[Frosty66]

Has anyone had any success using any sort of silver paint to touch up blemished in the silver coatings of SLR bodies ? If so what did you use to do it and was it worth it or did it make it look worse ?

Also what about the black gloss on the back plates, I guess that is easier to just spray the lot but is there anything that is particularly suitable and hard wearing.

I am referring to borides like the MX, ME Super etc in silver. One MX I have looks excellent from the front but on the back the silver around the viewfinder has come away a bit and the black gloss is very worn.

I am in two minds whether to try it or not jusy just wanted to heard if others had done it.

[monochrome]

Logically to me it would be a disassemble / strip / respray replate / reassemble job to do it right, and that involves paint lettering embossed areas. Too much work unless you are fully restoring an antique or we would have threads full of people showing before and after jobs.

Best advice I can give is email Eric Hendrickson at pentaxrepairs@aol.com

Home-Pentaxs

Edit: per dcshooter's comment below -> so 'chrome' color is actually correct for legacy metal bodies, rather than 'silver' color.

[ChrisPlatt]

IMO few cameras are worth the expense and effort of a proper refinishing job.
I have seen some folks get their Leicas repainted, often with mixed results.

If cost were no object I might have one of my SLR bodies done up in khaki;
a unique "Safari edition" Pentax or Nikon maybe.

Fargo/Micro Tools sells paint markers in gloss and flat black.
I have had good success with these for small touch-ups.

Chris

[E-man]

I touched up a Sigma Epsilon series lens that had an ugly scratch on the front of the barrel with some satin black automotive touch-up paint that I had just before I sold the lens. Perhaps something similar would work for a silver camera body. I've got a silver Panasonic Lumix FZ-50 camera that's got a nasty scratch on the top of the housing for the built-in flash. I've thought about trying a silver Sharpie marker but haven't tried it yet, either.

[Frosty66]

I wouldn't bother stripping the whole thing down and replating, the front looks great it's just a small area around the viewfinder, I realise it will never be an exact match but just want it to look less obvious. I guess the bacl panelis no problem as it can be removed.

[cooltouch]

I have both silver and gloss black enamel pens that have a little rattle ball inside. They have a fiber tip and the way they work is the tip is spring loaded. As you push down with the pen, the tip becomes saturated with paint.

That's how it works, but how does it look? Well, you know, I bought both pens for touching up cameras before I knew any better. I found that, while the paint may be close to an exact match, you're never gonna eliminate the raised area that is just paint. You can't do anything about that. Because if you try to get rid of the bumps, you'll be getting rid of all the paint. So I found the repairs to be less than satisfactory. I just got to where I accepted the brassing for what it was -- battle scars and battle wear caused by protracted involvement in the press corps wars -- or something equally delightfully imaginative.

[ChrisPlatt]

Flat paint is more forgiving but any glossy paint will show a raised outline where
the paint was chipped. You may have experienced this with auto touch-up paint.
If the color isn't an exact match it may look even worse touched up than chipped.

Chris