Konica III M housing cracking

[cloud worlds]

Hello,
I have received my *new* Konica III M - it's in great shape, but there is a hairline crack in the (guessing plastic) hinge area of the meter housing that sits on top of the camera. I plan to carefully use some super glue. But this begs the question; after 50 odd years, has this plastic housing now become brittle? I plan to use the camera on a regular basis, and with the regular flipping up and down, you can imagine the stress on that part of the camera. I'm deciding whether or not to have Essex remove the meter system entirely or not, depending on whether I think that meter housing can still stand up to regular flipping up and down. I'd like to keep the meter on the camera, but it's going to have to be reliable. Has anyone else experienced this sort of stress cracking on their plastic meter housing, and what did you do about it?
Thanks

 

[sevo]

Going by images on the net, the meter hinge seems to have cracked on almost all of them. The camera will work minus the meter system - but personally I'd rather duplicate that meter casing.

Replicating thermosetting cast plastics parts of that vintage is easy, as they originally were made in a process that can be trivially duplicated with hobby workshop means. You can put the original (patched with wax or putty if it is broken) into moulding silicone to form a mould which you then can use to cast a small series of duplicates from fibre reinforced polyester resin.

 

[cloud worlds]

Sounds like you're getting ready to produce them. If you make it, I'll buy one!

 

[cloud worlds]

Well, after finding out on the web how to remove the housing (just pull the hinge pin out) I've removed the meter housing. I'll just have Essex do a CLA on the camera. Of course, I was planning on hand metering with it anyway.

Thanks