Next we want to remove the front lens piece. I suggest reattaching the barrel to the body. There are small parts on both sides, and if you have both ends of the barrel open, something is bound to fall out.
Removing the front may be the most difficult job. You need to turn the inside ring with your thumbs counterclockwise. It may be very sticky the first time this is done. I found that it wasn't so much the pressure you put on it (like opening a jar) as getting the proper angle of pressure. The first one I removed wouldn't budge, and then it just gave way, smooth as silk, when I found the sweet spot.
Unscrewing this ring allows you to remove the hood.
The lens piece lifts straight up and out of the barrel. It only fits one way, so it's easy to replace. The silver ring on the front of the lens plate is glued on.
A close-up of the inner workings of the shutter. Here you can see the shutter in it's resting (post snapshot) mode, and charged, or cocked, in the right shot. Note the plug for the flash at the lower left of the barrel.
To get the shutter plate out, lift from the side away from the flash sync plug. Early Pets have a small brass screw holding the plate in place.
The shutter plate. You shouldn't need to go this far unless something doesn't work or there is lots of gunk inside.
The lens plate is made up of a few parts. The lens is encased in a plastic ring, with another plastic ring that screws in place to hold the lens in place. You may want to remove this to clean the lens. The lens is probably supposed to come out, but mine was in pretty tight. The bulb switch just pulls out, but there isn't really any reason to do so.
The lens ring is supposed to unscrew, but may just pull straight out.
Did you happen to notice I said the lens is SUPPOSED to unscrew from the front mount? Well, I don't see how it could have ever fit on this camera. The lens piece on this Pet is quite a bit smaller than the part it's supposed to screw into. So small that it just falls right through with space to breathe. I'm not sure if this is from swapping lenses with another Pet that may have been designed differently, or whatever, but it certainly doesn't screw into place. I'm told this is not uncommon. The only way to get the lens to stay in place is to get some electrical tape, cut it into a thin enough strip and wrap it around the lens once or twice, depending on how much space you need to fill. Then you just wedge it into the opening from the back until it looks straight.
This also offers an opportunity to mess with the focal length a bit. I think that if you keep the lens back further than it is supposed to be (which is pretty much flush with the front), you can increase your blur at the edges of your photos. You have about a quarter of an inch to play with. If you have more than one Pet, you can swap lenses that offer different results. I haven't tried it yet, but you can even give it an angle, which would probably give a blur to one side.
When putting the front back together, you just line up the bulb setting at the bottom. It only fits on one way. You can test to make sure the bulb setting is operational before screwing the ring back on. And don't forget to replace the hood!
It's easy to put back together at this point. You only have five screws to keep track of. Of course, the reason for doing all this was to clean each part. You may need some WD-40 or oil to lubricate the shutter mechanism. They get old and gunky and tend to stick. Just coat liberally with your preferred lubricant and wipe the excess off. Put her back together and go take some pictures!
