I just got a really nice Crown View 4X5, and the only thing that is a bit on the downside is the bellows. While light tight, the edges are peeling the paint or coating that was used to seal the fabric. It looks a little tatty.

Has anyone come up with a clean way to deal with this, that preserves the brown tone of the original bellows?

Is it a vinyl or leather bellows? The repair would be different for either...

Vinyl; that's why the coating is peeling. I wish it was leather.

I suspect that I'm going to have to live with it; any attempt at repair is probably going to look worse. The rest of the camera is really nice, with some of the best wood I've ever seen. It looks like walnut, but that may just be the stain.

Quote:

On 2005-06-27 17:17, disemjg wrote: Vinyl; that's why the coating is peeling. I wish it was leather. I suspect that I'm going to have to live with it; any attempt at repair is probably going to look worse. The rest of the camera is really nice, with some of the best wood I've ever seen. It looks like walnut, but that may just be the stain.

Do not wish for a leather bellows! Unless it's new...

Anyway, I'll offer my ideas that so far I have yet to have to put into use...

There is available vinyl auto restoration paint, made to spay onto vinyl seats and dash boards. It's actually pretty good stuff and I used it many times decades ago.

First thing would be to glue down any savable peeling part. Any of the latex based glues would be good for this. Contact cement would work. As long as it stays flexible and is non-acidic.

Once all the flakey parts are glued down and the surface is as good as possible, wipe the entire thing down with alcohol to remove any possibility of greese or oil.

Then mask off anything you do not want re-coated.

Then fully extend the bellows and spray the with the vinyl paint. It might take two or three coats.

Let dry for two days, then gently refold it.

I would probably give it a coat of Pledge spray wax (lemon type ONLY) before refolding. I would also probably remove the bellows before the spraying. I would also test this all out on some other fine fabric material to see what the result will be...

I can vouch for this process in autos only. We used to do it to dash boards, seats and door covers with excellent results. The final result reflects the work put into it. The cleaning part is critical! It's also good not to have runs in the paint...

I did have a bellows I was going to do this to, but never did get around to it. But last year or so I did find the paint in an auto store. Deffinitely not the color selection we had 30 years ago, but they did have red which was just a bit brighter than a GV bellows...

If you think this process is off the wall, take a really close look at what you've got. That's the way it was done originally... Vinyl sprayed onto the cloth bellows... But deffinitely waist a can on somethiing else before attempting the bellows...


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: RichS on 2005-06-27 19:50 ]</font>