Aires TLR Cameras
How to take off the faceplate of an Aires TLR camera, and why you might not have to
There were an unimaginable amount of Japanese TLR manufacturers. I think you could use a different brand every week and not have any repeats for a whole year. One manufacturer who apparently skipped everything else except for excellent lenses was Aires.
I have here two examples of their lineup, an Airesflex and an Aires Automat. They both suffered from the same issue, which is that the shutter time and aperture levers were stuck.
I'll give you a spoiler right here: The shutter and aperture are fine. Even the shutter and aperture controls themselves are fine. What I was surprised to find, the camera has a fake facade on top of the actual controls, and the fake facade levers have some sort of weird goop that coagulates into a hard resin kind of substance and stops them from moving. Read this page completely for my thoughts before starting the disassembly.
Sadly, removing the fake facade is a destructive affair. You need to remove some of the leatherette, and it is rock hard and very brittle. It will just explode to pieces when prying off. Let's look at how that goes. Here is a picture of what the Aires Automat looks after it has been treated.
If you are intent on removing the facade, here I have marked the only 5 screws you need to get to in order to lift it off. You can see other screws peeking around, they are not necessary for the facade. Just dig in with a screwdriver to these locations, feel the sadness inside you when you destroy the leatherette, and understand that not everything is forever. Maybe this camera is kintsugi now. It will only get worse as we continue.
After you remove the screws, you can start prying off the facade. On this example, the rest of the leatherette cracked open pretty neatly. Some of it is left on the focusing frame, and some on the facade we just took off. Be careful to take note which screws have spacers under them, if any, and remove them to a safe place ASAP.
Close up picture of the faceplate coming off. The levers on the facade connect to very small pegs on the actual shutter/aperture assembly. It is possible to put it on wrong, so the levers don't have the full travel, so try to see how the levers on the facade and the actual shutter were in relation to eachother. It's going to be fiddly either way, but this will make it easier to assemble.
Cleaner picture of what the actual controls inside the camera look like. Everything in here is probably fine, the Seiko shutters are beasts. Here you can also see the reason anybody usually has heard of these Aires TLRs if they have at all – they could be optionally had with Nikkor lenses. One of the very few medium format cameras equipped with a Nikkor lens. Usually also very expensive collector's pieces. After the first piece of leatherette flew off, this one isn't anymore. But it will be something better – an actual usable camera again.
Here is the inside of the faceplate, the source of all our troubles. The rings around the taking lens are the culprit. You can see black and green oxidation and/or crap around them. They are stuck to each other and the body of the faceplate. No sane amount of twisting will make them move. I doused them with copious amounts of lighter fluid, followed by IPA to get them released. I also lubricated them very lightly to prevent them from sticking again.
Here's what I suggest if you have this issue. Unless you really want to ruin the originality of your camera, replace the leatherette and spend hours trying to chip the old one away etc. Look carefully to the pictures I have presented, and then look into your camera at this angle.
You should see into the cavity where the facade levers live. Angle the camera so that the lenses point downwards. Take an injection needle of oil, and apply just the tiniest drop bit between the main plate of the facade and the ring. Try it from both sides, so you get between the rings and under them as well. With any luck, you should get the rings to move without resorting to destroying the leatherette. Just make sure the oil doesn't seep into the camera, keep the lenses pointing down. Worst case scenario, you're taking the facade off anyway. I know this goes against the first rule of camera repair: Never oil anything you can't fully see. But this time I think it is worth breaking the rule.
In contrast to my otherwise laissez-faire attitude towards anything in general, I have to include the following serious bit: Information on this page is provided as-is, no guarantee of it being correct. If something breaks or other bad things happen, it was your own fault. Don't do anything you see here if are not sure about what you are doing.