What it is, why it exists, and why it is not a repair.
A repair means finding what failed and putting it right. That’s most of what comes across this bench, and for most machines it’s the correct answer — something broke, I fix it, you get years more out of it.
Bullet Proofing is the other thing entirely.
The mechanics come out of the machine. Then they’re stripped — every screw, washer, gear, spring, lever and clip — down to bare metal. Every part is cleaned of the old dried grease. Worn parts are replaced or rebuilt, and fresh grease goes on. Then it all goes back together and the alignments are done properly, mechanical and electrical both, back to factory specification.
The difference isn’t how much gets fixed. It’s that when she leaves here, there is nothing left inside quietly waiting its turn to fail.
Parts don’t fail one at a time. They age together. Everything inside your machine has been sitting in the same heat, turning the same hours, drying out at the same rate since the day it left the factory.
As they wear, the alignments begin to drift. Your machine was designed to compensate for a little drift, which is why there’s usually no warning at all — until it can’t compensate any longer. That’s when you get mechanical errors, or a fault in the picture, or in the sound, or all three at once.
Now here’s what most shops do about it. They find the one or two parts that have actually failed, change those, and hand it back. It works when it arrives, and they’re not lying to you when they say it’s fixed. But the parts standing right behind the ones that just went are still in there, the same age, the same hours. You’ll be back in a few months with the same fault or a new one, and by then the warranty is gone.
Good for them. Not for you.
Let’s get one thing straight: I am not cheap, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. Bullet Proofing costs what it costs because of the hours in it, and there is no version of this that is quick.
There is one electronics technician here, and that is me. I don’t do piece work. I don’t have quotas. I’m not paid by the hour or by the unit. That means two things — you get me every single time, and I’m slow. But it’s exactly what lets me take the time and do it the way it’s supposed to be done.
It’s also why I can warranty this work the way I do. I’m not guessing about what’s left inside your machine. I took all of it apart myself.
Fix it and fix it right — or don’t bother.
Bullet Proofing is offered on the professional Panasonic AG decks and on select Sony camcorders. Same philosophy, same bench, but genuinely different jobs — different work, different timescales, and very different prices. Whichever is yours, the details are on its own page.
The professional S-VHS decks. A full mechanical rebuild and a complete recapping, with a two-year warranty.
Select CCD and Digital8 camcorders. A mechanical rebuild with worn video heads included, at a fraction of the AG price.
Not offered on Mini-DV or high-definition camcorders, or on consumer VHS decks. Those we repair — see VCR Repair and Camcorder Repair.
Email us your make and model and we’ll tell you straight — including if the honest answer is that a straightforward repair is all yours needs.
Email Us Your Model