I just wanted to share some progress here as I am kind of happy with the result so far, even if the work is not done yet and the process can be improved.

I am not such a big fan of K1000. It’s just a stripped down version of the KM\KX, yet they command high prices. They are good cameras in their own right, but a novice could make much better use of their money with mother Pentax.

Anyway! Looking at the work of some artisans (link incoming), I got a fancy of trying to paint cameras myself. The process is time consuming and requires some non standard tool, some non-standard disassembly (depending on the camera), a lot of attention.

So some time ago I set to work on three bodies:

– Pentax SV. This was a battered throwaway for experiments so I am not likely to show it.

– Spotmatic F. I am in the process of checking if I can manage to fix the meter, since we are here..

– Pentax K1000. It was quite battered, but full metal (fundamental as the paint need to be oven cured and you don’t want to do it with plastic). The film counter was not working, and there were some other minor issues generally related to the mechanisms needing a clean.

Whilst the color choice is somewhat personal – and I have some more options for the next ones – I am kind of happy with the result.

There are still  a few things to do before I sell it or put it on a shelf:

– Checking the flange\film plane distance (just since I removed the front plate and I think the body took a hit in ancient times) that shoud be 45.56mm

– Strengthening the lens release button. On the K1000 the mechanism is cheap and deeply annoying – but indeed if you are sandblasting it and trashing it in the oven you want to take it off