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AP brought back to a good shape


GenTLe

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From some time I was fancying an Ap ROO Diver in SS.

Problem was that I already had a full ceramic one and I didn't want to put too much money into a brand new or a shiny M2M watch.

Then Vynilspin put on M2M over RWG.bz a Noob 5.1 SS Diver... The watch has been used continuously by his son and without real care, with the result of scratches (but not on the crystal), dings, chewed screws on the case back, badly working keyless works, a nearly broken strap rubber ring, clasp springbar rusted and blocked and stem unscrewed crown.

But it was priced accordingly and I got it for around 210$ shipped.

This is how it was when I received it:

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First thing to do was complete unassemble of the case.

One of the passthrough screws was a bit blocked (the guy used it to swim and some water passed in it), so the tweezer was not strong enough to unscrew the hidden midcase nut.

With a dremel and a bit of patience I make a tool that worked pretty well and did the job:

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Using the crystal press (note: Noob diver crystal comes out from the back: you need to push the crystal from the part that normally is outside of the watch, contrary of the normal way where you push from the inside part) and some patience because the antimagnetic movement cover had 1 out of 4 screws that was stripped I obtained this:

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Here after have them all washed properly:

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Another evening dedicated to movement disassembly, cleaning and drying (here after I had started to oil and reassemble some bits like the autowind bridge, the click and the balance jewels):

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Here the mainspring (and another spare one) after cleanup and greasing:

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During the disassembly I discovered some broken parts, the reason of keyless working bad was there.

The setting lever was gone, the stem wasn't in good shape and also the minute wheel teeth were not good.

Ordered the spares from Cousins UK (apart the.minute wheel that I already had around):

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Here the movement half done:

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And completed:

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Meanwhile one evening was used to fix as much as possible the case.

Here the bezel after the border repolish and surface rebrushing -case has been rebrushed and repolished too-:

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Caseback screws before and after (kept in place using a 1mm lead pencil head):

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The case done, mounted back with greased gaskets, waiting to get the movement:

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Movement in, nearly ready for calibration, still with the stem to shorten

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Calibration was good:

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Finally the head completed (antimagnetic stripped screw has been replaced too):

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And, in the end, a pic of it completed at day light:

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Me/happy :)

Cheers!

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Man, what a beautiful work, congratulation ! 

Just a question... How did you rebrushed the bezel ? It's very clean now !

 

 

Difficult to explain in words...

An aluminium bar, larger than the bezel, with a taped strip of 320 grain sandpaper.

That way you can keep the bezel (represented by the coin) with 2 hands (one each side of the bar) and nove it back and forth:

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Important is to end over the tape when it is time to lift the bezel, otherwise lifting it over the sandpaper may scratch it in a different direction.

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Absolutely brilliant.  The aluminum bar + 320 grit sand paper + scotch tape was what I needed to know. I will undertake this project shortly to repair my v7 bezel that has some slight color variations due to my cuff rubbing the bezel. That picture is very valuable. Thank you.

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Someone told me they (AP) even use the 280 grit one ;)

Screws? I have placed them here:

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Then if heavily chewed I passed them flat over some 1000 grit paper and finished with dremel and some fine metal polish paste of the kit in the pic:

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I also have around some coarse and fine carborundum engine valve seat grinding paste I use to do this job:

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But they may be a bit too abrasive for watches ;) Maybe one day I will give them a try...

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