Thought I might pass this on. If you have any silver showing through on your M6 black body top you can do a very good job of restoring the black color by using Birchwood-Casey Aluminium Black (available from most gunshops). If you follow the instructions on the bottle and use the solution very sparingly with a Q-Tip it works a treat. I haven't tried it on the base plate but it would probably work as long as the missing black is not down to the brass. Doesn't work on the re-wind knob unfortunately.

Ideal for adding dollars to that black M6 you may be selling or trading in as the restoration is virtually impossible to detect.

-- sam smith (Ruy_Lopez@hotmail.com), November 26, 2001

Answers

slight slant queation here. does a black M6TTL wear easier than a chrome m6ttl?, and what's the diff b/w a standard black m6 and a 'black paint' m6? Thanks in advance,

-- sparkie (sparkie@mailcity.com), November 26, 2001.

Sparkie, the black M6 is black chrome, which is a finish developed by Leica. Some say the black chrome shows wear more so than the silver chrome, not by wearing off, but by looking dull (I think). There is such a thing as a black paint M6, but only as a special edition model. A couple of years ago there was a black paint version with the M2/M3 style pullup rewind knob. For a premium price you could get the patina of worn paint with the brass showing through. Very cool. Maybe the next thing will be pre-worn paint. It might prove as successful as stone-washed pre-faded blue jeans.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), November 26, 2001.

if you think of using the leica and selling it in a time, i wouldn't recommend the black chrome one. scratches are very easily received and seen with this finish. somehow you loose so much just for a few cosmetics. if you are intending in keeping it and don't mind a not so mint look, go for black.

-- stefan randlkofer (geesbert@yahoo.com), December 02, 2001.

I beg to differ. The black chrome on my Leica M6TTL seems hard as nails. I've dropped it on two occasions (once pretty hard) and despite dents, the finish "holds", unlike a paint job. Yes, there are a couple of spots with a tiny amount of zinc showing through, but overall this seems hardly a fragile finish. I expect black paint would be more susceptible to scratches.

Both the black chrome and silver chrome finishes are hard, matt, textured finishes, which means that paint style hairline scratches simply don't seem to happen.

IMHO.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), December 03, 2001.