How to clean a universal viewfinder?

[laymonk777]

As some of you may know, I got the Contax IIIa Kit from my mom's estate. In said kit there's a Bower universal viewfinder. It doesn't look as if it has ever been used.

The problem I'm having is that it needs to be cleaned. I was wondering if any of the wise RFF sages may have suggestions on how to best accomplish this task? Don't want to scratch it up too badly.

Here is a snippet from another forum for reference:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/collectors-corner/121817-my-ebay-find-little-camera-jewelry.html

Thanks!

 

[Murray Kelly]

Go to Russian rangefinders and look at the 1st sticky. I am not familiar with the Bower, but if it follows the usual pattern it will match the picture there.

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=107960

Good luck

 

[bowieknife]

I have an 'Optimus' revolver viewfinder, made in Germany, ca 1950-
seems that Bower sold them in the US under their own brand name:
http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica...istorica/106973-optimus-viewfinder-leica.html
google a bit !

 

[sevo]

Essentially it is only a matter of patience - at least if the thing isn't corroded hard and if the fungus hasn't crept into any cemented surface. Make sure that you document each part in the process of disassembly, or it will be very hard to assemble it again...

 

[laymonk777]

Go to Russian rangefinders and look at the 1st sticky. I am not familiar with the Bower, but if it follows the usual pattern it will match the picture there.

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=107960

Good luck

Thank you. This is helpful.