See what you guys made me do?

[C. D. Keth]

I've been kicking around the idea of restoring a Kodak 2D for a while and, with all of the nice restorations lately, I finally got a camera to work on.

Will Thompson generously let me come down to his house and take my pick of the bunch of cameras he has accumulated and doesn't want to hold on to. I chose a very solid 2D that has had the front standard modified (in very ugly fashion) for front tilt. He set me up with another front standard and hardware, an extension bed, and even a couple of nice lensboards.

The only tricky thing to do will be to route out the new front standard to accept the mechanism for the front rise. Apparently kodak used slightly different mechanisms over the years.

Consider these "before" photos.

EDIT: My apologies for all of the deleted posts but I decided to just host all of the photos on a quick page on my website. You can see them here.

[IanMazursky]

She looks like a fun project! One that will probably be a labor of love.

Good luck!

I recently restored a Korona 12x20 and 5x7.
Blood, Sweat & Tears but so much fun!

[C. D. Keth]

By the way, does anyone know where I could find a date/serial number list for the 2Ds? I'm interested in finding out when it left the factory.

[The Dread Pirate Robins]

I look forward to seeing the progress on this project.

[Jim Galli]

Congrats on a fine project. That Packard will be your best friend. I have a Deardorff that is languishing because the old 2D has a packard inside. I don't seem to miss the front movements very often. If anything it's front swing I miss from time to time.

[Mike Fiction]

Good luck! Can't wait to see your results!

I'm almost done with mine, just need to make the bellows and a few small parts.

Let me know if you end up with an extra tightening knob, I'm missing one.

[C. D. Keth]

Will do, Mike. I think I'll be in the same boat, though. I'm missing the left knob for the front rise mechanism.

[C. D. Keth]

I disassembled everything this afternoon, so now I have a big box of hardware, a bunch of weird pieces of wood, and a ton of envelopes of screws with notes written on them about where the screws go.

I made up a strong bucket of Murphey's oil soap this evening and gave all of the wood a scrubdown with a rag and a toothbrush. The outside of the bellows got the same treatment, though I was less liberal with the water and very gentle.



As you can see, the wood looks pretty darn good! The color is even and the existing finish is a bit crudely applied but in decent shape. I had been planning on completely stripping the finish off and starting new but I've changed my mind. The wood looks so good that I'm going to keep the original color. I'll just patch the few places that need it and stain them to match. Then some light sanding to even everything out and the new clearcoat can go on. I haven't decided exactly what that will be. The existing finish is probably some type of nitro lacquer so perhaps I'll take the extra time to do a nice glossy nitro finish like ic-racer did. I love how his camera turned out so I'm seriously thinking in that direction.

[ic-racer]

I had been planning on completely stripping the finish off and starting new but I've changed my mind. The wood looks so good that I'm going to keep the original color.

I did not strip mine either. I just refreshed the appearance with a fresh top coat.
http://www.largeformatphotography.in...9&postcount=33

[Ralph Barker]

If you want to retain more of the antique look, you might also consider just using a hand-rubbed finishing wax, such as that used by makers of fine furniture and antique restorers.