- 2/2/10
- 836
- 250
- 63
I've wanted a Safari for years but never pulled the trigger until I saw this one for sale. 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 worked so thought I'd share the results.
1st off the watch itself needed some work, so I took most of it apart for greasing up gaskets, repolishing all the bezel screw heads and lowering them a bit, hand brushing out some of the scratches on the bezel and case, re-polishing all edges, 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. How does that even happen? Checked all movement screws as well to be on the safe side.
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 as the damage was pretty brutal...
After taking this all apart, refinishing the inserts, reassembling and rebrushing the links, it was looking acceptable. I used some gel-epoxy to reattach the leather to the inserts. 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.
The bezel screws are still a bit high for my liking, but I have a replacement bezel on the way so I'll swap it one day when I feel like it, and it'll sit in the tool box until then for peace of mind
I also rounded off the chrono pushers
1st off the watch itself needed some work, so I took most of it apart for greasing up gaskets, repolishing all the bezel screw heads and lowering them a bit, hand brushing out some of the scratches on the bezel and case, re-polishing all edges, 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. How does that even happen? Checked all movement screws as well to be on the safe side.
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 as the damage was pretty brutal...
After taking this all apart, refinishing the inserts, reassembling and rebrushing the links, it was looking acceptable. I used some gel-epoxy to reattach the leather to the inserts. 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.
The bezel screws are still a bit high for my liking, but I have a replacement bezel on the way so I'll swap it one day when I feel like it, and it'll sit in the tool box until then for peace of mind
I also rounded off the chrono pushers
