mt666tm Posted January 24, 2012 Report Share Posted January 24, 2012 I've wanted a Safari for years but never pulled the trigger until I saw this in the sales forums (on another forum) and I couldn't say no. It came on a beat up gen strap that I was on the verge of replacing, but after testing out a few methods of repairing it I found one that work so thought I'd share the results. 1st off the watch itself needed a little TLC, so I took most of it apart for greasing up gaskets, repolishing all the bezel screw heads and lowering them a touch, hand brushing out some of the scratches on the bezel and case, etc... I actually found one of the bezel screw tips to be bent and the threads damaged on the caseback nut, so a little straightening and blue loctite solved that problem. Now onto the strap, someone must have swapped out the strap links to rep some time ago, and I think they used a hammer and chisel to do so... the macro pics of the damage to the lug ends and sides of the strap would gag a maggot! After taking this all apart, refinishing the inserts, reassembling and rebrushing the links, it was looking acceptable. Now to fix the edge of the strap I found out that you can mix a very small amount of Testors model enamel into shoe goo (to color the rubber to how you want it). This was a last ditch idea as others before it failed. After this I did a little leather reconditioning and cleaned the stitches. I think it turned out well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenHornet Posted January 24, 2012 Report Share Posted January 24, 2012 Good work, seems like a LOT of TLC went into that project. Did you say the strap was rep? If so, it looks fairly decent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watchmeister Posted January 24, 2012 Report Share Posted January 24, 2012 Very nice project. The strap came out nicely. wear that one well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mt666tm Posted January 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2012 (edited) ...Did you say the strap was rep? If so, it looks fairly decent. Nope... Gen AP strap. That's why I had to do my best to save it. I see a fingerprint on one of those pics now, damn it, lol... Edited January 24, 2012 by mt666tm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watchaddict Posted January 25, 2012 Report Share Posted January 25, 2012 I almost pulled the trigger on this one...glad I didn't as I have no experience on these fixes/mods! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mt666tm Posted January 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2012 I also noticed I forgot to round off the chrono pushers. That mod is done now as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJC Posted February 10, 2012 Report Share Posted February 10, 2012 AMAZING.. Please let me know when you want to sell it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddalondon Posted February 10, 2012 Report Share Posted February 10, 2012 Looking good! The strap's a killer on it. Nice one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgenk Posted February 10, 2012 Report Share Posted February 10, 2012 That strap actually looks better with more wear, glad to see you were able to revive it. Nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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