Akarette repair ?

[cyclops]

Ok so its not a real rangefinder having a separate viewfinder for 50mm and 75mm interchangeable lenses, but its a nice oddity. Picked this up today for £5.00 so nothing to lose really. As you can see its really dirty. Two questions:

1.What should I use to clean it / polish up the chrome (is it chrome, the lens looks to be an alloy of some sort).

2. has anyone ever had one of these apart? i wouldn't dream of touching the lens (I have no experience here) but I might attempt to clean the viewfinders if any of you guys can give me the confidence

Thanks

 

[wes loder]

Not sure what you did with this Akarette. 1) Do not polish the metal front. The nickel coatings are thin and will easily brass out. 2) The shutter and viewfinder can be removed as a unit by removing the top and bottom plates and the front crescent plates. Involves several screws, the advance knob and front pin for the accessory shoe. Once this module is out, the finder optics are easy to access. Shutter is typical Prontor. Flush it out with lighter fluid and see if that gets it working.