re-leathering a 5x7 technica

[Ben Calwell]

As my young son says, "I lost me brave."
I was going to try and glue new leather onto my 5x7 Tech III, but chickened out after positioning one of the pieces of leather I had cut onto the camera. It was off and cut crooked. Plus, I visualized glue oozing out from the edges if I did try to glue it on.
A fellow enthusiast on this forum, Juergon, offered great encouragement and advice on this project, but I have lost me brave.
I did manage, after much work, to completely remove the old leatherette. It now has a beautiful silver metal finish.
Does anyone know if Marflex would do the work, and if I would need to take out a second mortgage if they did?
I used to have their phone number, but lost it.
Another alternative is to find some retired dentist/LF enthusiast who is good with his or her hands to do the job for me for a nominal fee.
Does anyone know of a craftsman somewhere that would do the work?
Or, I could just leave the camera in its current state, which actually doesn't look too bad.
Thanks in advance for your comments

[Frank Petronio]

Why can't you use the material from cameraleather.com -- make oversized pieces and simply run your Xacto blade against the ridges of the aluminum casting to make the cut. Not much harder than shelving paper really.

I've done my 4x5s that way. You need a really sharp blade.

[Bob Salomon]

marflex@aol.com

[Ben Calwell]

Thanks, Frank -- I'll check it out.

[Rob Vinnedge]

I have had tremendous success with www.micro_tools.com and their leatherette. They have a good selection of black self-adhesive leatherettes that are extremely easy to apply with none of the mess of glue - and it adheres as well if not better. If you have the old leatherette to use as a template and a sharp X-acto knife, it's easy. If you don't, all that's required is a little more care. The products are very inexpensive and can be ordered online. You might also be interested in their other tools and materials as they are a major supplier for camera repair shops.

I recovered a 5X7 Super Technika V two years ago, which I sold through APUG. You can still see the listing of January 2006 in APUG's camera classifieds if you're interested.

[Ben Calwell]

I used the old pieces of leatherette as templates, tracing their shapes onto the new leather, but still had trouble cutting some of the shapes perfectly, especially around the knobs. Maybe I'll give the self-adhesive stuff a go, as I can foresee all kinds of mess using the glue.
By the way, I ordered the leather and glue from Microtools.

[Lee Hamiel]

I am in the process of recovering an old Hasselblad 500C (while at the same time as restoring an unknown 8x10 & a Szabad 4x5)

Per Ben's last comments I used the earlier pieces as templates but the leatherette had shrunk (sp?) a bit - with that siad I overcut most pieces & used Frank's method to a point but did not cut against the parts but rather burnished a score line so to speak with a dull/backside of an exacto blade in which to finish cutting.

One suggestion is that while all the covering is off is to use a Dremel with a buffing wheel & polish out the imperfections in the metal parts & the residue from the adhesive. Then clean the area with alcohol or naptha to allow the adhesive to securely bond to it.

Lastly - as I finish cutting the leather I size it up to confirm a proper fit & then use a spray adhesive from Dickblick.com (a major art supply house) & spray the underside of the leather - wait for a while - say 45 secondes & then apply the leather.

Morgan at Cameraleather.com is very nice to deal with & will sell blank sheets - I did not use his leather for the Hasselblad though as we had some leftover leather that worked out fine.