QL17 GIII Lens swap? Back door swap?

sfaust · 09-23-2004

I am fixing up a QL17 GIII that I recently acquired. I want to clean the film back and replace the seals. Is it easy to remove the back completely in order to do this. I also have another camera with the film back in better condition. If I can swap the doors and replace the seals at the same time, it would be a much nicer camera.

Ideally, I'd love to swap the lenses between the two cameras. Is that also possible without getting deeply involved?
I'm very mechanically inclined, but dealing with lots of small parts, especially if they are prone to spring our or fall off before I get a bearing on where they are located is dangerous for me

But if a lens swap is somewhat straight forward, I'm game to try removing the lens on the parts camera first to assess if I want to continue on my good one.

For background, I've already removed the top and bottom case, cleaned the viewfinder, and have adjusted the viewfinder.

Any instructions somewhere on how to swap the back and lens, and what tools might be needed?

BTW. I know I kind of just showed up one day in the forum, and without even an introduction. I just want to say I appreciate all the help and hospitality everyone has shown me, as well as the newcomers that I've noticed who joined after me. A great group of people willing to help others. Kudos!

vladhed · 09-23-2004

Have a look at the replair manual, it shows how everything fits together:

http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/repairmanuals.html

Personally the whole copal shutter lens thingy scares me. Leica style focal plane shutters are so much simpler and most of the parts are BIG.

Brian Sweeney · 09-23-2004

I downloaded that repair manual, it is very good.

I have not pulled the back off; it was not necessary to change the seals. The lens can be changed out; but I have not done so.

Kin Lau · 09-24-2004

I've changed the seals on my GIII, and didn't need to remove the back.

I did completely tear one GIII apart that came to me in a parts box (frozen shutter), and it was quite a job to get the lens off, and that's considering that I've got the lens spanners. There are parts of the lense that I haven't been able to take apart yet, it was frozen so tight.

sfaust · 09-24-2004

I know I can replace the seals while the camera back is still on the camera. But I want to replace the back too if its easily done, since I have one that is mint, vs the one on there which has some gouge marks on it. Its a nice black QL17 GIII, so I might as well make it as nice as I can. I've got a seal kit coming to me, and I'll check into how to handle the leatherette since I need to peel it back.

I think I'll just send it out to have the lens swapped by someone that knows what they are doing. It sounds like a task better suited to a 'professional'. The stuff I've done so far isn't hard, I just needed to be careful. But the lens swap seems to have many potential disasters lurking

I have the service manual also. Nice diagrams, etc. I wish it had a bit of text with the hints on how to disassemble the camera. Even with the diagrams it took me a while to figure out how to get the film winder lever off. I had to look it up on another site. The rewind knob just kind of came to me.

I might just buy a $5 parts camera just to learn how to disassemble the darn thing

Thanks for everyones help!