Olympus OM Body Recovering

[OM1234]

I was wondering has anyone come across some material similar to the original vinyl that Olympus covered the OM series of cameras with.
Places like Cameraleather.com don't have material the same or similar.

I have a couple of M1's and a few OM1's in like new condition which are starting to peel at some corners so I would like to get them recovered.

Any ideas?

 

[Frontman]

You needn't replace the covering, you just need to remove it, clean it, and reinstall it. To remove it cleanly, without tearing it, wet the vinyl with lacquer thinner, and apply lacquer thinner to the lifted up edges. Set the camera in the sunlight until it becomes warm, apply some more lacquer thinner, and then gently peel the vinyl off. Once it is off, clean the old glue off the body and off the backside of the vinyl using more lacquer thinner.

To install the vinyl covering, apply rubber cement thinly to the camera body and the backside of the vinyl. Let the glue sit until it hazes over, the install the vinyl covering carefully. Be careful not to use too much glue, a very thin coat is all that is necessary.

 

[Penny Lane]

Why not use the original stuff? In my (limited) experience, once the covering on an OM starts to peel it's almost trouble-free to peel the stuff off completely and it's quite likely to stay intact. It's not stuck on there very well anyway so with some care, it shouldn't even stretch.

Edit: there, been thinking this through too long again 😀 So, what Frontman says 🙂

Derk