After having used my Nikon S3 for a while, I began planning improvements to its functionality. First out was the wind lever which I felt was too thin, too flimsy, and too grating on my fingers due to its thinness. Noting its similarity to the film advance lever of a Nikon F, I decided to transplant a late-model plastic-tipped lever from a wrecked F to the S3. However, as it later turned out the "F" lever didn't fit perfectly I ended up with grafting the plastic tip only onto the wind lever of my S3. See the illustration below. The plastic tip is secured by small screws drilled through the hollow lever from its underside.

The final touch was adding some protective soft material around the rear rangefinder window. This was because the metal rim was highly unkind to my spectacles. A spare neck-strap, from the wrecked Nikon F in fact, was cut to fit around the window frame and firmly put into position by epoxy glue. Not the slickest solution, admittedly, but it saved my day.

While at it, I also added the viewfinder modification to my Nikon SP, but let the advance-lever update be pending on getting more Nikon F parts.

Interestingly enough, the "2000" S3 edition, Nikon's commemorative realse of the venerable S3 classic, has the "F2" type advance lever. Perhaps I'll try to refurbish my own camera after all.