Essentially, the camera was quite grubby, had a dirty and fungi'd lens and generally needed a tidy up.

First task is deciding whether to work with the lens/shutter assembly in place or remove it.  I decided on the latter seeing as I was keen to get in and around the bellows.  Further, the rear lens group did not have slots for easy removal and to stay safe I wanted to have unhindered access to it when time came to unscrew it.
The Voigtländer Bessa 1 is a fairly well made 6x9 folding camera.  There is also a somewhat more desirable Bessa 2 that has a built in rangefinder making it an excellent high quality and very portable medium format camera. This particular one came in for a clean up.

Whilst searching for some Voigtländer links, I came across some images that appealed to my sensibilities so you all may as well look at those too.  Check out Takashi Sugioka's very tasty-looking autumn leaves here. Someone else has a few photos here and here someone has some snaps of the camera itself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lens and shutter are removed as a single unit by unscrewing the retaining ring at the rear of the front standard.

The easiest way to do this is to keep the camera folded as to the left here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the lens/shutter removed, the bellows fall back into the housing and we can see a fair bit of dirt and corrosion in and around the springs and struts.  I clean these last before putting it all back together below.

On to the lens. 
In these next images I first remove the rear lens assembly. Next I decide not to remove the front group in order to not upset the calibration of the focusing scale.  Instead, I will clean the rear surface of this group from the back through the shutter and aperture blades.
With a rubber-band in place holding the shutter open on bulb, we can see the grubby element. 

Lens cleaning is an art that will be discussed elsewhere when I get around to it.  Suffice it to say.... be extremely careful!  Furthermore, a lot of these old German lenses have very soft coatings that can easily be damaged.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the lens/shutter removed, the bellows fall back into the housing and we can see a fair bit of dirt and corrosion in and around the springs and struts.  I clean these last before putting it all back together below.

On to the lens now. 
In these next images I first remove the rear lens assembly. Next I decide not to remove the front group in order to not upset the calibration of the focusing scale.  Instead, I will clean the rear surface of this group from the back through the shutter and aperture blades.
With a rubber-band in place holding the shutter open on bulb, we can see the grubby element. 

Lens cleaning is an art that will be discussed elsewhere when I get around to it.  Suffice it to say.... be extremely careful!  Furthermore, a lot of these old German lenses have very soft coatings that can easily be damaged.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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All material Copyright Robert Ian Axford   

From the above image clockwise around to the one just below, we have the cleaning of the bellows.

This camera had a good set of bellows with no cracking, holes or other damage or wear.  There was a fair bit of mould growing all over it and of course general dirt and dust was prevalent.  My favorite mild detergent solution (Windex, Windolene or whatever standard glass cleaner is called where you live) is first applied to a soft toothbrush and then I proceed to scrub the exterior of the bellows.  I use a towel on my fingers from the inside of the unit to spread it out and hold it securely during the cleaning.  Afterwards, I use a soft towel to wipe the bellows dry.  The procedure is kept short to avoid soaking the fabric in a lot of fluid.