Refurbishing Chrome lenses

[sunil]

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I have a couple of chrome lenses that have surface scratches and tiny nicks. Do any of you experienced users know if these can be buffed out? Does Leica USA handle such work? Any advice will be gratefully accepted.

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[lars_bergquist]

The chrome is a microns-thin surface layer over a substrate of brass. Attempting to polish a nick away will take you straight through the chromium and into the brass. Try to live with the marks of a long and honourable life of service.

 

The old man from the Brass Age

[tobey bilek]

You can`t fix a chrome bumper on a care either, same reason.

 

prevention is the best cure.

[lars_bergquist]

You can`t fix a chrome bumper on a care either, same reason.

 

prevention is the best cure.

 

You can fix corrosion on a car bumper -- because, and only as long as, it only attacks the surface of the chromium plating. Deep corrosion, and mechanical damage as in this case, cannot be removed with anything from a tube or a can, or by polishing.

 

You have to remove the plating and do a new plating job. There are workshops that will do that with a car bumper. I do not know of any legitimate operation that will take a Leica lens.

 

There are of course illegitimate ones -- those in the ex-Soviet Union that manufacture forgeries.

 

The old man from the Brass Age

[tobey bilek]

Sure you can replate a bumper and insurance made you get that back in the day. Problem was they usually plated directly over steel and you had rust in a few years.

Steel really needs nickel, then copper, then chrome to work well.

 

 

Original question was nicks and polish, and the answer remains no fix.

[Robert Hooper]

I have had some limited success with an application of Renaissance Micro-Crystalline Wax Polish to my Leica chrome bodies and lenses. It won't make the nicks and scratches disappear, but it seems to minimize smaller defects and improve overall appearance. Of course you want to be careful not to get this product on a lens element. However, it does not seem to have a deleterious effect on rangefinder windows, in my experience.

 

Another informative link.

[earleygallery]

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The best way to avoid marks on your gear is simply not to use it. No one should mind normal wear and tear.

[lars_bergquist]

The best way to avoid marks on your gear is simply not to use it. No one should mind normal wear and tear.

 

I agree completely. Signs of abuse is one thing, marks of long and careful use is something else, and completely acceptable.

 

I should add that collector's attitudes to marks of use is very different in different places. In Europe, honest wear marks are very much O.K. They are part of the life history of the item. I have seen some rare M cameras, including a MP or two, with very little original finish or covering left, fetch very high prices as long as they were mechanically intact.

 

In the U.S. and even more in Japan, extensive 'refurbishing' including refinishing is often done because U.S. and Japanese collectors prize a pristine look, caring little for internal condition or original state. But a refinished original MP would be regarded a scandal in Europe, and its price would actually sink to half or less.

 

The brass man