[Leica] Questions about recent M3 repair

[jbcollier at shaw.ca (John Collier)]

There are a fair amount of NOS parts floating around. For example  
Kindermann Canada has a good stock of NOS parts. When I wanted my M2  
recovered, they offered me the option of a new shell albeit for a  
price. I went with a simple cover as it was a shooter.

John Collier

On 7-Jan-07, at 9:31 AM, bruceslomovitz@comcast.net wrote:

> I recently sent a chrome M3 to a well known repair person.  I will  
> not mention the person's name at this point as I do not wish to   
> impune his reputation.  The M3 was in reasonably good shapen when I  
> sent it.  It had new strap lugs, a new shutter curtain, new  
> leatherette, etc.  The only thing about it which detracted from  
> it's appearance was that the top and bottom plates were scratched  
> and dented.
>
> The repair person said it would be too expensive to remove the  
> dents and re-chrome.  He therefore offered to procure new top and  
> bottom plates from Leica.  The camera looks quite new now.  However  
> I subsequently learned from E. Puts that to his knowledge, Leica  
> does not supply new top and bottom plates.  I'm wondering if anyone  
> has any insight into where these plates may have come from.  They  
> look genuine but I'm no expert.
>
> Does anyone have any techniques for determining the authenticity or  
> origin of the plates?