Auto-Graflex help

I picked up a little beater auto graflex on the 'bay a few weeks ago. Managed to get the shutter working quite well, not sure of the speeds, but I know that it works. Managed to get the mirror unstuck, too. The hood is falling apart, I have it held together with gaffer's tape at present, but would like to make this little camera more presentable. It is a 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 camera. The bag-mag is in surprisingly good shape. I got a box of film from Freestyle and I'm ready to go, just would appreciate some help in getting the hood off the camera so that I can make a new one. I have plenty of leather which can fill the bill.

hi michael

i have a series d, but i am guessing the hood removes the same way ...
open the lid so the hood stands up ..
you will notice at the top of the lid there are 2 places the hood -tabs secure ..
... tilt the hood and remove one side at a time, they should pop out ...
at the base of the hood you should see a little piece of metal that sticks out ...
(it secures the base of the hood to the camera)
when depressed the front of the hood should be free and the whole hood should lift completely off of the camera

about the shutter speeds ...
if it barely makes it from T to 0 you are golden ..
i had my series d timed (at a camera store) so i have kind of a clue but i am probably still a little off ....
when it is at 1 1/2 +1 (tensioner) it is around 1/15S ...

if you drop a drop of amber oil ( like sewing machine oil)
onto the ends of the rollers it might help everything run freely...
(you unscrew the little round roller covers) ...

my graflex slr is the main camera when i am not using a 1/2 or 35mm ...

have fun!

john

ps. store it completely unwound - below 0 and the tensioner untense'd

Duh! That was SO EASY! It came right out, I was able to take out the Ground Glass and clean both it and the mirror. Still need to do something about the viewing hood (thank God for gaffer's tape), but at least now I can see a clear image in the gg. I'm going to take it out tomorrow, hopefully I can post a few images in a few days.