Jump to content

Leica M3 Vulcanite Replacement


Recommended Posts

Two places to look for prices Aki Asahi in Japan and HugoStudio in the USA. Both provide a good and reliable service, unlike another well known camera leather supplier. 

 

Wilson

Link to post
Share on other sites

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Original vulcanite was really baked on postwar cameras, replacement available from Japan is self adhesive vinyl. A bit different feel than vulcanite but looks good and precisely cut. Cost from Japan is around 20 usd, with some manual skills can be done at home.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Original vulcanite was really baked on postwar cameras, replacement available from Japan is self adhesive vinyl. A bit different feel than vulcanite but looks good and precisely cut. Cost from Japan is around 20 usd, with some manual skills can be done at home.

Could you share with us more info about it? It would be interesting to know material was the original vulcanite and at about what temperature was it applied to (only?) post-war LTMs and not to M3, M2? All M4 variants and the M5 had visible screw-heads on the front plate, too.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Alternatively you can send it to Peter Grisalfi at CRR Luton in the UK. He is now back at the helm, having lost his Wife about a year and a half ago. He is possibly the only person outside Wetzlar, who is able to recover with vulcanite.

 

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/Leica/vulcanite.html

 

That is very good news. Peter told me he was probably going to retire and was thinking of selling all his spares and camera tools to Alan Starkie. 

 

Wilson

 

PS I prefer recovering with embossed black kid leather. It looks very similar to Vulkanit but has a nicer feel and ages better. Modern leather is acid free and does not go bumpy like Zeiss leather used to go on Contaxes, due to the acid in the leather reacting with the metal casing. 

Edited by wlaidlaw
Link to post
Share on other sites

Wasn't the original vulcanite baked onto the chasis of Barnack cameras?

Not done on the M cameras.

 

 

...

 

Correct, the original vulcanite was baked onto the camera bodies. But it was not only Barnack cameras, also M cameras (true at least for M1, M2, M3 and M4). I do not know when Leica stopped using vulcanite (could be from M6 onwards).

 

Andy

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Leitz was changing the structure (pattern) of vulcanite and pretty sure as well the components of it. Vulcanite in general is bristle, it breaks when you try to bent it. But if warmed to approx 40-60 Celsius it is elastic, you can cut it, form it. Until early postwar cameras vulcanite was glued onto shell, judging how it smells it must have been glue based on shellack. Vulcanite shrinks a bit with the time, very often you may observe tiny gap below the lens flange. Glue tends to dissolve, not seldom you may observe it, especially around the flange. It may be reglued, more instructions per PM if needed.

From end of fourties Leitz switched to a so called sharkskin vulcanite. Sharkskin had harder in feel but it is more robust, I never saw sharkskin camera with broken vulcanite. Why Leitz abandoned sharkskin early fifties I do not know. Vulcanite used afterwards is very, very bristle. Temperature range when it is elastic and may be cut and formed is narrower than for prewar vulcanite, still it is possible to cut missing patches, should you have original vulcanite pieces ( I have :-) ).

Vulcanite was baked, no slid under lens flange may be observed.

Same type of vulcanite was used on M1 till M4, later I do not know.

It is a good news that CRR is taking orders again, as mentioned above he is the only one who can make the original vulcanite, he will know for sure what are the materials, but will he share this info?

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Vulcanite, nowadays called Engineered Rubber, is still made for a whole lot of different purposes. Pre-war Vulcanite and the harder variant called Ebonite were almost wholly made from the treatment of natural rubber with carbon black and sulphur plus heat. During WW2 due to the difficulty in obtaining natural rubber by both sides, synthetic polymer rubbers (often called Butyl Rubbers) were developed and post WW2, corrosion resistant silicone rubbers were developed mainly for gasket materials for the petrochemical industry but later for car tyres with improved wet adhesion and non-hardening in low temperatures. All of these materials are used in modern Engineered Rubber products dependant on the required physical properties. The Vulcanite company is still in existence and they may be the source of the material Peter Grisaffi uses as a re-cover. 

 

Wilson

  • Like 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

Indeed, many here and most ladies have heard of avon.com, while avon-group.co.uk looks like the go-to company in this field. Very interesting - thank you!

 

We use Avon Rubber Co Ltd (now a division of Cooper Tires USA) CR6ZZ classic rally tyres on quite a few of our old rally cars and very good they are too. Sadly they don't make the correct size of 275/45 x 15 for the back wheels on my 1977 Porsche 911 RSR Group B rally car, so I am forced to use Michelin Classic road legal TB15 race tyres, which only last 1500km and cost £500 each. 

 

Sorry about OT. 

 

Wilson

Edited by wlaidlaw
Link to post
Share on other sites

Leitz was changing the structure (pattern) of vulcanite and pretty sure as well the components of it. Vulcanite in general is bristle, it breaks when you try to bent it. But if warmed to approx 40-60 Celsius it is elastic, you can cut it, form it. Until early postwar cameras vulcanite was glued onto shell, judging how it smells it must have been glue based on shellack. Vulcanite shrinks a bit with the time, very often you may observe tiny gap below the lens flange. Glue tends to dissolve, not seldom you may observe it, especially around the flange. It may be reglued, more instructions per PM if needed.

From end of fourties Leitz switched to a so called sharkskin vulcanite. Sharkskin had harder in feel but it is more robust, I never saw sharkskin camera with broken vulcanite. Why Leitz abandoned sharkskin early fifties I do not know. Vulcanite used afterwards is very, very bristle. Temperature range when it is elastic and may be cut and formed is narrower than for prewar vulcanite, still it is possible to cut missing patches, should you have original vulcanite pieces ( I have :-) ).

Vulcanite was baked, no slid under lens flange may be observed.

Same type of vulcanite was used on M1 till M4, later I do not know.

It is a good news that CRR is taking orders again, as mentioned above he is the only one who can make the original vulcanite, he will know for sure what are the materials, but will he share this info?

The covering on both my M3s purchased in 1968 came adrift around the film speed reminder on the hinged back within a very short time from new (less than 2 yrs I remained in Canada). The loose bit stretched too so I had to cut a sliver out of it to enable me to glue the remains back onto the back, with two pack epoxy as far as I can remember. It still remains happily in place on the body I still own.

 

Gerry

Link to post
Share on other sites

The hinged back vulcanite often has missing pieces. I bought an M2 that was very nice except for such a missing patch.I first tried filling it with a black epoxy putty and forming a matching texture, and it looked pretty good, but color wasn't a perfect match and then more of the original vulcanite on the back started chipping off around the ASA dial. I think the back flexes more than the body shell.

Several places sell just the film door piece (modern, self-stick), so I stripped the back and put on a back section from DAG that matches perfectly.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I have an M4-P back, which is missing both the vulcanite and the film reminder dial in the middle. Whereas I could find replacement vulcanite with no problems, I could not find the complete film reminder dial but just the transfer for the printing on the aluminium dial. In the end I bought a complete replacement M4-P back.

 

Wilson

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I ordered leather replacement covers from http://www.hugostudio.com for my M3 and iiia cameras. The key is removing the old vulcanite and cleaning the bodies to remove the old adhesive. On the M3 i used a gel like paint stripper and waited several minutes before removing it. It's easier than trying to scrape it off. I used a fine steel gauze and goo gone to remove the adhesive and prep the surface. The instructions from Hugo are straight forward. Both cameras look great and the DIY is worth the time and money spent.

 

https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3OTgyODA3MDAxMDAxMDQz/

 

https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3OTQ5MzA5Mzk3MTY2ODYz/

Edited by pkoduri
Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...