PSA: That light seal replacement on a 1970s Canon FTb took me 8 hours

I spent an entire Sunday replacing light seals on my Canon FTb, thinking it would be a quick two hour job, but the old foam had turned into sticky tar that took forever to clean off. The acetone dissolved the goo but also started eating into the chrome on the film door, so I had to stop and find a gentler cleaner. Has anyone else run into this with older cameras, or did I just pick a bad solvent?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamie80413d ago

@evan_cooper73 nailed it with the lighter fluid trick, @gibson.morgan's right that acetone's just too mean to the chrome...

evan_cooper7314d ago

Acetone is way too harsh for camera bodies, try lighter fluid next time.

gibson.morgan14d ago

Ngl I had to read that twice - acetone ate your chrome?! @evan_cooper73 called it, lighter fluid is the way to go for that old sticky goo. I tried using nail polish remover once on a Minolta SRT and it left these weird cloudy spots on the leatherette that I could never fix. Eight hours is brutal though, I spent like five on a Pentax Spotmatic and wanted to throw the whole thing out the window by the time the last bit of adhesive came off.