I just received a Chinon CE-4 from an online auction sale. For the most part it is in good condition but there are a couple of issues. One is that one of the strap lugs is pretty badly worn from the inside. One looks perfect and there's a split bushing inside that I assume is made of quite hard steel. The other is missing its bushing and that one is quite worn. Here they are side by side;
It looks like the top deck is slotted so that it comes of and the lugs are still attached to the camera. What happens after that, are they bolted down from the top, or can they be unscrewed without removing the top deck? I've been warned that trying to remove the top deck is a good way to screw one of these cameras up. The other option is to try and press out one of those bushings from a broken CE-5 that I have. The lug bushings on that camera look perfect and that camera is never coming back into use so it wouldn't be a huge loss but if I can avoid that kind of thing I would. My thought there is press one out with my vice and something to act as a drift kind of like changing out the caps on a u-joint. I would dope up the hole on the worn lug on the CE-4 with something like JB Weld, press in the "new" bushing, and then clean it up after giving it 24 hours to cure.
Anyone been here and dealt with this kind of thing before? Either way the replacement strap will have circular attachment rings and not the triangular type which might help reduce wear to a slight degree.