paint itself is very resistant since it´s heat cured.

...

I hate to put a finger in your cake but heat cured won't help a bit if you don't let the paint settle for several weeks before using it. And, if you took off to much chrome, you also removed the layer (Nickle? Zinc?) underneath and the paint will hardly stick to the brass.

I repainted a Leica M3, it was easy to follow me around with all the paint flakes the camera was shedding 😛

 

[splitimageview]

Well it really depends on what kind of paint. The paint I use sticks to brass like glue.

 

[beyond]

Looks beautiful. How did you paint the white paint on without goin on the black?

 

[elmer3.5]

Preparing surface!

Preparing surface!

Hi, i must say i´ve used this paint many times in applications that demand lot of wear, it has performed very well.
The surface must be prepared properly, for instance you must kill sharp edges and when applying paint you must take care about thickness of it.
In the past i painted a canon 50mm 1.2 and a m3, the difference tween them and this 3-g is that i`ve painted this one myself, and so i can manage thickness and quantity of layers.
This photo is how it looks today, i haven´t painted yet the delay mech. and waiting for some spares.
But it looks just like it should.
Bye

PD: i don´t have a digital P&S, this cams are so great when showing this kind of stuff!

 

[jbielikowski]

oh man, me want one now 😉

 

[HuubL]

Looks very good. Is that griptac?

 

[Robert Lai]

You mentioned that there were dents on the camera. Did you get the dents out? I don't see any in your pictures.

 

[elmer3.5]

Hi

Hi

Hi,

It´s griptac.

I removed the dents with soft hits on the opposite side, brass is great to work with. What was left of dents were completely filled by paint layers.

At last today Dagcamera replied, Don will be sending parts today, i cannot wait much longer.😱

Bye!

 

[elmer3.5]

Phots updated!

Phots updated!

Hi, dagcamera parts arrived, it just looks how it should!
With the help of a c-lux3 I was able to shoot it at very close range!
You can see white letters on it!

Still missing delayed mech, i haven´t got any time even to shoot, hope i´ll finish it up soon!

Cheers!

 

[ray*j*gun]

Beautiful......hope it holds up. I would love one!!

 

[elmer3.5]

Next!

Next!

Well thanks to all of you!

I think the next stage is to used it heavily during 6 months and see how it holds up the paint!

Since i´ve used tis paint in machines that withstands heat and hard labour i´m optimistic about it´s capabilities!

So let´s see in a few months with another report on this III-G!

If any of you would like to test one like this for himself i can make make you a sample, not of an expensive camera, but a fed or zorki perhaps, please MP me to work it out (one or two candidates 🙂)

Bye and cheers!

 

[jarski]

nice looking IIIG. a bit late question, but it never occurred to me how chrome was removed ? did you use something like this ?