For an arctic weather activity I acquired a fixer-upper Rolleicord III for my first repair project (it was supposed to be working, returnable, but cheap enough not to bother returning), battered enough that it wouldn't matter if it died on the operating table, but with a probably minor problem that could well be fixable by me.

Shutter, aperture, wind, glass are all in good shape. Leather falling off, aluminium trim tarnished, a bit musty, but no dings or dents. The only problem was with the focus: it worked OK between closeup and 20 feet, but at 20 feet the right side (looking at the front of the camera) hit something internal and didn't move as you continue to infinity while the right side continues in, so the front of the camera twists. The collision with the obstruction was audible.

Following Richard Knoppow's archived advice, I ordered an exploded diagram of the III -- along with the CDrom of the 280 page manual that doesn't cover this camera -- but the weather being what it is I couldn't wait. Everything appeared to be working properly in the mirror well. Shaking the camera at various angles did not provoke any suspicious rattles or cause anything to fall out. I took off the side panel: rolleicord3sidepanel.jpg

Everything appeared to be working as it should. The cam kept turning after the obstruction was hit, and there's nothing to prevent the follower from following. The obstruction must be in the front. I took off the front leather: rolleicord3front.jpg
I removed the 4 screws holding the front tray-shaped fascia plate. The obstruction was under the bottom right corner (cable release area) -- with the fascia loose, the focus works properly, and that corner rode up as focus approached infinity. To get the fascia off to see what's under it, the lens shroud had to be loosened. I removed the 5 screws holding it. I got the fascia off, and bingo! I found the problem, what looked like a nasty little piece of twisted solder: rolleicord3blockage.jpg
Unfortunately it went flying across the room when I pried it off, so I didn't get a chance to closely examine it to try to see what it was -- if it broke off something, or was simply debris.

I cleaned a somewhat cloudy mirror with a mixture of distilled water and isopropyl alcohol with a dash of wetting agent (photoflo) -- dull and cloudy surface now brilliantly shiny. Removed groundglass, smeared it with dishwashing detergent and scrubbed it with a toothbrush. Groundglass image is now quite bright.

I buttoned the perfectly working camera up. But I couldn't stop there, unfortunately -- I decided to clean the counter window. Big mistake, it's a tiny disk of very thin, clear plastic held in a groove in the collar around it, so it fell into the camera. Now I have to tacle removing the wind-knob/focus-knob panel. To be continued.