Argus C3 disassembly instructions?

[phototone]

Yessir, got me a gen-u-ine Argus C3 with a nice clear coated lens. (for $5) I need to disassemble it and clean the RFDR and VFDR optics and clean the shutter, though.

Is there any online instructions on what to do? I have successfully disassembled Leica thread mount cameras and cleaned them, so I am sure I can do this, but it appears that there must be screws under the front leatherette, and I am not sure how the shutter speed selector and shutter cocking lever come off, or do they need to?

Anxious to become the next Duane Michaels.

 

[jlw]

This is one of the world's easiest cameras to disassemble.

To remove the rear viewfinder lens, open the back door, then carefully pry out a round wire spring ring that holds the lens in place. The lens will then just fall out.

To get at the shutter, remove the shutter-cocking arm and then peel back the leatherette in the four corners (don't be surprised if it cracks.) This will expose four slotted screws in the corners of the front plate. Remove the screws and lift off the plate (if I forgot to tell you to remove any other obvious pieces, do it; I'm going from memory here) and you will see the entire shutter mechanism. Notice that the whole timer geartrain is a nice little separate module that's linked to the blades by a pushrod; disengage this and you can remove the geartrain module for cleaning.

To get at the rangefinder and other viewfinder optics more easily, remove the Phillips screws that hold the little access plate on top, behind the rangefinder wheel. Once you've lifted this off, you can see pretty much the whole optical system.

And that's about it! As you'll see once you've removed the front plate, the "chassis" of a C3 consists of a phenolic block with various recesses molded into it, and all the internal mechanisms fit into these recesses. By the way, although the phenolic is very rigid, and is durable when protected by the front plate and back door, it does chip fairly easily when unprotected -- so resist the urge to pry around the edges of anything that doesn't want to come loose.

 

[J.Ed]

The Argus Collectors Group site has a manual covering the disassembly. See http://arguscg.tripod.com/

Rick Olson's site also has some good info.