Rolleicord Art Deco - can it be cleaned up externally?

I got an Art Deco model a few weeks ago, and while it's been shooting great, externally it has seen better days. With a few screws removed it looks as though the metal plates (nickel?) can be removed. Is there some way of polishing it up nicely or should I forget about it?

Polished metal would not a good idea , it does not match with leather and loose all the original patina .

I got myself the Art Deco model a few years ago and it came to me pretty dull, and with a nice green patina over a lot of the metal. I decided to use an easy, old-fashioned trick for polishing silver -- I used regular toothpaste (not the gel kind) and a soft toothbrush and gave it a good polish. It came out looking almost like new (minus the brassing, which is a different issue), and it still looks as good today as it did then (about 3-4 years ago now). I only wish it shot great too (it's only useful for the top half of all the shutter speeds).

it doesn't hurt the camera's value to clean it up, and it's nice to have a clean camera. I wouldn't go overboard, though -- the brass that is showing will just tarnish again, but a nice scrub with a soft cloth and some window cleaner won't hurt a thing. You shouldn't have to remove those plates, either. Spray the cleaner on the cloth and scrub away.


And, really, don't do too good a job - you want people to be impressed with your really old and gorgeous camera. Make it look like new they'll think its a digital thingy. GAH!

do NOT use the dishwasher!

Silver polish might work as well.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. Toothpaste and window cleaner didn't help
I suppose I could try sliver polish, but removing the plates is far too much hassle and so I'm just going to give up. I appreciate everyone's help.

The slow speeds were starting to stick on mine too, but removing and cleaning the slow-speed escapement fixed that.

Love those Louis X1V Rolleicords! I would use silver/brass polish and nothing more aggressive. If that doesn't work I would just enjoy the patina!

Wow, its very pretty as is. One could carefully use silver polish on q-tips and polish in situ, but its still a pretty camera in its current state. Enjoy!

FYI, a common way to do color/paint inlays like this is to simply paint the whole piece, then carefully sand off the paint from the high points. What would be called 'lapping' most likely- put a grinding compound (such as sandpiper) on a flat surface, then rub the painted object across the flat surface.

So, if you removed the panels, and if they were flat or could be help flat by adhering to a flat plate of some sort.... and you could, say, hold fine sandpaper (1000-2000 flat to a palte of glass, say.... then carefully wet sand the plates....

Well, thought I'd mention a method. The problem with using polishes or such and trying to hit only the high spots is that hitting only the high spots is not easy!

Another method- double-stick fine sandpaper to a small block and use this to lap the metal faces. Wrapping a layer of thin clothe around a block and applying the smallest amount of metal polish is also a possibility. Make the block big enough to not dive into lower areas.

(Of course, not having one of these cameras to look at, I could be completely wrong about how they achieved the effect or what is possible to do to polish the metal.)

athanasius80 said:

Wow, its very pretty as is. One could carefully use silver polish on q-tips and polish in situ, but its still a pretty camera in its current state. Enjoy!

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I agree -- I'm not sure what the problem is here -- the camera looks great!