Still don't think heat guns are worth it for old leatherette

Had a rough Monday replacing leatherette on a 1960s Zeiss Ikon. Everyone online swears by heat guns to soften the adhesive, but I tried it twice and it just made a gummy mess that stuck to everything. I spent 4 hours scraping that stuff off with a razor blade and naptha. Ended up using a hair dryer on low and it peeled off clean in 15 minutes. Give me a cold scrape and some patience any day over that sticky disaster. Anyone else get worse results with a heat gun on old vulcanite or is it just me?

2 comments

2 Comments

paul_burns18d ago

The leather on my 1954 Rolleiflex had a thick lacquer coating that the heat gun just fused into the leatherette glue like epoxy. Hair dryer trick worked perfect for me too, but I’ve heard naphtha can mess with some of those older plastic viewfinder windows if it seeps through. Guess the real lesson is that these old cameras each have their own secret bad habits.

nathanking18d ago

Hair dryer gang, checking in. Nothing like accidentally welding your camera's face on to teach you patience. Guess we all get to learn the expensive way that heat guns are for shrink wrap, not vintage gear.