To the left is the main hinge spring before cleaning the area up with brushes and some detergent solution.  Below we can the area as cleaned and to the left of that is how I am applying a couple of tiny drops of a very fine graphite/oil mixture.

The existing corrosion pathways caused by fungal growth under the paint work are left as is and will not get worse so long as the camera is stored properly.
Note also that I am not in the habit of touching up cameras with paint sticks unless it is for a real purpose such as avoiding light scatter.
The Voigtländer Bessa 1 article continues here with reassembly and an example of how I normally re-attach a small piece of leatherette material.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here I'm checking the shutter for fit before cleaning out the body and film chamber with a stiff brush. The shutter has a locating pin on the rear and once in place the camera can be closed and the threaded ring replaced on the rear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Often one can find screws, knobs or other missing camera parts floating around inside the camera bag as in the case of this little leatherette ring.e the camera bag as in the case of this little leatherette ring.

I may as well describe how I usually go about gluing this sort of thing back in place.

Step one was removal of the crusty old cement, first using a blunt blade and then with a suitable solvent on a cotton bud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The appropriate glue to use here is a weak household contact cement.  After cleaning up the rough edges, I squeeze a blob of cement onto a piece of paper.  I then fold the paper over onto itself in order to spread the glue out evenly and thinly.  I simply use my fingers to control the spread depending on what I'm gluing and where it's going.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Put it all back in place and it'll look as best it can and hold for a few decades more.
There we go, just a basic clean-up job, but enough to keep the owner happy for a while longer. 

What do I think of this camera?
Perfectly decent. These come with a variety of lenses and if you have at least a 3 element Tessar-type (but not a Tessar of course) on one then you can expect some excellent results when sufficiently stopped down.. say to f 11-16.
The Bessa II also came with the highly sought after Apo-Lanthar to complement it's rangefinder focus system. That combination easily rivals the Zeiss Super Ikonta cameras in function, but overtakes them all in price.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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All material Copyright Robert Ian Axford