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[OM] Light Seal Repair

Subject: [OM] Light Seal Repair
From: Joel Wilcox <jowilcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1998 00:40:10 -0600
Oly Shooters:

I got a roll of print film back from the lab that showed some sort of light
leak on the first ten frames, then all the rest of the frames were normal.
The camera is my most ancient and venerable OM-1.  The light seals were
intact, but the hinge piece was definitely sticky, if not yet gooey. In
comparison with my other OM's, the back looks slightly more bowed than any
other camera I own.  I decided to install a new set of light seals I
purchased from PvT in a recent order.

Past discussion of this process was still in my mind. Prior to doing
anything else, I put a piece of paper over the shutter curtain and then a
piece of clear packing tape over the piece of paper and the entire shutter
area to protect it from bits of foam.  I used toothpicks to scrape as much
old foam material out of the grooves as possible. The only Q-tips I had
were generic types with plastic stems.  Once I'd scraped as much foam out
of the grooves as possible, I saturated the cotton bud of the Q-tip with
Goo Gone and worked it into the groove.  I found it helpful to take a pair
of pliers and flatten the bud end of the Q-tip so that it would fit deeper
into the groove. I used quite a few Q-tips in this way to clean out the
grooves.  

Most of the hinge pad I was able to scrape off with my thumb nail, but
there was still quite a bit that I had to saturate with Goo Gone and remove
with Q-tips.  I got somewhat impatient with the Goo Gone and eventually
decided to experiment with a little bit of denatured alcohol.  This did a
very good job of cleaning up the remaining stickem from the hinge pad, so I
felt emboldened to push a Q-tip saturated with alcohol into the grooves for
a final cleaning.  This OM-1 is a black model; I worried a little about
dulling the paint, but the paint is already quite dull.  I doesn't seem the
worse for the wear.  A little judicious use of denatured alcohol seems to
have worked OK.

I recalled John H. advising us to glue the seals into the grooves, lest the
foam pull out of the grooves when the foam starts to get sticky a few years
hence.  So I used a tooth pick to dab Pliobond into the grooves.  I tried
to push the glue down the bottom of the groove and sought to avoid getting
too much glue on the tops and sides of the groove.  I wasn't entirely
successful at either.  I really didn't try to put much glue down at all.  I
knew the light seals would work without glue in the first place, so I just
wanted to get a little into the groove wherever I could, erring on the side
of too little rather than too much.  Plioband is not fun stuff; it makes
your head swim and smells like urine de tomcat.

I used denatured alcohol to clean up the hinge area of the back, sticky
from contact with the old foam, and the edges that press the foam into the
grooves.

I'm going to leave the back off the camera all night to let the glue dry
and the smell, I hope, dissipate.

All in all, I've done worse jobs. I hope it solves whatever problem was
affecting my film.

Joel 

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