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- Ian
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So I picked this little Olympus 35RC camera up off eBay a while ago and fell in love with it. It was cheap because it has a ding in the top plate. The problem is that is enough of a ding to prevent the film advance lever auto returning. It just sticks and needs to be "encouraged" to return. The camera works absolutely fine btw.
It became enough of an issue in-use that I just bought another one which is very minty and seems to work fine (1st test roll about to go int soup). I've had an eBay search for "35RC Top Plate" for weeks, and also my "35RC" search generally always turns up working cameras (with working camera prices) so I'm not holding out much hope for an undamaged top plate on eBay.
I've been quoted about £100 for the repair which is uneconomical (and they were unclear on whether they would fix the damage to the plate), and so I wondered if there were any other options... Eventually, Google led me to 35mmc and an article by @stevelmx5 and his journey refurbishing a 35RC as well as the forum thread here...
So my question to you (all) is how easy would you say it would be for someone with very basic metalworking/woodworking skills (and limited tools) to repair this top plate? I'm sure I'm not capable of anything like the stuff Steve did, but getting the top plate off looks straightforward enough, and I can be a dab hand with some sandpaper...
Images of the danage on the advance lever side...
And this is a ding on the rewind spool side. Cosmetic only.
It became enough of an issue in-use that I just bought another one which is very minty and seems to work fine (1st test roll about to go int soup). I've had an eBay search for "35RC Top Plate" for weeks, and also my "35RC" search generally always turns up working cameras (with working camera prices) so I'm not holding out much hope for an undamaged top plate on eBay.
I've been quoted about £100 for the repair which is uneconomical (and they were unclear on whether they would fix the damage to the plate), and so I wondered if there were any other options... Eventually, Google led me to 35mmc and an article by @stevelmx5 and his journey refurbishing a 35RC as well as the forum thread here...
So my question to you (all) is how easy would you say it would be for someone with very basic metalworking/woodworking skills (and limited tools) to repair this top plate? I'm sure I'm not capable of anything like the stuff Steve did, but getting the top plate off looks straightforward enough, and I can be a dab hand with some sandpaper...
Images of the danage on the advance lever side...
And this is a ding on the rewind spool side. Cosmetic only.