Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/04/04

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Subject: [Leica] Refinished LTM bodies
From: Kip Babington <cbabing3@swbell.net>
Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2000 10:26:18 -0500

For some inexplicable reason, except perhaps that for many years it was
all I had, I've got a yearning for a IIIc or later LTM body to use with
a Summitar I've acquired.  (For those times when I'm feeling my age . .
. er, feeling particularly retro.)  These are offered all the time on
ebay, but there's a fellow (wye7@yahoo.com) who has 5 up at the moment
that have been dechromed, then repainted black (baked enamel, from the
description) and recovered, and CLAd.  The photos really grab me, and
have me thinking that it would be worth paying a bit extra to have a new
finish rather than the worn chrome you get on all but collector items
(this will be a user camera, but I wouldn't mind if it looked nice.)

I'm wondering if anyone has experience either with this seller's
refinished bodies in particular (he has a lot of positive ebay feedback,
so I'm not concerned about his business practices) or refinished IIIs in
general. I guess my concern is that even though I'm pretty gentle with
my equipment, worn chrome might look better than new paint after only a
few years.   Thanks for any thoughts any of you may have.

Cheers,
Kip