A customer brought in a 1970s Nikon with a shutter that sounded like gravel

I was cleaning the mirror box and found the issue. It wasn't the usual curtain tension or magnet problem. The foam light seal above the mirror had turned to sticky goo and dripped onto the shutter mechanism. I've seen old foam before, but this was the first time it actually flowed and gummed up the works. It took two hours with isopropyl alcohol and a lot of patience to clean every tiny gear without hurting the old cloth curtains. The customer said he bought the camera at a flea market in Portland for $50, thinking it just needed new batteries. It makes me wonder how many other old cameras are sitting on shelves right now, slowly melting from the inside out. Has anyone else run into this kind of total foam failure on a classic SLR?

3 comments

3 Comments

grace4191mo ago

My buddy had that happen with his dad's old Pentax...

the_michael4d agoMost Upvoted

Have you ever heard of something called "foam disease" turning into full liquid? I actually read a repair blog where a guy found a Canon F-1 that had its mirror damper foam dissolve completely and run down into the film advance gears. It basically glued the whole mechanism solid. The writer said it was way worse than dust because the liquid gets into places you can't even see without pulling the whole top plate off. Makes me wonder how many garage sale cameras have that exact problem hiding inside.

david_henderson61mo ago

Honestly that sounds like a pretty extreme case. @grace419 mentioned a Pentax but that's usually just flaky bits, not a full-on syrup leak. Most of that old foam just turns to dust, it doesn't actually flow. Are you sure some other goop didn't get in there, like a spilled drink or something? Two hours of cleaning seems like a lot for just foam. Those old Nikons are tanks, they can usually handle a little grime.