Recovering a Yashica FX-7 (to Rafa1981)

Jesito · Expire: 2015-01-07

This Yashica came from a lot that Rafa brought me from Sweden in his last trip, lot of "for parts or repair" material.
I like this cam because it's small, all mechanics. So it can work without a battery, (the only part that uses the battery is the lightmeter).
Also it sports a Contax/Yashica mount, so it's compatible with lots of nice lenses (like the Planars, etc.).

Most of the cams from the 60's and 70's are always the same: Light seal degrading and battery leaks, that might turn them unrecoverable. In this case, the battery container was empty and the contacts, clean. But the light seals were severely degraded, and the sticky stuff spread everywhere. Also the mirror damper was degraded, so before going into the cleanup, I tried the cam.
And it seemed to work fine, speed change was working, metal curtains seemed ok, so it was worth to give it an opportunity.

I hate the degraded seals. It's a nightmare to clean. At the sealing material used at that time turns to be a sticky gum that breaks and goes everywhere, from the mirror damper into the mirror chamber to the inside of the mechanisms from the top and bottom covers. If anyone tries the cam with the mirror damper degraded, the mirror gets the gummy dirt and becomes difficult to clean.

The backside, where all the degradation is shown:

The cleaning process is not too difficult, but it takes time and patience. Isopropyl Alcohol is a good solvent for degraded foam, but it has to be used with care: it can ruin the focusin screen and some plastic parts.
Also is mandatory not to use at all metal tools to remove it, because they can damage the painting underneath.

It's also mandatory to opent the top and bottom covers, some foam can have fall there.

Once everything clean, putting new seals everywhere will finally fix the cam.
This time I spent three and a half hours, several coffea pots and a lot of q-tips.

Now is time to put a roll of film and go outside to run the 1D1R contest Wink

Hope this will be useful to anyone.
Jes.

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

Jes, you're a camera wizard!

Jesito · Expire: 2015-01-07

rafa1981 · Joined: 15 Jul 2010 Posts: 142

Very good job, nice to see them coming to life.

It can degrade the paint, but as an experiment you can try with chemically pure acetone or nail polish remover in a camera that you are just keeping for parts, it's a hell of a solvent.

Jesito · Expire: 2015-01-07

Farside · Expire: 2013-12-27

Another one brought back from the brink of landfill; well done, Jes!

Jesito · Expire: 2015-01-07

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Many thanks to sharing this great tutorial!