Lee tells us that his Minolta Autocord needed some TLC and was in need of being brought back to life, we think he has certainly achieved his goals and it looks stunning in red leather, well done Lee! For anyone interested the red leather and other colours can be purchased from here.īelow is taken from McKeown’s Price Guide To Antique & Classic Cameras 1996-97 Once dried the covers were stuck in place and then the job of resembling the camera took place. So before placing the new covers I resprayed it. The next thing that needed attention was the back door, the black paintwork was scuffed and damaged in places. As I envisaged this worked well and made light work of the job in hand. I had to customise the compass by replacing the drawing lead with a stainless steel needle for wool sewing, this I sharpened to a razor to use for the cutter. The film back holes were made with multi belt hole cutters and for the circles I used a draft compass with a rotating wheel adjuster that locks in place with a super fine needle point. The tools I used for cutting were a combination of fine tip scalpel and a pair of fine tip scissors. I started by sticking double sided adhesive tape on the back of the paper templates to stop them from moving while I cut.

Once I was completely happy I moved on to using the newly made templates for cutting the leather. I didn’t want to make a mistake working with the leather as this would be irreversible and making paper templates first seemed the best way to go, especially without having the original covers to work from. Using a set of vernier calipers I was able to make slight adjustments until I was happy with the fit. Working to a PDF print out of a template for the covers and using a rubbing technique with paper and pencil I was able to make paper cut outs. To overcome this problem I removed all the old crispy leatherette with a bamboo barbecue stick and then proceeded to clean the old glue with lighter fluid. The Minolta TLR covers are delicate and well glued in random places. Unlike the Rolleiflex that has real leather that comes off in one piece. Lee tells us, being my 1st ever covering I found it a bit challenging. So much so, that we decided, with his permission to make this post about his restoration.

Milly’s cameras are always pleased to receive feedback from customers and when Lee from Australia got in touch with us, we were delighted with his results.

Photos from my minolta autocord