Mike, not crazy, but doomed to fail.

it may be a faulty, even lousy design, but it lasted 50 odd years.. rubber wont. For vintage watches go to a specialist, never an AD.
HK has craftsmen adept at repairing vtg rolex bands, ask around and you'll find plenty.

: My Carrera has been on a 1967 Rolex Submariner expanding
: bracelet since 1975, but the bracelet has a number of broken
: springs (lousy design of spring). As far as I could tell this
: morning my only options to get it fixed were sending it to Hong
: Kong or Rolex SA. But this afternoon a Rolex AD told me that
: Rolex SA would not touch it but instead tell me to buy a new
: bracelet.

: But it's made of pretty soft stainless steel. I could lever
: those links open and replace the "W" springs with
: small pieces of soft rubber, close them up again and use it as
: effectively as a fixed length bracelet.

: Am I crazy to try this?

: BTW the bracelet cost me two bottles of medium quality wine
: in 1975, so it owes me nothing.

: Mike