This Weekends Find (A Speed Graphic Restoration Project)

[Dave Colangelo]

Found this bad boy at the local flea market this weekend. The lens is super clean and all shutter speeds seem to be in working order. The rear curtain shutter is sluggish but since the lens shutter works Im not worried. The front is super clean but the film holder/focus screen mount needs to be cleaned up (its got a bit of corrosion). The ground glass is cracked and will be getting replaced as well. More to come on the restoration as it gets underway. Looks like the bellows were replaced at some point and are nice and sealed.

Regards
Dave

 

[tirediron]

Nice! I must be going to the wrong flea markets. All I ever see are beat up old Ricohs.

 

[Dave Colangelo]

Nice! I must be going to the wrong flea markets. All I ever see are beat up old Ricohs.

I should have taken a picture of it sitting there because this was quite literally sitting on a shelf surrounded by broken Ricohs .


Regards
Dave

 

[Gary A.]

When you're finished with that one, I have a similar Speed Graphic, sitting on a shelf in the office, you can restore. (Next to a beat-up Ricoh.)

 

[Dave Colangelo]

So the madness began this evening, the back is where the corrosion is (its most surface and superficial) but still needs to be tended to. Due to where it sits it would prevent the film back from seating properly so it needs to be removed before even attempting a shot.

Fist order of business is removing the whole back assembly and prepping it to be cleaned.

Some sanding ensued but the spring arms were giving me trouble as they are a bit bent so I made the mistake of popping one out to bend back. It took a half hour and some yelling to properly depress the spring to get it back into place.

Due to the frustration of this job and the fact its holding better I may not tend to the other side just yet. Its hard to tell but its back to the shape it should be. These arms appear to be out of some kind of weak metal and seem easily damaged.

The sanding revealed some nice metal beneath, I will heading to the hardware store tomorrow to get some paint stripper and matte black paint to refinish it with. We shall see how it comes out.

Regards
Dave

 

[Gary A.]

I think we are all holding our collectively breath hoping for a good outcome.

 

[Dave Colangelo]

All-in-all the damage is more or less superficial and its looking good so far. There seems to be a back and a lot of parts up for sale on the bay should something go terribly wrong. Since I only ever intend on using it with in-lens shutter style lenses I am going to leave the body shutter alone for now.

Regards
Dave

 

[Derrel]

I have a 1938 baby Speed Graphic. Wow-what a FUN camera to take to the beach with you. Perhaps the best conversation starter north of say, a 1958 Ricoh Super Ricohflex twin-lens!

Looking forward to seeing you work your magic on this one. As a project camera goes, it looks a LOT better than others I've seen.

 

[SoulfulRecover]

Great find! I don't think I have ever seen anything worth while a flea market before in terms of cameras.

 

[Dave Colangelo]

I was able to strip off all the old paint, it took 4 shots of paint remover as well as a lot of steel work. I used some flat black primer to re-coat it and it came out pretty nice.

Regards
Dave

 

[Derrel]

Do you typically bake your painted parts to help them cure well? I do a lot of metal lure parts with various primr, paints, lacquers, enamels, etc. I find that about 18 to 20 minutes at a pre-heated oven at 160 degrees really,really makes paint finishes cure well, and FAST, compared to say 30 days of dry time at ambinet air temps. Baking also seems with most paint types, to "harden" and make the paint more chip-resistant. A lot of my lures impact rocks, so chip-reistance is a big deal. I've found this baking to work with primers, enamels, lacquers, and powder coat types of paint.

 

[Dave Colangelo]

Derrel, I have never tried that but I may give it a shot this weekend. During reassembly I chipped some of the paint and may do some touch up this weekend. Ill give it a good bake and see how it comes out. Thanks for the tip!

Dave