Jamie Pillers
Skeptic
I have a nicely operating Nikon FA that has a lot of scars & heavy brassing on the top deck. I also have a non-working FA body that has a very nice, relatively unmarked, top deck. I'm wondering if anyone here has replaced an FA's top deck and, if so, how difficult the job is. Has anyone seen instructions on the web for doing this job? Thanks for any thoughts.
Teus
Thijs Deschildre
you need the tools for it. I tried taking off the top plate of my FM's but failed so. on the net you can find repair manuals (free PDF or on peer-to-peer networks)
Laforet
Nowhere Man
Have a look on micro-tools.com, they have about everything you need to get initiated, provided that you have the money. You need at least a good set of screwdrivers, wrenches and ideally flexiclamp, in reality some bits of bicycle type will do. Most repair manuals can be found on the yahoo group on Nikon repair.
My lone FA was once a trio of a beaten-up chrome body, a mint chrome body with damaged shutter blades and a very dead black body. I sent all of them to a friend to have a bit of advanced transplant surgery, hoping to get two working FAs from those at the best. He had no problem replacing the top and bottom plates from the dead black to the beaten chrome. His attempt to revive the other ones was not as successful since there is a lot of flexible wiring which he cannot dig further without risking breakage. Not wanting to waste his time, I asked him to send back the working black body to me; he can have a look at the others whenever he wants to.
Over time I almost forgot about them, until tragic hit earlier this month as he was killed in the earthquake. From what I know of he is buried below 20 meters of earth and rubble as a hill slope near his home/studio crumbled and covered everything in its way. While he is resting in peace with all his beloved cameras and books, the unfinished FA project, plus a Revue 7sII copy I sent him last month for cleaning, I will keep the FA for as long as I live to remember him.
P.S. As we all know the top plate around the prism is made of plastic, but somehow the entire top plate of my black FA is made of plastic?! Fortunately the bottom is still metal.
My lone FA was once a trio of a beaten-up chrome body, a mint chrome body with damaged shutter blades and a very dead black body. I sent all of them to a friend to have a bit of advanced transplant surgery, hoping to get two working FAs from those at the best. He had no problem replacing the top and bottom plates from the dead black to the beaten chrome. His attempt to revive the other ones was not as successful since there is a lot of flexible wiring which he cannot dig further without risking breakage. Not wanting to waste his time, I asked him to send back the working black body to me; he can have a look at the others whenever he wants to.
Over time I almost forgot about them, until tragic hit earlier this month as he was killed in the earthquake. From what I know of he is buried below 20 meters of earth and rubble as a hill slope near his home/studio crumbled and covered everything in its way. While he is resting in peace with all his beloved cameras and books, the unfinished FA project, plus a Revue 7sII copy I sent him last month for cleaning, I will keep the FA for as long as I live to remember him.
P.S. As we all know the top plate around the prism is made of plastic, but somehow the entire top plate of my black FA is made of plastic?! Fortunately the bottom is still metal.
squirrel$$$bandit
Veteran
Oh my god, that's horrible...I'm so sorry about your friend.
Jamie Pillers
Skeptic
Laforet, I'm so sorry to hear about your friend! Makes all of this photo stuff seem rather insignificant! Or maybe its a reminder to live life to the fullest.. you never know what will happen next.
Teus, Laforet, Mabelsound, Thanks for the information. I'll look around for one of the repair manual downloads. I'll report back if this surgery proceeds.
Teus, Laforet, Mabelsound, Thanks for the information. I'll look around for one of the repair manual downloads. I'll report back if this surgery proceeds.