Handgrip rubber sticky I guess starting disintegrating

ProfHankD wrote:

attilab wrote:

ProfHankD wrote:

attilab wrote:

I have my old - like new Canon EOS Elan 7 film camera sitting in a glass box since the digital started conquering the world.

Taking it out from time to time, still the shutter sounds sharp, I have nice memories with that film camera, the time may come back hoping so to use it again.

I would like to refurbish that rubber grip over this winter, it looks like I will have plenty of time (living in Canada :)).

Anybody have a good advise for material or source, can you help me out with links or tips. Thanks.

Don't know that camera, but the Minolta Maxxum 7000 grip commonly gets white crud on it, so here's a discussion about fixing that . Basically, the answer seems to be products marketed for maintaining leather/vinyl parts in cars.

No collor change only the thin rubber layer (that is probably glued to the camera body) sticks at a touch. Once I wanted to clean wash with mild detergent (just a small corner to start with) and noticed the texture started rubbing off (not pealing off but disappearing). I would call this phenomena a rubber layer is disintegrating.

If I could find that thin film layer rubber material somewhere (or silicon or whatever only to be a black) I would just rub off the existing from the plastic and re-apply a new material. I know a fashion designer store selling thin leather test strips but assume that thickness would be to thick to nicely fill all the corners.

I thought you meant an actual attached piece of rubber, but what you're describing sounds more like a rubberized paint (and they often degrade into a sticky mess after some time). There are many such coatings available, including Plasti-Dip and Flex Seal sprays. These coating can be textured by pressing them against an appropriately non-stick textured material. However, this can be very messy unless you carefully mask areas, and it's definitely better to spray parts disassembled.... Another alternative would be replacing it with "leather repair tape" or som other faux leather self-adhesive material, but that will look funny on corners.

In sum, you can buy an Elan 7 in good condition for about $50 -- that might be the smarter path if the rubber coating condition really bothers you.

That must be it....a closer look again makes me think that they molded the parts  separate for a handling area and they spray paint it with a A+B compound, with in mind if the B compound evaporates the final look is like some good looking texture. This my theory I have seen in machine building/painting technology only those paints are more thick several layer protection as well.