How to elimitate light leakage in my Zenit-B SLR?

Question

This question is related to Why is there a strange white spot on all of photos from my Zenit-B SLR?

I found that the problem is in the shutter. When it is cocked left shutter blind looks like that (the right one that is used while shutter is not cocked is fine):

Front view of shutter. Note that the special opaque coating (looks like a thin rubber) is dried and damaged at the right side causing a light leakage.

That's why I get strange white spots on my photos. Now the question is how to repair it. Shutter replacement is not an option (I don't think that they are still produced).

I need something dark enough to block light and flexible enough to not to affect shutter operation.

Black marker didn't help (pretty naive, but some people advised it, had to try). Heared about glue with black ink. Any other suggestions?

P.S.: I know that in general case it is easier to buy new Zenit rather then repair it. But this breakage seems able to be easily fixed and this camera is dear to me as a memory.

Answer 1

Ask around in your local photo forums, perhaps someone has another Zenit-B (or its successor Zenit-E) for sale/giveaway; if you intend to use your existing lens, note that they usually came with M42 mount, but some were with M39. For example, a quick search in an Estonian forum found two recent offers, for 8€ (body+lens) or 5€ (body+leather case). That's less than I'd expect materials plus time for repairing be worth. On eBay, Zenits seem to be overpriced given how widespread they once were.

When buying another one, you can still keep your original Zenit as a memento - "the old dear camera". When trying a DIY fix, you might append "... that I clumsily broke" to that. Zenit isn't exactly designed to be serviceable by user.

To me, the holes in shutter fabric tell that the shutter material has become very fragile over time, and trying to attach some fixing materials might make it much worse. But that might be just me, I've never appreciated sock darning either. If it were my camera, and I'd choose to fix/kill it instead of keeping as is, I might try using something like black rubber spray to paint over the holes. I'd try on some other fabric first to see if it gives me a thin but strong layer.

Answer 2

I used black batik acrylic paint to strengthen shutter fabric. Now it seems to be opaque.

After a film developement I'll write if it helped.

UPDATE:

Today I've developed the film and thw solution worked perfectly. There is no light leakage now. For additional confidence I've covered damaged shutter with the second layer of paint.

Here is photo of repaired shutter. You can see painted area in the lower-left corner.